Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future
by Paddy Griffith
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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 show more 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. show lessTags
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A very provocative reinterpretation of industrial-era (Napoleon onwards) military history, arguing that from the Napoleanic Wars to the present day, technological improvements have always been overrated in both military and popular understanding, and the skills and abilities of infantry underrated. Very much worth reading, particularly as a sort of introduction to H. John Poole.
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Author Information
24+ Works 1,182 Members
Paddy Griffith is a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, England.
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
