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Principles of War With Examples

The document discusses the principles of war with historical examples. It defines several principles of war including selection and maintenance of the aim, maintenance of morale, offensive action, concentration of forces, economy of effort, security, surprise, flexibility, cooperation, and administration. For each principle, it provides one or two historical examples to illustrate how that principle was applied or not applied in a past military conflict.

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203 views5 pages

Principles of War With Examples

The document discusses the principles of war with historical examples. It defines several principles of war including selection and maintenance of the aim, maintenance of morale, offensive action, concentration of forces, economy of effort, security, surprise, flexibility, cooperation, and administration. For each principle, it provides one or two historical examples to illustrate how that principle was applied or not applied in a past military conflict.

Uploaded by

sadman joy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Principles of War with historical examples

1. The principles of war are the most fundamental form of doctrine,


and they represent the basic guiding elements of warfare. They are not
separate and distinctive items from which a commander selects when
employing his forces, not are they a checklist. They are interrelated and
inter acting elements designed to provide a better understanding of
warfare. Different nations define the principles of war in different way.
Some of those may be as follows:

Selection and Maintenance of the aim

2. In the conduct of war and therefore in all military activity, it is


essential to select and define the aims before an operation starts. Once
the aim is decided, all efforts must be bent on its attainment until a
changed situation calls foe a re-appreciation and consequently for a new
aim.

3. Gulf War. The aim allied forces was to liberate Kuwait and force
back the aggressor Iraq. Once they captured Kuwait, they stopped the
war. The allied forces could occupy the other areas of Iraq like Basra. But
they were strict to their aim and did exactly what they wanted to do.

4. Battle of Britain. The Germans failed to select and maintain any


specific aim and they were changing strategies with shifting the aim so
frequently that it was difficult to determine an aim, which cost them in
the war. The Germans had initial aim to invade Britain’s infrastructure as a
whole. But Britain’s harass bombing on Berlin, Luftwaffe changed their aim
and started targeting London. Such major change in aim cost them to
defeat in the war.

Maintenance of Morale

5. Success in all forms in war depends more on morale than on material


qualities. Morale is a mental state but it is very sensitive to material
condition. It is based on a clear understanding of the aim, on trg and on
discipline and is immediately responsive to good leadership. It also
depends to marked degree on sound administration.

6. Liberation War of 1971. The poor and ill equipped freedom


fighter could sustain against the well trained, equipped Pakistani forces
only due to their very high morale. On the hand Pakistani forces suffered
extremely low morale which led to their quick surrender.

Offensive Action

7. Offensive action is the chief means open to a commander to


influence the outcome of a campaign or ops and almost no military ops can
be brought to a successful conclusion without it. Offensive action
embodies a state of mind which brings the determination to gain and hold
the initiative. It helps to create confidence and to establish a morale
ascendancy over the enemy. Offensive action is needed not only to achieve
victory but also to avert defeat into victory. As Napoleon pointed out,” He
who remains in his trenches will be beaten”.

8. Arab-Israel War’67. Israel took the initiative for pre-emptive


attack and went on offensive counter air ops, which brought victory in
their favor against the comparatively strong Arab forces.

Concentration of forces

9. To achieve success in war it is essential to concentrate superior


forces against the enemy at the decisive time and place. Concentration
does not necessarily imply massing forces in one place, but rather
disposing them so as to able to deliver the decisive blow, or to counter an
enemy threat, whenever and wherever reqd. The art of war is to decide
the aim, then task needed to achieve the aim, and then to concentrate the
reqd forces into those tasks until the aim is attained.

10. Gulf War. Gulf war is the unique example of concentration of forces.
All the Allied forces were made available for ops Desert shield. In the
1991 gulf war US led coalition demonstrated a timely concentration of
forces for the right task through a well conceived plan. That is why the
attack package of coalition suffered very negligible attrition.

Economy of Effort

11. The corollary of concentration of force is economy of effort.


Economy of effort implies the correct use of weapon syst5ems, a sound
distribution of force and a careful balance in the allocation of task with
the object of achieving an effective concentration at the decisive time
and place.
12. Vietnam War. The use of air pwr against guerilla warfare is a bad
example of economy of effort, because the air pwr was misused.

13. Gulf War. Use of stealth ac, PGM and advanced technology is a
classic example of economy of effort. Without stealth, a typical strike
msn requires 32 ac with bombs, 16 fighter escorts, and 08 wild weasel ac
to suppress en radar, 04 ac for ECM in en ac and radar and 15 tankers to
refuel the group. With stealth technology the same msn can be
accomplished with only 08 no of F-117 and 02 tankers to refuel them.

Security

14. A degree of security by physical protection and security of


information is essential to all mil ops; sy should enable friendly forces to
achieve their objective despite the enemies’ interference. Active
measures include the defence of bases and entry points; it is closely
interred related with concentration of force and economy of effort.

15. WW-II. During WW-II the air forces of Poland, Norway, Holland
and France were not well secured as such German forces occupied the
states with very little efforts.

16. Arab-Israel war of 1967. The Arabs lost most of their assets as
the bases were not secured and finally even lost the war.

Surprise

17. Surprise is a most powerful influence in war and its morale effect is
very great. Every endeavor must be made to surprise the en and to guard
against being surprised. In some ops particularly when others factor are
unfavorable, surprise may be essential to success. Surprise can be
achieved strategically, operationally or by exploiting new technologies,
material or techniques. Its elements are secrecy, concealment. Deception,
originality, audacity and speed.

18. Pearl Harbor. Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was


strategically surprise for USA.

19. Atomic Bomb. Dropping of Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki


was a technological surprise.
Flexibility

20. Flexibility is modifying plans to meet the changing scenario, take


advantages of fleeting chances or shift a point of emphasis. It demands
commander’s judgment. It is not the alteration of aim. It also demands
trust, good trg, organization, discipline, staff work and above all flexibility
of mind. It requires commander’s quick decision and subordinates quick
actions. It also calls for a degree of mobility, which ensures re-
deployment rapidly and economically. In the crisis if diversion becomes
necessary, it should be undertaken after a critical examination of
situation in light of the overall strategic situation and it should be
unbiased, other wise primary aim may be prejudiced by secondary role.

21. Vietnam War. During this war in many occasions flexibility could
not play any decisive role because of a specific strategic aim.

22. WW-II. The shift of German aim in the name of flexibility during
bombing over Britain resulted defeat of German, despite having a superior
air force.

Co-operation

23. Co-operation is based on team sprit and it includes co-operation of all


activities to achieve the maximum combined effort from the whole. It is a
means of attaining concentration of force with economy of effort in
pursuance of the aim. Above all, good will and desire to co-operate are
essential at all levels, not only within the service but also with other
national services and this can be best achieved under unified command and
control.

24. Gulf War. The highest level of co-operation sustained between the
allied forces in this war is a unique example of co-operation.

Administration

25. Sound administration is the pre-requisite for success in any ops.


Logistic considerations are often the deciding factor in assessing the
feasibility and influencing the out come of ops. No tactical plan can
succeed without administrative sp commensurate with the aim of ops. Cdr
must a degree of control over the administrative plan which sp his ops
plan.
26. WW-II. The failure of the German offensive in Russia can be
attributed to the break down of administration in the winter of 1941.
German army was caught in the Russian winter without adequate clothing,
shelter on supplies.

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