CR-CT PE Men Against Fire 05-06

7/28/2019 CR-CT PE Men Against Fire 05-06

1/26

MEN AGAINST FIRE


2/26

GROUND RULES

No One Set Out to Be Deliberately Stupid

Declining to Fight Is Not an Option

They Couldnt Wait For Technical

Breakthroughs


3/26

Napoleonic Combined Arms Equilibrium

Fire Cannister Maneuver To

Mask / Envelop Batteries

Form Square

Paper

Scissors

Rock


4/26

Smoothbore Musket: Tactics and Technology

100 0200300400500

Attacking Forces

Double

CannisterCannister

Max

Effective

RangeSmooth-

bore

Musket

Shell Fire

to 1000 yards

Defending Forces

Max

Effective

Range

Smooth-

bore

Musket

Smoothbore Ranges: 50 yards--Accurate

100 Yards--Max Effective

Rate of Fire: 2 or 3 Rounds per Minute

Speed of Advance:

Infantry: 90 yds per MinuteCavalry: 200 yds per Minute

Result: Defender gets 2 aimed shots

at an attacker before the range is

closed.

SignificanceFewer Casualties From Muskets

Artillery Used in Offensive Role

Attacker Has the Advantage

~1700 TO ~1850


5/26

Rifle-Musket: Tactics and Technology

100 0200300400500

Attacking Forces

Double

CannisterCannister

Maximum

Effective

Range

Rifle-

Musket

Shell Fire

to 1000 yards

Defending Forces

6007008009001 Km

Maximum

Effective

Range

Rifle-

Musket

Rifle-Musket w/ Minie Ball Ranges:

300 yards--Accurate

500 yards--Max Effective

1000 yards--Can Still Kill

Rate of Fire: 2 or 3 Rounds per Minute

Speed of Infantry Advance: 154 yds per Minute(Based on Double Quick in Hardees 1856 Manual)

Result: Defender gets 6 to 9 aimed shots at an

attacker before the range is closed.

SignificanceMore Casualties From Rifle-Muskets

Artillery Loses Offensive Role

Defender Has the Advantage

Rifle-Musket Not

Accurate, But Can

Still Kill

Rifle-Musket NotAccurate, But Can

Still Kill

By 1861


6/26

The Gilded Age1875 - 1914

Industrialization

Urbanization

Colonialization

Free Marketization

Economic

Demographic Trends:

Nationalism

Imperialism / Jingoism

ProgressivismSocialism - Communism

PoliticalSocial - Cultural Trends:


7/26

Weapons Technology

Artillery Surge (1875-1900)Rifled, Breech loading, HE,

Controlled Recoil

Infantry Surge (1850-1890)- Bolt-action, magazine fed, metallic

cartridge rifle

- Machine gun

Cavalry ?


8/26

Crossing the Deadly Ground

Open order

Survival (good)

C2 (bad)

Mass fires (bad)

Force structure (reconfigure)

Social factor (empower NCOs)

Mass

(Obverse of the above)

Infantry


9/26

Massed batteries (Corps) Mass effect at decisive point / Miss Opp. Elsewhere

Elaborate Fire Plans / High Shell Weight

Crossing the Deadly Ground

Artillery

Decentralized batteries (Div/Bde)

Responsive / Flexible

Low Shell Weight


10/26

Crossing the Deadly Ground:Cavalry

Mounted, steel

Spirit of offensive

Turn enemy retreat into rout

Survivability?

Dismounted, rifle

Corps of maneuver on huge battlefield

Elimination an option?

Most mobile element in era of declining mobility

Who does Recon Security Pursuit?


11/26

Philosophical Dilemma

How Does a

Nation Win a

Defensive War?


12/26

The Four Principles of War(1890s version)

OBJECTIVE

OFFENSIVE

MASS

MANEUVER


13/26

Tactics, Fear, and Organization

Tactics is an art based on the

knowledge of how to make men fight

with maximum energy against fear, a

maximum which organization alone

can give.

Charles Ardant du PicqBattle Studies, 1870


14/26

The Truth About the Bayonet

The shock is a mere term. The de Saxe, the Bugeaudtheory: Close with the bayonet and with fire action

at close quarters. That is what kills people and the

victor is the one who kills most, is not founded on

fact. No enemy awaits you if you are determined

and never, never, never, are two equal

determinations opposed to each other. It is well

known to everybody, to all nations, that the Frenchhave never met any one who resisted a bayonet

charge.

- Colonel Charles-Ardent du Picq


15/26

Men Against Fire

A nations existence depends

upon the uninterrupted continuation

of trade and industry, and a quick

decision is necessary to start thewheels of industry moving again. A

strategy of attrition is impossible

when the maintenance of armies ofmillions requires the expenditures of

billions.

- Count von Schlieffen


16/26

F. Foch:

Increased Rate of Fire Favors Attacker?

Muzzle-loaders: 1 round/minute

Net Advantage

Bolt action: 10 rounds/minute

Net Advantage


17/26

Men Against Fire

The Empty Battlefield

Griffith, Forward into Battle

1. 2. 3.4.

1. Enemy engaged by skirmishers2. Line of supports to feed the firing line3. Small columns to feed in reserves gradually4. Attack w/bayonet once strong enough

to win fire superiority


18/26

Psychological Battlefield

Heavy Casualties Expected Moral Ascendancy Decisive

Class Consciousness: Fear of

the Mob Battle As Clash of Wills, Not

Numbers or Technology


19/26

Cult of the Offensive

Historical Lessons Learned

Political Imperative

Economic Imperative

RR Mobilization

Conscript / Reserve Armies: Mass, Morale

Attacker Can Mass Firepower


20/26

Fear of Losses?

The dread of losses will alwaysensure failure, while we can

assume with certainty that

those troops who are not afraid

of losses are bound to

maintain an enormous

superiority over others who are

more sparing of blood.

General Theodore von BernhardiGerman General Staff Member and Military

Theorist, 1912


21/26

Determination

In battle, two moral forces,even more than two material

forces, are in conflict. The

stronger conquers. With

equal or even inferior power

of destruction, he will win

who is determined to

advance.Colonel Charles-Ardent du Picq


22/26

Tradition, The Bayonet, and

the Price of Victory

the French Army, returning to its

traditions, no longer knows any other

law than the offensive. All attacks

are to be pushed to the extremeto

charge the enemy with the bayonet in

order to destroy him. This result

can only be obtained at the price of

bloody sacrifice. Any other

conception ought to be rejected as

contrary to the very nature of war.- Ferdinand Foch

OFFENSIVE a OUTRANCE:


23/26

Tactics or Attitude?

it is more important to develop a conquering state

of mind than to [quibble] about tactics.

- Colonel Loyzeaux de Grandmaison

1914


24/26

1914

The Generals Assumptions

War Is Inevitable

We Can Win

The War Will Be Short

Victory Will Go to the Attacker

Losses Will Be Heavy


25/26

Casualties (early WWI)

1914 1915

France 950,000 1,300,000

Britain 64,000 551,000

Germany (west) 700,000 652,000

Germany (east) 200,000 600,000

Austria-Hungary 750,000 1,800,000

Russia 1,000,000 2,800,000


26/26

Why Stalemate in 1914?

Exhaustion of armies

Exhaustion of ammunition

Density of forces

Lethality of Weapons Limited heavy artillery

No assailable flanks

All war plans failed!

Date post:	03-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	wlamiller
View:	215 times
Download:	0 times

CR-CT PE Men Against Fire 05-06

Documents