Ignoring the Obvious: Combined Arms and Fire and Maneuver Tactics Prior to World War I

摘要

The armies that entered WWI ignored many pre-war lessons though WWI armies later developed revolutionary tactical-level advances, scholars claim that this tactical evolution followed an earlier period of intellectual stagnation that caused the stalemate on the Western Front. This stalemate, they claim, could have been avoided by heeding the admonitions of pre-war conflicts and incorporating the effects of technology into military tactics and doctrine. Some fault the military with incompetence and foolishness for not adapting to the requirements of modern war. The Russo-Japanese War showed the necessity for combined arms techniques and fire and maneuver tactics on the modern battlefield. Specifically, the war showed the need for: (1) the adoption of dispersed, irregular (non-linear) formations; (2) the employment of fire and maneuver techniques and small unit-tactics, including base of fire techniques; (3) the transition to indirect-fire artillery support to ensure the survivability of the batteries, and (4) the necessity for combined arms tactics to increase the survivability of assaulting infantry and compensate for the dispersion of infantry firepower. However, concerns over the loss of control on the battlefield and the ability of morale to overcome firepower prevented the realization of advanced combined arms and fire and maneuver tactics.