In World War Two, France had failed to appreciate the "evolution of mobile warfare," believing its defenses would guard again the German advance in 1940, he said.
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Furthermore, the fixed-site version was deemed by the Chinese military as not adequate in mobile warfare on the modern battlefield.
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After return to the United States, Pierce stayed in the Army and was interested in mobile warfare and the development of armor.
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The battery received quick training in mobile warfare during 'Exercise Bumper' and was issued with a desert kit. Their equipment was painted in desert camouflage ready for overseas deployment in mid-November.
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Italy was to prove different from North Africa. There was no more mobile warfare in wide open spaces. The division would spend much of its time supporting the infantry as the Allies came across defensive line after defensive line.
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The Bersaglieri gave Italy highly trained formations suitable for service with both cavalry and tanks. When the armoured divisions were formed in 1939, the link between the Bersaglieri and mobile warfare continued. Each new armoured and motorised division was allocated one Bersaglieri regiment.
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War Diaries 1939-1945. Phoenix Press. . who favoured mobile warfare above static defence. Following the end of World War II and with the advent of the Cold War era, further hardened defences were prepared in the city to protect command and control structures.
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A similar operation had been conducted on the northern front in Ethiopia but went against mobile warfare theory, for which there were ample forces to execute. Graziani believed the only way to defeat the British was by mass, having overestimated their strength.
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A redoubt differs from a redan in that the redan is open in the rear, whereas the redoubt was considered an enclosed work. The advent of mobile warfare in the 20th century generally diminished the importance of the defence of static positions and siege warfare.
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Guerrilla warfare for example co-existed alongside conventional operations, and propaganda and terrorism would always be deployed throughout the conflict. :# Preparation, organization and propaganda phase :# Guerrilla warfare, terrorism phase :# General offensive – conventional war phase including big unit and mobile warfare As part of the final stage, emphasis was placed on the Khoi Nghia, or "General Uprising" of the masses, in conjunction with the liberation forces. This spontaneous uprising of the masses would sweep away the imperialists and their puppets who would already be sorely weakened by earlier guerrilla and mobile warfare. The Communist leadership thus had a clear vision, strategy and method to guide their operations.
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Siege artillery are heavy guns and other bombardment devices designed to bombard fortifications, cities, and other fixed targets. They are capable of firing heavy shells but require enormous transport and logistical support to operate. They lack mobility and thus are rarely useful in more mobile warfare situations.
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Retrieved on 2012-02-09. The winner was the AK-47. It was finalized, adopted and entered widespread service in the Soviet army in the early 1950s. Its firepower, ease of use, low production costs, and reliability was perfectly suited for the Red Army's new mobile warfare doctrines.
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177x177px The motto of the 117th MP BN is "Our History, Our Strength". The painting of "Old Bill" (pictured above), wearing an MP brassard, symbolizes the history of the unit and resides on the drill hall wall of the Tennessee Army National Guard armory in Athens, TN. The painting is derived from the original drawing by noted artist Frederic Remington portraying a cavalryman mounted on his horse in the Great American West during the late 1800s. Old Bill is the adopted mascot of the United States Cavalry and is known throughout the U.S. Army's Armor and Cavalry communities as the symbol of mobile warfare.Symbol of Mobile Warfare "Symbol of Mobile Warfare", Cav Hooah.
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Numerous legacy issues remained in South America into the 20th century, some of which attracted military solution. Military technology was increasing throughout the period, with the introduction of mobile warfare and aircraft - but logistics and the sheer cost of modern warfare remained key challenges, leading to an increasing trend towards diplomatic solutions over the period.
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This melds the defensive tunnel warfare with mobile warfare. The term tunnel war or tunnel warfare (地道战) was first used for the guerrilla tactic employed by the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The tunnel systems were fast and easy to construct and enabled a small force to successfully fight superior enemies.
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Both the U.S. high command and North Korean General Nam Il agreed that only tactical air power saved United Nation forces from defeat during the mobile warfare stage of the war.Schlight, p. 122.Futrell, pp. 148 - 152, 371 - 372. When the front lines bogged down into static trench warfare in Summer 1951, forward air control diminished in importance.
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Divisional HQs normally operated as Main and Rear echelons, sometimes with a small Tactical HQ. During phases of mobile warfare a Main HQ could move every day, and wireless and despatch riders had to be used until lines could be re-established.Edwards, pp. 138–9.Molony, Vol V, pp. 337–42, 439–40.Nalder, pp. 406–7. A Royal Signals motorcycle despatch rider in Italy, 1943.
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The mechanization strategy was influenced by the state of economies, anticipated scenarios of war, politics and lobbying within civilian governments and the militaries. The United Kingdom, France and Germany chose three different strategies. A fourth option was chosen by the Soviet Union who, influenced by the mobile warfare experience of the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War, introduced a mechanized corps and airborne troops.Millett, p.
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In mobile warfare, such as the German Blitzkrieg, salients were more likely to be made into pockets which became the focus of annihilation battles. A pocket carries connotations that the encircled forces have not allowed themselves to be encircled intentionally, as they may when defending a fortified position, which is usually called a siege. This is a similar distinction to that made between a skirmish and pitched battle.
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Technological change had an enormous effect on strategy, but little effect on leadership. The use of telegraph and later radio, along with improved transport, enabled the rapid movement of large numbers of men. One of Germany's key enablers in mobile warfare was the use of radios, where these were put into every tank. However, the number of men that one officer could effectively control had, if anything, declined.
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During 1942 more of the brigade's experienced units were transferred to War Office (WO) control, trained and equipped for mobile warfare, and then sent to active theatres overseas, particularly for Operation Torch in North Africa. Sometimes they returned temporarily to AA Command while awaiting embarkation. Increasingly, the replacement HAA and support units were "Mixed", indicating that the operational personnel included women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).Routledge, pp. 399–400.
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ARVN troops regained control of the district headquarters only after reinforcements are airlifted in by U.S. helicopters. The battle resulted in approximately 300 ARVN casualties, 2 American deaths, and forced as many as 7,000 villagers to abandon their homes. The strength of the VC attack in northern Bình Định Province indicated the changing tactics of the VC, who were prepared to switch from small-scale guerrilla actions to mobile warfare.
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After several years of mobile warfare, Bruce and his allies failed to hold areas that they had conquered. His army fed itself by pillaging, which caused increasing unpopularity. The pan-European Great Famine of 1315–1317 affected Ireland also, and disease became widespread in his army, causing it to shrink, and he was defeated and killed at the end of 1318 at the Battle of Faughart in County Louth.
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Before 1939, the German General Staff has placed very little emphasis upon intercept in the field. Nearly all intercept has been carried out by Fixed Intercept Stations. With the approach of mobile warfare, however, Germany Army intercept operations also became mobile. The new emphasis on field intercept resulted in the establishment of Signal Intelligence Regiments () (KONA) whose mobile component parts were designed to work with units of the Army Group to Army Corps level).
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The army's adoption of the recommendations in the Howze Board changed mobile warfare. Its revolutionary concepts – based on the use of aviation – changed military attitudes in a similar manner to the way the tank affected ideas on mobility 50 years earlier. Two years later the 11th Air Assault Division was formed to test and validate these concepts. As a result of Howze's leadership, foresight and perception, two air-mobile divisions were eventually established.
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During the 1930s, the resurgence of the German military in the era of the Third Reich saw German innovations in the tactical arena. The methodology used by the Germans in the Second World War was named "Blitzkrieg". There is a common misconception that Blitzkrieg, which is not accepted as a coherent military doctrine, was similar to Soviet deep operations. The only similarities of the two doctrines were an emphasis on mobile warfare and offensive posture.
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Spahis were sent to France at the outbreak of war in August 1914. They saw service during the opening period of mobile warfare but inevitably their role diminished with the advent of trench warfare. During World War I the number of units increased with the creation of Moroccan Spahi regiments and the expansion of the Algerian arm. By 1918 there were seven Spahi regiments then in existence, all having seen service on the Western Front.
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In the Battle of Amiens of August 1918, the Triple Entente forces began a counterattack that would be called the "Hundred Days Offensive." The Australian and Canadian divisions that spearheaded the attack managed to advance 13 kilometers on the first day alone. These battles marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front and a return to mobile warfare. The mobile personnel shield was a less successful attempt at restoring mobility.
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Medium mortars were less useful in mobile warfare, so for the rest of the campaign the TMB men acted as mule drivers for the depleted Divisional Ammunition Column. After the Armistice with Germany, 58th Division was billeted around the liberated Belgian village of Péruwelz for the winter, where skilled men such as coal-miners were demobilised. The dwindling division moved to Leuze-en-Hainaut in March 1919, and on 4 April the remaining artillery left for England and demobilisation.
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The engagement demonstrated the shortcomings of the cavalry units in modern mobile warfare, which requires quick redeployments in ever-changing conditions. Fegelein sought to improve this by asking Himmler to combine the 1st and 2nd SS cavalry regiments into a brigade, with additional support units. As a temporary measure, Himmler assigned Fegelein to be in charge of both regiments. Fegelein's unit was one of several that undertook field training and political indoctrination in the coming weeks.
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A 7.2-inch howitzer going into action; note the wooden ramps to absorb the recoil of the World-War I-era gun carriage. The 7.2-inch howitzer (a relined 8-inch howitzer from World War I) began to be issued to heavy regiments in 1942,Playfair & Molony, Vol IV, p. 389. and by then the regiment had its own signal section of the Royal Corps of Signals and Light Aid Detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, ready for mobile warfare.
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In 1644, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose attempted to raise the Highlands for the King. Few Scots would follow him, but, aided by 1,000 Irish, Highland and Islesmen troops sent by the Irish Confederates under Alasdair MacDonald (MacColla), and an instinctive genius for mobile warfare, he was stunningly successful. A Scottish Civil War began in September 1644 with his victory at battle of Tippermuir. After a series of victories over poorly trained Covenanter militias, the lowlands were at his mercy.
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Model fought nearly all his battles in the northern and central parts of the Eastern Front; he was never tested on the steppes of southern Russia, where the open terrain would have made mobile warfare a more attractive proposition. Nevertheless, his defensive record indicated the value of his approach. At Rzhev, Orel, in Galicia and in Estonia he stymied opponents who expected to overwhelm him. He had the reputation of a ruthless commander, willing to inflict and take casualties to stabilize his front.
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After the war the nine wartime regiments were disbanded and the number of Bersaglieri battalions in the remaining regiments reduced to two per regiment. A new role was seen for the light infantry as part of Italy’s commitment to Mobile Warfare. The post-war Bersaglieri were converted into bicycle troops to fight alongside cavalry in the Celeri (fast) divisions. Elite units with high morale and an aggressive spirit were seen as one way to break such tactical stalemates as the trench warfare of 1915-18.
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Maude, pp. 143, 147, 149–50. CCXXXVI Brigade had been out of the line training in mobile warfare. By midday on 21 March it was on the road with orders to report to 19th (Western) Division, but on the way it was diverted to join 17th (Northern) Division, which assigned it positions near Vélu Wood. By 17.00 it was shelling German positions in Doignies and at 18.00 it fired an hour-long barrage to support 17th Division's counter-attack on Doignies, despite coming under hostile CB fire.
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Patton's boots at a museum in Malmedy While Allied leaders expressed mixed feelings on Patton's capabilities, the German High Command was noted to have more respect for him than for any other Allied commander after 1943. Adolf Hitler reportedly called him "that crazy cowboy general". Many German field commanders were generous in their praise of Patton's leadership following the war, and many of its highest commanders also held his abilities in high regard. Erwin Rommel credited Patton with executing "the most astonishing achievement in mobile warfare".
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Static Divisions occupied a rigid defence position, usually on a broad front (for example in 1944, 2,000 km of Atlantic coast line was covered by 23 Static Divisions). They were not trained in mobile warfare and as such possessed very limited mechanised transport; any transport assigned to the Division was usually horse drawn. Many of the officers, non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and men in these divisions were either previously wounded, older men, lacking combat experience, suffering from medical conditions, or conscripted prisoners-of- war.
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"Diario storico del Comando Supremo", vol.5 to 9, Italian Army General Staff Historical Office "Verbali delle riunioni tenute dal Capo di SM Generale", vol.2 and 3, Italian Army General Staff Historical Office While certainly much less proficient than Rommel in their leadership, aggressiveness, tactical outlook and mobile warfare skills, Italian commanders were competent in logistics, strategy and artillery doctrine: their troops were ill-equipped but well-trained. As such, the Italian commanders were repeatedly at odds with Rommel over concerns with issues of supply.
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French and German military operations began on the Somme in September 1914. A German advance westwards towards Albert was stopped by the French at La Boisselle and attempts to resume mobile warfare in October failed. Both sides reduced their attacks to local operations or raids and began to fortify their remaining positions with underground works. On 18 December, the French captured the La Boisselle village cemetery at the west end of a German salient and established an advanced post only from the German front line.
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Through his indoctrinated idealisation of an ostentatious concept, he reinforced the myth of blitzkrieg. By imposing, retrospectively, his own perceptions of mobile warfare upon the shallow concept of blitzkrieg, he "created a theoretical imbroglio that has taken 40 years to unravel." Blitzkrieg was not an official doctrine and historians in recent times have come to the conclusion that it did not exist as such. The early 1950s literature transformed blitzkrieg into a historical military doctrine, which carried the signature of Liddell Hart and Guderian.
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3.7-inch mobile HAA gun preserved at Imperial War Museum Duxford. Although the regiment was recently formed, its batteries were long-established units with many experienced TA soldiers, and it was selected to form part of the air defences for the British Expeditionary Force that had been sent to France in September 1939. The regiment was equipped for semi-mobile warfare, each battery equipped with eight of the latest 3.7-inch guns, and it crossed to France on 5 April 1940 under the command of Lt-Col Tortise.Farndale, p. 13.
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A regular civilian horse cart could be easily converted to military use and back. This made the tachanka very popular during the Great War on the Eastern Front, where it was used by the Russian cavalry. The use of tachankas reached its peak during the Russian Civil War (1917–1920s), particularly in the peasant regions of Southern Russia and Ukraine, where the fronts were fluid and mobile warfare gained much significance. With up to 4 horses abreast pulling a tachanka, it could easily keep up with cavalry units and support them with mobile firepower.
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Instead, they shifted down to Phase 2 guerrilla and small unit mobile warfare to bleed their opponents, interspersed with occasional large-scale attacks when conditions and numbers were favorable.Krepinevich (1986), pp. 135–274. This strategy drew the Americans away from the key population concentrations on the coast and in the Delta, and into remote or sparsely populated areas, close to border sanctuaries in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia where resupply and escape was facilitated. It also widened the battlespace across a broad area, enhancing maneuvering room and survivability.
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Iraqi air and artillery attacks would then pin the Iranians down, while tanks and mechanised infantry attacks using mobile warfare would push them back. Sometimes, the Iraqis would launch "probing attacks" into the Iranian lines to provoke them into launching their attacks sooner. While Iranian human wave attacks were successful against the dug in Iraqi forces in Khuzestan, they had trouble breaking through Iraq's defense in depth lines. Iraq had a logistical advantage in their defence: the front was located near the main Iraqi bases and arms depots, allowing their army to be efficiently supplied.
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A pocket refers to combat forces that have been isolated by opposing forces from their logistical base and other friendly forces. In mobile warfare, such as blitzkrieg, salients were more likely to be cut off into pockets, which became the focus of battles of annihilation. A pocket carries connotations that the encirclement was not intentionally allowed by the encircled forces, as it may have been when defending a fortified position, which is usually called a siege. That is a similar distinction to that made between a skirmish and pitched battle.
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Two days later he was promoted to colonel and temporary brigadier general. He commanded the 5th Division Artillery at Bullecourt and Third Ypres, where he employed artillery to cover the flank. In the mobile warfare that followed the German offensive of 1918, Bessell-Browne showed himself flexible and adaptable and pioneered new tactics to provide close support for infantry. In the attack on Bellecourt, he was able to put down an accurate barrage at 90 degrees from the line of sight to cover the attack at Le Catelet.
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Contrary to the common erroneous belief, the original destination was He Long's Communist base in Hubei, and the final destination Yan'an was not decided on until much later during the Long March, well after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept a secret from most people, including Mao Zedong, and the public was told that only a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare to defeat nationalist forces, and thus this part of the army would be renamed as Field Army.
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Siege artillery (also siege guns or siege cannons) are heavy guns designed to bombard fortifications, cities, and other fixed targets. They are distinct from field artillery and are a class of siege weapon capable of firing heavy cannonballs or shells that required enormous transport and logistical support to operate. They lacked mobility and thus were rarely useful in more mobile warfare situations, generally having been superseded by heavy howitzers (towed and self-propelled artillery), strategic bomber aircraft, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and multiple rocket launchers in modern warfare.
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The Air Assault Regiment 40 came about as the result of a change in Soviet tactics based on their recent experience in Afghanistan. These tactics emphasized the more mobile warfare afforded by the use of helicopter air assault operations. So while LStR 40 retained in full the airborne capability of its predecessor unit, more emphasis was placed on readiness to conduct air assault operations than had previously been the case. Like its predecessor unit, Luftsturmregiment 40 carried the added title "Willi Sänger," in honor of a famed German Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazis.
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The standard Western interpretation is that the group neglected the contribution of peasants who contributed to the success of Mao's Mobile Warfare. That, and as protégés of Pavel Mif, they thought they were destined to take charge of the Chinese revolution. Thomas Kampen's Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and the Evolution of the Chinese Communist Leadership argues that they were only a coherent group in Moscow, opposed to both Kuomintang and Trotskyist influences among Chinese students. It's also claimed that they did return to China at various times, but failed to form an effective faction.
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The reforms also promoted the tactics of frontal assault to the exclusion of other theories of war, dropping the emphasis on fast mobile warfare backed by artillery. By September 1939, sixteen divisions of the 67 in the Italian Army (excluding the garrison of Ethiopia) had been converted to and had received their establishment of arms and equipment. The remaining divisions had obsolete equipment, no stock of replacements and lacked artillery, tanks, anti-tank, anti-aircraft guns and transport. Morale was considered to be high and the army had recent experience of military operations.
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Ellis, Appendix IV.Farndale, p. 4. The regiment was formed too late for the Battle of France, but by the end of 1940 it was serving in XII Corps of Home Forces, stationed in the critical invasion area of South-East England. By March 1941 it had its own signal section of the Royal Corps of Signals and was affiliated to 43rd (Wessex) Division defending East Kent. This continued into 1942, the regiment gaining its own transport platoon of the Royal Army Service Corps and Light Aid Detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, ready for mobile warfare.
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Maude, pp. 143, 147, 149–50. CCXXXV Brigade had been out of the line training in mobile warfare, but A Bty was on call to send up sections at 15 minutes' notice for anti-tank duties if required. Later on 21 March the brigade was due to have relieved a brigade of 2nd Division, but at 12.00 its CO, (now Lt-Col Sydney Aschwanden, formerly of 4th County of London BtyAschwanden medals at Dix Noonan Webb auction archive.) was ordered to take his batteries to 19th (Western) Division, then to 17th (Northern) Division, and finally to stand down.
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Manteuffel discussing the Battle of St. Vith with US Army General Bruce C. Clarke in 1965. At first Manteuffel was interned at the British-administered Island Farm Special Camp 11 for high-ranking Wehrmacht officers. In 1946 he was handed over to the Americans and took part in the U.S. Army Historical Division project, for which he produced a monograph on the mobile warfare aspect of the Ardennes Offensive. After his release in December 1946, he entered politics and was a representative of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) in the German Bundestag from 1953 to 1957.
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Mao's tenure as head of a "small state within a state" gave him experience in mobile warfare and peasant organization; this experience helped him accomplish the Communist reunification of China during the late 1940s. The CSR was eventually destroyed by the Kuomintang (KMT)'s National Revolutionary Army in a series of 1934 encirclement campaigns. Following the Xi'an Incident of December 1936, the Communists and Kuomintang formed an uneasy "United Front" to resist Japanese pressure, which led to the Communists recognizing at least for the moment Chiang Kai-shek as China's leader and the official dissolution of the Soviet Republic on 22 September 1937.
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During its service 369 of the regiment's men died from all causes, either killed in action, died of wounds or of disease. Another 453 men were wounded, some more than once. More than half of the dead, 207 men, were killed during the seven months they fought in the static trench warfare of the Gallipoli Campaign; another 129 men were killed during their two years of more mobile warfare in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Gallipoli also accounted for more than half of the wounded, a total of 258 men compared to 195 men who were wounded in Sinai and Palestine.
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This last battle was disastrous for the Confederates, as their Leinster army was all but wiped out at it. In general he was skilled in the art of siegecraft, but never had a very good understanding of mobile warfare. Preston played a major part in the Confederates' internal strife, siding at first with radicals who opposed the first Ormonde peace, but later siding with the moderates who signed a conclusive treaty with Ormonde and the Royalists in 1648. His Royalism was motivated by his Old English roots and his extreme personal dislike of Owen Roe O'Neill, who led the opposing faction.
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A common slogan of the time went "Draw back your fist before you strike." This referred to the tactic of baiting the enemy, "drawing back the fist", before "striking" at the critical moment where they are overstretched and vulnerable. Mao made a distinction between Mobile Warfare (yundong zhan) and Guerrilla Warfare (youji zhan), but they were part of an integrated continuum aiming towards a final objective. Mao's seminal work, On Guerrilla Warfare,On Guerrilla Warfare, by Mao Tse-tung, 1937 has been widely distributed and applied, successfully in Vietnam, under military leader and theorist Võ Nguyên Giáp.
