In a doctoral thesis, Ikle suggested that the proponents of airpower had overestimated the relationship between the intensity of aerial bombing and the density of a city’s surviving population. “Before the Second World War, British planners had assumed that for every metric ton of high-explosive bombs dropped on a city, about seventy-two people would be… Read More
“The best form of welfare for the troops is first class training, for this saves unnecessary casualties.” Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox), World War I junior officer and World War II General, considered a brilliant military commander; adored by his troops and feared by his enemies.
“In 1949, [Fred Charles] Ikle left his studies in Chicago and travelled through bombed-out Germany. The war hadn’t touched his family directly, and he wanted to know how people coped with devastation on such a massive scale. One of the cities he visited, Hamburg, had suffered roughly the same number of casualties as Nagasaki [target… Read More
“The definition of military training is success in battle. In my opinion, that is the only objective of military training.” Lieutenant General Louis Burwell “Chesty” Puller (26 June 1898 to 11 October 1971) was a US Marine Corps Lieutenant General who fought guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua, and fought in World War II and the Korean… Read More
“An ideal General Staff Corps officer might be described as possessing the following qualities: sincerity of conviction, cleverness, modesty, self-effacement in favour of the common cause, and strong personal convictions combined with the ability tactfully to present these convictions to his commanding general. If his opinions were not accepted he must be sufficiently master of… Read More
“‘The younger men, in opposition to the older, believed that there was no time to be lost; the representatives of tradition wanted, and so far as they were able to do insisted, on a slow and gradual evolution.” (Guderian, 1990, 459). Heinz Guderian, a World War I junior officer and World War II General. Creator, trainer… Read More
“‘It was Schlieffen who coined the apothegm: ‘Great achievements, small display: more reality than appearance,’ and this was a recognition of the qualities of Moltke and his school.” (Guderian, 1990, 454). Apothegm: a concise saying or maxim; an aphorism. Heinz Guderian, a World War I junior officer and World War II General. Creator, trainer and leader of… Read More
Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute 