with the commander’s plans to achieve the strategic objective by assigning their own forces objectives at the tactical level.
Security: Protect forces from being surprised by the enemy. The best security is a thorough knowledge of the enemy’s plans and intentions.
Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time and place least expected. Surprise multiplies combat power immensely and can achieve decisive results. Speed, maneuver, deception, and mass can be employed strategically and tactically to achieve surprise.
Simplicity: The KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. War is a complex business. Plans and orders at every level of war must be simple and concise so that everyone understands the plans and intentions of the commander.
Developing Campaigns: The Art of War
Military commanders employ the art of war by following the principles of war to develop campaigns (see the “Strategy and tactics” section earlier in this chapter to refresh your mind) that support the nation’s strategic objectives by seeking the best and quickest way to defeat the enemy. In developing a campaign, an army commander must first decide whether to conduct an offensive or defensive campaign. The goal of the offensive campaign is to break the will of the enemy through battlefield dominance, thereby destroying the military and/or political structure that allows the enemy to fight the war. The strategic offensive seeks out the enemy army, holds it in position so it cannot escape, and brings the enemy army to battle under conditions favorable to the attacker. The attacker has the advantage of making the first move with speed and decisiveness to overwhelm the enemy with superior combat power.
The ultimate goal of the defensive campaign is to protect a vital area or wear down the enemy to a point where further attacks are ineffective. An army on the defensive delays or wards off an attacking army by keeping it off balance, with the goal of not allowing the attacking army to use its superior strength. The defending army may seek to avoid battle altogether if the defender’s combat power is significantly less than that of the opposing army. Although a defensive campaign seeks to limit direct contact with the enemy’s strength, the defender still seeks to fight the attacker at a place and under conditions that offers the defender the best advantage. A commander will also use the defensive as a temporary measure to build combat power in order to shift to the offensive or lure the attacker into a disadvantageous position to be in turn attacked. This is called a counterattack.
Interior and exterior lines
Strategically and tactically, the defender uses interior lines to avoid combat or collect combat power at vulnerable points exposed to an attacker (see Figure 4-1). Interior lines represent the area the defender occupies, usually an arc. Because the interior distance to all points in the arc is shorter than the exterior distance, the defender has the advantage. A commander can shift forces more quickly to meet an enemy attack than the enemy commander can shift forces to attack a vulnerable spot in the defender’s lines. Interior lines, therefore, can negate the combat power of an attacking army and allow the defender to set the pace of battle. If a defender uses interior lines, an attacker almost always operates on exterior lines. Exterior lines have some advantages, allowing the attacker to maneuver to surround the enemy, threaten a number of weak points all at once, or attack simultaneously all along the enemy’s defensive line to prevent any opportunity to mass forces against the threat.
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FIGURE 4-1: Interior and exterior lines.
Lines of communication and supply
An important part of interior and exterior lines is how a commander establishes a line of communication and line of supply. These lines may be one and the same. Every army on the march has to have a means of continual resupply. Supplies are usually stockpiled and kept as close to the front as possible. Because of the massive amount of supplies a Civil War army consumed every day, boats and trains were the best means to move the amounts necessary to sustain the army for a week or so. Large wagon trains, 5 to 20 miles long at times, carried the immediate necessities (food for both men and animals and ammunition) with the army as it moved. Like the major arteries in the body, the line of supply is the lifeline of a modern army. If an artery is blocked, cut, or damaged, the body dies. If a line of supply is blocked, cut, or damaged, the army can no longer function. Soldiers and animals starve; their weapons are useless for lack of ammunition, and even the clothes and shoes they wear fall apart.
Supply is critical in war
Commanders in the Civil War were fully aware that supply lines required protection. The longer the supply line (usually a railroad or river line) the more exposed it became to attack and destruction. Many commanders chose to minimize their vulnerability of dependence on long lines of supply by living off the land for short periods of time. This meant soldiers were sent out in small parties to purchase (or seize) food and livestock from civilians in the countryside where the army was camping or marching. No army can do this forever. Eventually, the line of supply must be restored, or the army will simply cease to function. An army cannot exist without the means to sustain it.
Information: Orders and critical intelligence
The line of communication is also important to an army. Orders, information, and intelligence information travel along these lines to allow the commander to make timely and effective decisions. In the Civil War, lines of communication were either telegraph lines or individual riders on horseback, known as couriers, carrying dispatches. Information also traveled with supply trains or boats. A commander without the information he needs is blind and can only guess about where the enemy is and can be led to make disastrous mistakes. So just like the line of supply, the line of communication keeps the army effective. A threat to the line of communication represents a serious danger and must be eliminated.
The Indirect Approach
Clearly, one can fight an enemy force on a battlefield to win a decisive victory. But there are other ways to defeat an enemy army by attacking or threatening the enemy’s line of supply, destroy or control its supply depots, or destroy or capture supply transports. Another nifty trick is to cut the enemy’s line of communication. Whatever a commander can do to weaken the enemy, either by blinding or starving the army, will contribute to the enemy’s defeat. After this is accomplished, an enemy is often vulnerable to direct attack and defeat. Therefore, a commander must always be vigilant to these threats and take the necessary actions.
Taking the initiative: Who is on top?
When a commander has prevented the enemy from employing its tactical or strategic plans, whether on the offensive or defensive, this commander is considered to have the initiative. Whoever has the initiative dictates what will happen next on the battlefield. Tactically, the initiative can be lost, regained, and lost again depending on a variety of factors. The strategic initiative is usually up for grabs until one side begins to dominate. Victory in war is predicated on one side clearly gaining the strategic initiative.
Putting It All Together: Strategy to Campaigns to Battles