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37 LAA Regiment was still in course of formation at Tynemouth when World War II broke out in September 1939. During the winter of 1939–40 detachments of the regiment were deployed to RAF stations and other vital points in North East England, which they defended during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz.AA Command 3 September 1939 at Patriot Files37 LAA Rgt at RA 39–45 37 LAA Rgt War Diary, September 1939–July 1941, TNA file WO 166/2709. In May 1941 the regiment handed over its VPs and began training for mobile warfare.
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The Cavalry Journal was originally created by Cavalry officers on the American frontier as a forum for discussing doctrine, tactics and equipment among soldiers geographically separated by the great distances of the American West. With the creation of the U.S. armored forces in 1940,Zaloga The Cavalry Journal was renamed to Armor, the Magazine of Mobile Warfare. Prior to 1974, the Armor Association, a private organization, published the magazine, but the U.S. Army Armor School began publishing ARMOR as of the March-April 1974 edition. The publication is now a professional bulletin published under the authority of Army Regulation 25–30.
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In January 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn the German Chief of the General Staff (, OHL), ordered a reconstruction of the defences which had been improvised when mobile warfare ended on the Western Front, late in 1914. Barbed wire obstacles were enlarged from one belt wide to two belts wide, about apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid high. The front line had been increased from one trench line to a front position with three trenches apart, the first trench () occupied by sentry groups, the second () for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves.
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Bofors 40 mm LAA gun equipped with 'Stiffkey Stick' sightsIn late 1942, 120th LAA Rgt began to prepare for mobile warfare. In November, a draft of 119 drivers was posted in from 227 Driver Training Regiment, and that month the regiment transferred to 50th AA Bde in the North Midlands. RHQ moved to South Collingham with the batteries moving to sites in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. In December–January the regiment was at Haltwhistle battle training area, next it went to 11 AA Bde Tactical School at Leigh-on-Sea for a month's mobile training, and then to Oulton Park Camp near Tarporley, Cheshire.
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In his year with the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards on the Western Front, Stanier displayed aptitude for the mobile warfare that followed the crumbling of the German defences. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) (dated 2 April 1919) for his actions during the Second Battle of Cambrai, a month before the Armistice. His citation reads as follows: > For conspicuous gallantry and able leadership at St. Vaast on 11 October > 1918. He rallied his platoon under heavy fire, and after personally > reconnoiting (sic) the ground in front, led his men forward 200 yards to a > good fir[ing] position.
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Iraq created multiple static defense lines to bleed the Iranians through sheer size. When faced against large Iranian attack, where human waves would overrun Iraq's forward entrenched infantry defences, the Iraqis would often retreat, but their static defences would bleed the Iranians and channel them into certain directions, drawing them into traps or pockets. Iraqi air and artillery attacks would then pin the Iranians down, while tanks and mechanised infantry attacks using mobile warfare would push them back. Sometimes, the Iraqis would launch "probing attacks" into the Iranian lines to provoke them into launching their attacks sooner.
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In the autumn of 1944, the division fought as part of I Canadian Corps during Operation Olive, the offensive on the Gothic Line. In November 1944 it was then transferred to British V Corps. With one armoured and two infantry brigades, the division was well organized for mobile warfare as experienced in North Africa. In the mountainous terrain and difficult conditions underfoot found in Italy, however, tank mobility was very restricted and the division always found itself short of infantry. During the winter of 1944–45 the Divisional Cavalry Regiment and 22nd (Motor) Battalion were converted to infantry, giving each infantry brigade a fourth battalion.
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Windrow, pp. 211, 212, 228, 275 He had been repeatedly assured by his intelligence officers that the operation carried very little risk of involvement by a strong enemy force. Navarre had previously considered three other approaches to defending Laos: mobile warfare, which was impossible given the terrain in Vietnam; a static defense line stretching to Laos, which was not feasible given the number of troops at Navarre's disposal; or placing troops in the Laotian provincial capitals and supplying them by air, which was unworkable due to the distance from Hanoi to Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Navarre believed that this left only the hedgehog option, which he characterized as "a mediocre solution".
