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the greatest armies in the world
- Thread starter swole
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Spartacus
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I'm siding with javaguru
the germans birthed modern warfare
the germans birthed modern warfare
javaguru
Banned
I'll date the initial evolution to the Sturmtruppen which began in 1915 that were trained in Hutier tactics. They also made widespread use of defence in depth during WWI, arguably the best defence against maneuver combined arms warfare, later used to great success by the Soviet Army at Kursk in WWII.Spartacus said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_von_Hutier
Hutier tactics
Hutier had noticed that in many previous battles, the conventional method of launching an attack, with a lengthy artillery barrage all along the line followed by an assault from massed infantry, was leading to disastrous losses. He suggested an alternate approach, now called either Hutier Tactics or infiltration tactics, which consisted of these basic steps:
1: A short artillery bombardment, featuring heavy shells mixed with numerous poison gas projectiles, which would concentrate on neutralizing the enemy front lines, rather than on destroying them by itself.
2: Under a creeping barrage, German shock troops (Sturmbatallione) would move forward and infiltrate the Allied defenses at previously identified weak points. They would avoid combat whenever possible and attempt to destroy or capture enemy headquarters and artillery strongpoints.
3: After the shock troops had done their job, German Army units heavily equipped with machine guns and mortars would make heavy attacks along narrow fronts against any Allied strongpoints the shock troops missed. When the artillery was in place, officers could direct the fire wherever it was needed to accelerate the breakthrough.
4: In the last stage of the assault, regular infantry would mop up any remaining Allied resistance.
Many other generals had planned attacks along similar lines in the past, dating as far back as United States Army Colonel Emory Upton at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864. Allied generals had done so on a small scale in earlier battles in France, but Hutier was the first commander to employ them on a wide, ongoing scale.
javaguru
Banned
javaguru said:
I'm yet to read it myself. A 20 something kid I sat next to on my flight back from MN had it with him. He said he got weird looks from the airport staff lol. He said he was told it's one of history's must reads.
It is long and difficult to follow from what I understand though. In any case it's on my list of books to read.
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heatherrae
Guest
DAMN IT! No one laughed at my ottoman empire joke? WTF?
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heatherrae
Guest
First page. One of my favorite jokes!javaguru said:
