Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future

Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future

by Paddy Griffith
Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future

Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future

by Paddy Griffith

Paperback(Reissue)

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Overview

The first edition (1981) took a critical look at the accepted wisdom of historians who interpreted battlefield events primarily by reference to firepower. It showed that Wellington's infantry had won by their mobility rather than their musketry, that the bayonet did not become obsolete in the nineteenth century as is often claimed, and that the tank never supplanted the infantryman in the twentieth. A decade later, the author has been able to fill out many parts of his analysis and has extended it into the near future. The Napoleonic section includes an analysis of firepower and fortification, notably at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Additional discussions of the tactics of the American Civil War have been included. The evolution of small-unit tactics in the First World War is next considered, then the problem of making an armored breakthrough in the Second World War. Following is a discussion of the limitations of both the helicopter and firepower in Vietnam. The author points to some of the lessons learned by the U.S. military and the doctrine which resulted from that experience. Concluding is a glimpse at the strangely empty battlefield landscape that might be expected in any future high technology conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780891414711
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 01/14/1997
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

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Excerpted from "Forward into Battle"
by .
Copyright © 1997 Paddy Griffin.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgementsix
Prefacexi
1Introduction1
21808-15: The Alleged Firepower of Wellington's Infantry12
31815-1915: The Alleged Novelty of the 'Empty Battlefield' in the First World War50
41916-1945: The Alleged Triumph of Armour over Infantry95
51965-73: The Alleged Supremacy of Technology in Vietnam136
6The Recent Military Past and some Alternative Future Battle Landscapes173
Notes187
Bibliography206
Appendices220
IGlossary of Abbreviations and Technical Terms220
IILevels of Action221
Index222
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