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Having had to commit his last reserves to contain the British offensive, on 29 June Rommel requested permission from Hitler to allow the 7th Army to begin a fighting withdrawal towards the River Seine; a move which would be mirrored by German forces in southern France to form a new front line along the Seine towards the Swiss border. This was partially endorsed by Hausser, who on 30 June proposed a retirement from Caen. Encouraged by the fighting in the valley of the Odon, Hitler stated that "we must not allow mobile warfare to develop", committing his troops in Normandy to "a policy of aggressive and unyielding defence".Wilmot, pp.
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The last days of this battle signified the end of mobile warfare in the west. The French offensive into Germany launched on 7 August with the Battle of Mulhouse had limited success.Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962) In the east, only one Field Army defended East Prussia and when Russia attacked in this region it diverted German forces intended for the Western Front. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the First Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September), but this diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from rail- heads not foreseen by the German General Staff.
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As chief of the General Staff, Bildt carried out a complete reorganization of the same. Innovation was his business even for the organization of war preparations. In the tactics, Bildt sought to adapt modern views to the country's special conditions, for example through in-depth trials with winter warfare in northern Sweden's mountain and forest terrain, coastal and border defense, operations in the dark, exercises in long-term war and heavy artillery use in mobile warfare, as well as several technical news. Bildt's strong interest in the theory of war was manifested in the General Staff, including when he dedicated to the War History Department the study of Charles XII's war.
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He would die by treason without being ever decisively bested on the battlefield. The Arverni Gaul Vercingetorix also favored mobile warfare and cutting of supply lines in his revolt against Rome in 52 BC, and Arminius from the Germanic Cherusci capitalized on the terrain and the Roman formations to win the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Another example of an enemy using guerrila was Tacfarinas, chief of Numidian rebels, who forced Rome into allying with neighboring natives in order to finally defeat him. Later Caratacus, the war chief of the British Catuvellauni, employed guerrilla warfare mixed in with occasional set-piece battles for eight years.
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The British Army had changed to Khaki uniforms, first used by the British Indian Army, a decade earlier, and officers were soon ordered to dispense with gleaming buttons and buckles which made them conspicuous to snipers. In the third phase of the Second Boer War, after the British defeated the Boer armies in conventional warfare and occupied their capitals of Pretoria and Bloemfontein, Boer commandos reverted to mobile warfare. Units led by leaders such as Jan Smuts and Christiaan de Wet harassed slow-moving British columns and attacked railway lines and encampments. The Boers were almost all mounted and possessed long range magazine loaded rifles.
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In April 1940 a new 6th AA Brigade was assembled for service in the Norwegian Campaign. With the bulk of the Regular Army deployed to France in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the majority of the units in 6 AA Bde were TA units withdrawn from AA Command, including 51st AA Rgt. These units had to be brought up to war establishment and provided with equipment for mobile warfare. 51 Rgt had 23 3.7-inch guns (out of an establishment of 24), but all the units were short of men and vehicles, and had to make do with some ad hoc arrangements.Routledge, pp. 109–12.
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Buckley called the volume "anodyne and factual" but wrote that such unrealistic accounts were not universal; in The Other Side of the Hill. Germany's Generals: Their Rise and Fall, with their own Account of Military Events 1939–1945 (1948), B. H. Liddell Hart gave a dissenting view, which portrayed a German Army that had held out for so long because its leaders understood mobile warfare having absorbing his pre-war ideas. The Allies had used the attrition tactics of the First World War, rather than "speed and dynamism" like the Germans, who had been defeated because of a lack of resources and Hitler's madness.
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In January 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn the German Chief of the General Staff (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL), ordered a reconstruction of the defences which had been improvised when mobile warfare ended on the Western Front, late in 1914. Barbed wire obstacles were enlarged from one belt wide to two belts wide, about apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid high. The front line had been increased from one trench line to a front position with three trenches apart, the first trench () occupied by sentry groups, the second () for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves.
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Operation Uranus, which achieved great success in its initial stages The Battle of Stalingrad, by October 1942, was allowing the Soviets an ever tighter grip on the course of events. Soviet strategy was simple: elimination of the enemy field army and the collapse of Army Group South. In operational terms, by drawing the German Army into the city of Stalingrad, they denied them the chance to practice their greater experience in mobile warfare. The Red Army was able to force its enemy to fight in a limited area, hampered by the city landscape, unable to use its mobility or firepower as effectively as in the open country.
