Lessons From The Last War

I have been reading an article (Lessons From The Last War - Predicting The Next War) today regarding nation’s that have prepared for future wars based on the previous war. One of the examples used in the article was the approach of both Germany and France in the lead up to the campaign in 1940. The article argued that while both nations went down very different paths, both could be said to have taken lessons from the last war.

In the case of France it prepared to fight the next war by the standards of the last war and was tied in to a firepower based doctrine for attacking. 

The Germans on the other hand took the lessons from the last war to show that a mobile approach to warfare was needed and that the what was needed was a concentration of armour to force a break through and push for the enemy rear and center of communications etc.

The part of the article that got me thinking however was how the author showed that actually both lessons from the last war were applicable to the war in question. While the German approach worked in part due to the lack of adequate anti-tank weaponry in appropriate proportions, as the war progressed and the anti-tank density increased the French lessons became more applicable to the conduct of the war especially when it came to breaking the determined German defensive positions in Normandy.

The second example used for the article is the lessons from the 1967 ‘Six Day War’ between the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Egypt and their application during the war in 1973. Once again the article points out how the lessons were learned and then applied in each case.  The example is concluded that while the IDF suffered significant casualties especially to its tank formations, it still emerged victorious. The author also points out that had the IDF taken a different route as various commentators suggested the casualties might have been greater and Egyptian gains more permanent due to the loss of mobility. Israel drew an important lesson from the 1973 war and that was that the IDF was too small for the wars it was having to fight.

The author concludes the article by making the point that lessons can be learned from past wars but doctrine should not be fixed on these lessons as it is very likely that others have also studied previous wars and drew their own lessons. The author does warn not too be too flexible as the jack of all trades is the master of none. The closing point is one that is applicable to most walks of life; preparation, training, research into past wars and studying the theories will lead to success. 

I can recommend The Journal of Military Operations as not only is it free to access but it also contains good articles written with present day operations in mind.