"Operational art and the 1813 campaign in Germany." Topic

"The purpose of this monograph is to search for, identify, and discuss the emergence of elements of operational art during the Napoleonic wars. James Schneider has tied the emergence of operational art to the technological advances of the industrial revolution; specifically the rifled musket, steam locomotive, and instantaneous communications theoretically possible with telegraph. Schneider lists eight "key attributes" that are used in this monograph as elements of operational art. These elements are: a distributed operation, distributed campaign, continuous logistics, instantaneous command and control, operationally durable formations, operational vision, a distributed enemy, and distributed deployment. Others argue that technology was important, but not the only factor in the development of operational art. This monograph uses Schneider's elements as the criteria to establish the presence or absence of operational art in the 1813 campaign in Germany. The 1813 German campaign is examined from the viewpoint of Napoleon's adversaries; principally the Prussians, Russians, and Austrians. This campaign was used because it represents Napoleonic warfare at a very high level of sophistication by both the Allies and their French opponents. Both sides were now organized along the French model with field armies, corps, and divisions as standard organizations. The armies that faced each other, while composed of some veteran troops, were mostly the result of massive conscription across all classes of society. All of the protagonists were essentially nations in arms. The complexity of this campaign, there were approximately seven field armies in Germany by the fall of 1813, lends itself well to a search for Schneider's elements. The course of this campaign followed a pattern of attrition and exhaustion which, too, favors an operational analysis vice analysis long the lines of classical strategy. Finally, an operational examination of this campaign is important because so many of its characteristics resemble American military thought and practice. The Napoleonic period represents a veritable laboratory of coalition warfare and provides a means of applying the lessons of a historic period to understanding the dynamics of coalitions. Additionally, the primacy of politics, maneuver, and early forms of deep operations emphasize areas of similar importance in current U.S. Army doctrine. This period also coincided with perhaps the last truly profound Revolution in Military Affairs and as such its relevance to our current debates and doctrinal developments remains appropriate despite the vast technological changes we have seen. Although the Allied solutions and reactions to their problems cannot be applied to today's challenges, the process of operational art, and the dynamics of human behavior on the grand scale of history, can be understood so as to better understand modern challenges and a process which could lead to their resolution."

Free download here.
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks Armand!

The blurb sounds suspiciously like the obligatory staff college dissertation where you find the academic mot de jour and use it relentlessly in the opening sentences, hoping and praying that they won't bother reading beyond it!

I guess this particular academic was fond of 'Distributed' systems!

Armand,

Thanks. I enjoy reading about the 1813 Germany campaign as that is the campaign around which I have my Napoleonic armies organized.

Jim

Ahem, Tango, you know I love you to pieces man, but…you posted this link several months ago.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend.
Really?. I'm getting old! (smile).
Take into account my friend, that I'm in the middle of a hard combat here. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

I know Armand, I've posted over in that folder twice now in your support, just wanted to let you know that your sometimes forgetfulness brings out your detractors as another "tick" against you…not like they don't have enough already.

Well, we all make mistakes my friend and those people don't need them to sniper me! (smile).

Amicalement
Armand