Simulating War: Three Enduring Lessons from the Louisiana Maneuvers - War on the Rocks

Great share.

Thanks for the share Ltc McLeod

GENERAL OFFICERS:
Several Division Commanders were fired in Europe in WWII for incompetence. When General Ridgeway took over all the troops in Korea and visited his Division Commanders about their plans. Some had only plans to retreat so he fired them and replaced them with Division Commanders who wanted to fight. Many general officers became sticks in the mud when confronted to lead divisions in war time.

Once in awhile the world will create a military genius. Patton understood his forces and capabilities. He understood how the enemy will fight and took advantage of it. He had the ability us mortals do not have, that is to boil down a complex situation into a simple one and act quickly. I will give 3 examples:
- Patton took over the US forces in North Africa. A week later he defeated a 50 tank
German force at a pass with a minefield and tank destroyers on the flanks.
- Patton conducted an amphibious operation to land his forces in Sicily. He did two
more amphibious operations to flank the Germans who by this time were fleeing.
- Patton was able to push his Army Group quickly in Europe by using fighters in front
and the flanks for protection and intelligence. Sometimes these fighters decisively
engaged German units which means they could not break contact. This pleased
Patton because it gave him the latitude to attack the Germans on his own terms.


INTER WAR PERIODS (HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE NEXT WAR BETWEEN WARS):
IT IS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT THE NATURE OF FUTURE WARS: We wish we know what
future wars would look like, but we don't, thus it is hard to plan for them. In the 90s we
did not know we would fight in Afghanistan and Iraq twice? Therefore, we must be
able to fight a full spectrum of wars from counterinsurgency to conventional ones.

REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS (RMA).
RMAs are new weapons systems, platforms, or doctrine that will give a military an
advantage. The US RMAs that worked in WWII were aircraft carriers, amphibious
landings, and P-51s. The RMA that did not work well was the Army Air Corps Doctrine
of unescorted bombers. The US thought bombers could defend themselves and we
subsequently lost over 4000 bombers in Europe.

FUTURE RMAs:
I think they will be unmanned aircraft, robots, laser weapons, and Mach 5+ missiles.
However, we must understand the tactical and doctrinal use of those weapons.

BLITZKRIEG:
In the 1930s the German military conducted a military wide AAR on WWI. What was
planned? The Germans went on the offense. What happened? The range of weapons
far exceeded the ability to maneuver forward. How to shrink the delta? Germany
created the doctrine of blitzkrieg which relied on tanks, mechanized vehicles, and
planes. That is why they were so ready for WWII. The US was still dicking around with
concepts and doctrines when the Germans had a working model.