Ralph Boerke's Collection of Art
Strategy and Tactics and my Notes on NomenclatureArt of War Menu
[The image used in the 'Art of War' pages is a slightly modified scan
of Parker Brothers' RISK cannon image.]
Human history is a story of war. From the most ancient times peoples have been warring with neighbouring states. The means to securing your land and possessions was through the use of armed force. As human societies progressed, the arms they used and the armies they formed became highly developed and complex, the motives and purposes for war chnaged as well. Great thinkers have looked upon arms, armies, and war and came upon some principles or maxims on the use arms and armies. These thinkers wrote down their maxims and passed them down to us.
I will gather the writings of many (I hope) of these artists and give some of their maxims in my pages.
The first artist in this series on the Art of War is, of course, Sun Tzu. In the early part of 4th century BCE, he wrote the classic Ping Fa (the Art of War). He lived during the time of the warring states in China that saw war as an ongoing event lasting hundreds of years. Sun Tzu was war consultant to one or more of these warring states.
Strategy and Tactics and other writings are my own opinions, as is Ralph
Boerke's Art of War applied to Axis & Allies. I will always distinguish
my opinions and notes from the writings of other authors. My notes will
have 'RB' in front.
In chess a strategy to use would be attrition after securing an advantage in a piece, say, a Queen or a Rook. Tactics used in chess would be forks, gambits and positional advantage. Strategy applies to the game but tactics applies to the individual pieces. My favourite tactic is the Knight fork: check the King and attack the Rook at the same time. Gambits could also be viewed as strategy as a gambit can determine whether a game is 'open' or 'closed'.
The scale of a chess board does not give us a great example of the difference between strategy and tactics. A battlefield does. Artillery is the only 'piece' that can effect an opponent across a battlefield but usually it only has a small portion of the enemy in range. Airpower, cavalry or motorized units can range over a battlefield but the speed of these units is slow compared to artillery. Airpower is very fast as well but if you consider changing the direction of an artillery piece by 90 degrees between two shots gives you a distance between targets, say to the north and east, of perhaps tens of miles . The ability to effect an enemy unit allows a piece to be used tactically. Strategy would be where the battle takes place. Generals will try to gain a position which is strategic from where to control an area. When an enemy enters that area the General can use his forces with tactical superiority.
An example of strategy would be Rommel's use of terrain to place his
units. Picking the field of battle.
Then the practice of withdrawing his armour towards his on lines, luring
enemy armour into a killing zone of antitank guns is an example of tactics.
Both Generals and Captains use Logistics.
Logistics is the efficient and timely delivery of supply to a fighting force. Napoleon said 'an army moves on its stomach'. An army needs food, clothing, shelter, feul, and ammunition. Without any of these it will not be ready or willing to fight.
In the 1700's a new term was introduced: Grand Tactics. It was used to distinguish between the tactics of small units of men and the large scale strategies of nations. Applied to the medium scale of large units of men used in a larger theater of combat. Napoleon would use this term if he was describing his armies. Each was used as an independent force. Each army could be used on its own to implement strategy. Each army could be broken into its smaller detachments and these detachments used in tactical terms. But these armies could be brought together and used strategically as well converging on an enemy. This is what happened at Waterloo when the British army was fighting le Grande Armie and the Prussian army came to its aid.
More on these and other terms such as Lines of
Operation and Strategic Points are
discussed in Jomini's Art of War; and in the Roman Art of War.
-The Reader's Companion to MILITARY HISTORY, Edited by Robert Cowley
and Geoffrey Parker, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
-Atlas of World History, Rand McNally Company, 1981, 1983, 1987
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War, c.400 BCE, Translated by Samuel B. Griffith,
Oxford Press, 1963
-Napoleon's Art of War, Translated from the French by Lieut.-Gen. Sir
G.C.'Aguilar, C.B., Barnes & Noble Books, 1995
-Panzer Leader, Gen. Heinz Guderian, Translated by C. Fitzgibbon, Da
Capo Press, 1952
-Achtung Panzer, Major-General Heinze Guderian, 1937, Translated by
C.Duffy, Arms and Armour Press, 1992, 1995
-The Roman Art of War under the Rebublic, F.E. Adcock, Barnes &
Noble, 1940, 1995
-The Military Life of Julius Ceasar, T.N. Dupey, Barnes & Noble,
1969
-The Gallic Wars, Ceasar, c.50 BCE, Translated by C. Hammond, Oxford
University Press, 1996.
-The Art of War, Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini, 1838, 1862 Translation
by Lippencott & co., Greenhill Books, 1996
-On War, Carl Von Clausewitz, 1832, 1908 Translation by Routledge &
Kegan Paul, Penguin Classics, 1982
-The Book Of War, Paul Keegan, 1999, Peguin Books
-Various sources on the internet (mentioned in the relevant articles)
This list will be updated as reference material becomes available and
the Arts completed, expanded or updated.
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