Library
Search
126 Chapters
Defence of Mountains ( Continued ) We now proceed to the strategic use of the tactical results developed in the preceding chapter. We make a distinction between the following points: 1. A mountainou…
Defence of Mountains ( continued ) In the fifteenth chapter we spoke of the nature of combats in mountains, and in the sixteenth of the use to be made of them by strategy, and in so doing we often ca…
Defence of Streams and Rivers Streams and large rivers, in so far as we speak of their defence, belong, like mountains, to the category of strategic barriers. But they differ from mountains in two re…
Defence of Streams and Rivers ( continued ) We have still to add something respecting the influence of streams and rivers on the defence of a country, even when they are not themselves defended. Eve…
A. Defence of Swamps Very large wide swamps, such as the Bourtang Moor in North Germany, are so uncommon that it is not worth while to lose time over them; but we must not forget that certain lowland…
Defence of Forests Above all things we must distinguish thick tangled and impassable forests from extensive woods under a certain degree of culture, which are partly quite clear, partly intersected b…
The Cordon The term cordon is used to denote every defensive plan which is intended directly to cover a whole district of country by a line of posts in connection with each other. We say directly , f…
Key to the Country There is no theoretical idea in the art of war which has played such a part in criticism as that we are now entering upon. It is the “great war steed” in all accounts of battles an…
Operating Against a Flank We need hardly observe that we speak of the strategic flank, that is, a side of the theatre of war, and that the attack from one side in battle, or the tactical movement aga…
Retreat into the Interior of the Country We have considered the voluntary retreat into the heart of the country as a particular indirect form of defence through which it is expected the enemy will be…
