OPINION Vol.1, No.1 June 2013 - National Defence University

Technological Advancements – WW 1
Few major developments, which impacted operational art during WW-1 included inventions of
machine guns, tanks, submarines (German U-Boats) and the wireless equipped aircrafts. Chemical
warfare was also one of the components of WW-1; however, the killing capacity was limited only to 4%
of combat deaths.
Inter War Years. Inter war period was used by the militaries to further develop the operational art.
Country wise summary of interwar period is given below.
Germany
The Germans began to move their army from Sitzkrieg to Blitzkrieg. They developed from
static mass and firepower to dynamic use of manoeuvrability and flexibility. 13
Russia
Russian modernization in the art of warfare can be credited to two names; Svechin and
Tukhachevsky. However, the senseless purge undertaken by Stalin thereafter, adversely affected
this transition and even the performance of Russian Army in the initial part of WW-II.
General Svechin in a series of lectures on strategy in 1923–24, for the first time coined the
term operational art. He described operational art as,
‘the bridge between tactics and strategy, the means by which the senior
commander transformed a series of tactical successes into operational “bounds”
linked together by the commander’s intent and plan and contributing to strategic
success in a given theatre of military actions.’ 14
The principles of operational art outlined in the 1936 Field Regulations bore
Tukhachevsky’s imprint 15 (Mikhail Tukhachevsky 1893–1937), in which no aspect of technology
associated with the conduct of deep operations escaped his attention (i.e. armour, mechanized
infantry, aviation, artillery and rockets and even engineers and radio communications).
United States
A great deal of effort went into extracting lessons from the AEF’s experiences in 1918.
American operational art remained centered on the idea of applying as much combat power as
possible to achieve a decision on the battlefield with emphasis on coordination between land and
naval forces and the air elements of both. 16
Britain
The vivid experience of WW I was most influential in development of the thinking of
J.F.C Fuller and B.H Liddell-Hart:
World War - II (1939-1945)
JFC Fuller. By 1930s, Fuller had postulated that future wars would have high tempo of
action, unpredictability of events and depth of the battlefield. He had realized that battles
were likely to become more and more area operations and not merely positional ones. 17
Liddell-Hart. In his works, the stress was on movement and surprise. He sought strategic
dislocation through mystification of the enemy.
Both Fuller and Liddell-Hart converged upon similar concepts that anticipated the
evolution of operational art. 18
Operational Art in Germany – WW II. Germany initiated WW II by invading Poland on
1 September 1939, with a mindset of certain victory. German units had no match as they
imbalanced the system of Polish forces, who reached their culminating point by 6 October 1939.
However, the invasion triggered a global conflict, the scale of which proved to exceed the German
grasp of operational art.
Fall of France. France had excellent defensive fortifications in the form of Maginot Line
and better tanks than the German Panzers, but they lost to the German’s Blitzkrieg. Some
of the pertinent facets of this offensive were:-
OPINION Vol.1 No.1 117 June 2013