When to Use New Military Weapons…

“A lesson learned from the First World War had taught us that it is necessary to be patient about committing new weapons and that they must be held back until they are being produced in such quantities as to allow their employment in mass. In the First World War the French and British used their… Read More

Caution, Certainty & Boldness…

“Their caution was not Montgomery’s, who obviously considered that insistence on 100 per cent certainty was to be preferred to a policy of boldness, which is true in questions of strategy, although certainly not in tactics.” (Rommel, 1953, p.515).   Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox), World War I junior officer and World War II… Read More

Plans & Policy: Reality vs Wishful Thinking…

“They did not base their plans on the real possibilities of the situation, but allowed the wish to father the thought.” (Rommel, 1953, p.409). A contemporary version: “To call it a fad would be unfair; at the moment it’s a fashionable policy in search of persuasive evidence that it really works.” (Hawkes, 2013, p.25). Field-Marshal Erwin… Read More