1. Military Thought and Development Between the Wars

2. Tactical and operational questions for the future... How is maneuver possible on the modern battlefield? What is the proper role of the tank? What is the proper role of the airplane? All of these questions will be addressed in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

3. Britain J.F.C. Fuller –Tanks could replace infantry and cavalry; –Future land battles would be similar to naval battles B.H. Liddell Hart: –Argued conversion to a “New Model Army” –Balanced tank-infantry force

4. B. H. Liddell Hart: The “indirect approach” First appeared in 1929 in The Decisive Wars of History “Effective results in war have rarely been attained unless the approach has had such indirectness as to ensure the opponent’s unreadiness to meet it.” “In most campaigns the dislocation of the enemy’s psychological and physical balance has been the vital prelude to a successful attempt at his overthrow.”

5. France Confrontation between visions of mobile warfare and static defense. General Jean-Baptiste Estienne –Tanks should form a separate organization –Tanks would perform the role of cavalry Marshal Philippe Petain –Reliance of static defense –Centralized command and control

6. 1930’s: Proponents of mobility and mechanization take control General Maxime Weygand General Maurice Gamelin Colonel Charles DeGaulle Problems: –Financial weakness –Diminished recruit pool

7. Germany Hans von Seeckt rebuilds the German army. January 1927: “Armored, quickly moving tanks most probably will become the operationally decisive weapon.” Werner von Fritsch

8. German General Staff’s “Young Turks” Joachim von Stulpnagel Werner von Blomberg Heinz Guderian Gerd von Rundstedt Opposed by the “Infantry Generals”

9. Soviet Union Soviet military thinking driven by the Red- White civil war, not the Western Front Conflict between professionals and “Red Commanders”

10. Major personalities Mikhail Tukhachevsky –Revolution could be exported on the bayonets of the army. Boris Shaposhnikov – The army could not defend the nation alone – General staff was an extension of the political apparatus. – Mozg Armii

11. Vladimir Triandafillov Successive operations

12. Regroup, New Attack Successive Operations

13. Italy Guilio Douhet Command of the Air (1921) No distinction between combatants and non-combatants. Successful ground offensive no longer possible. Speed and altitude make it impossible to defense against air power. True objectives: government and population centers. Nations need separate air forces built around long-range bombers.

14. United States Billy Mitchell –His ideas were similar to Douhet’s but he stressed: An autonomous air force Centralized control of all air assets

17. Mitchell’s Court Martial "There are those in Washington who should be severely taken to task and court-martialed for their deliberate neglect of aviation.” He blamed Washington for: "Incompetence, criminal negligence, and almost treasonable administration of the national defense"

19. Guilty –Suspended from rank, pay, and command for 5 years. –Resigned, died in 1935

20. LTC Pete Ellis, USMC Advance Base Operations in Micronesia War with the Japanese was likely. The real function of the USMC: Seize operating bases for the Navy