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531 Throughout 1918, Russell emphasised training as new mobile warfare tactics evolved: this proved its worth during the Hundred Days Offensive that ended the war. In June Field Marshal Haig, who was a great admirer of Russell, offered him command of a British corps – the only Dominion commander to be so asked – but he diplomatically declined in order to stay with the New Zealanders. Russell commanded the New Zealand Division for the remainder of the war. Russell, centre front, with some of the senior officers of the New Zealand Division, 1919 At the end of the war, the New Zealand Division performed garrison duty in Germany, based at Cologne.
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The German plan was radically altered, catching the Allied army off guard. Neither the French nor the British anticipated such a rapid defeat of Poland, and the quick German victory, relying on a new form of mobile warfare, disturbed some generals in London and Paris. However, the Allies still expected they would be able to contain the Germans, anticipating a war reasonably like the First World War, so they believed that even without an Eastern Front the Germans could be defeated by blockade, as in the previous conflict. This feeling was more widely shared in London than in Paris, which had suffered more severely during the First World War.
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People's war, also called protracted people's war, is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind People's War is to maintain the support of the population and draw the enemy deep into the countryside (stretching their supply lines) where the population will bleed them dry through a mix of mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare. It was used by the Chinese communists against the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, and by the Chinese Soviet Republic in the Chinese Civil War. The term is used by Maoists for their strategy of long-term armed revolutionary struggle.
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In January 1940 it marched through Sydney and embarked for Palestine on the P&O; ocean liner SS Orford. Training continued in Palestine, with Eather emphasising mobile warfare rather than re-hashing the tactics of trench warfare from World War I, unlike some other battalion commanders with experience in that war. Eather attended the senior officers course at Middle East Tactical School in November and December 1940. He built a reputation as a disciplinarian, earning him the nicknames "28 days" and "February" (because it had 28 days) for his fondness for handing down sentences of 28 days' confinement to barracks – the harshest penalty that regulations allowed.
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In January 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn the German Chief of the General Staff (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL), ordered a reconstruction of the defences which had been improvised when mobile warfare ended on the Western Front, late in 1914. Barbed wire obstacles were enlarged from one belt wide to two belts wide, about apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid high. The front line had been increased from one trench line to a front position with three trenches apart, the first trench () occupied by sentry groups, the second () for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves.
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As the war moved into the period of the mobile warfare commonly called the Race to the Sea, the Corps moved forward again. On 8 October 1914 the RFC arrived in Saint-Omer and a headquarters was established at the aerodrome next to the local race course. Over the next few days the four squadrons arrived and for the next four years Saint-Omer was a focal point for all RFC operations in the field. Although most squadrons only used Saint-Omer as a transit camp before moving on to other locations, the base grew in importance as it increased its logistic support to the RFC.
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The effect of the change was to increase the administrative overhead of the army, with no corresponding increase in effectiveness, as the new technology of tanks, motor vehicles, and wireless communications was slow to arrive and was inferior to that of potential enemies. The dilution of the officer class by the need for extra unit staffs was made worse by the politicisation of the army and the addition of Blackshirt Militia. The reforms also promoted frontal assaults to the exclusion of other theories, dropping the previous emphasis on fast mobile warfare backed by artillery. Prior to the invasion Mussolini let and go home for the harvest.
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The chemical structure of sarin nerve gas, developed in Germany in 1939 Shortly after the end of World War I, Germany's General Staff enthusiastically pursued a recapture of their preeminent position in chemical warfare. In 1923, Hans von Seeckt pointed the way, by suggesting that German poison gas research move in the direction of delivery by aircraft in support of mobile warfare. Also in 1923, at the behest of the German army, poison gas expert Dr. Hugo Stoltzenberg negotiated with the USSR to build a huge chemical weapons plant at Trotsk, on the Volga river. Collaboration between Germany and the USSR in poison gas continued on and off through the 1920s.
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The First Battle of Champagne () was fought from 1915 in World War I in the Champagne region of France and was the second offensive by the Allies against the German Empire since mobile warfare had ended after the First Battle of Ypres in Flanders The battle was fought by the French Fourth Army and the German 3rd Army. The offensive was part of a French strategy to attack the Noyon Salient, a large bulge in the new Western Front, which ran from Switzerland to the North Sea. The First Battle of Artois began on the northern flank of the salient on 17 December and the offensive against the southern flank in Champagne began three days later.
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Fighting for their independence and survival, the Iberian tribes used fortified cities or strongpoints to defend against their enemies and mixed this with mobile warfare in formations ranging from small guerrilla bands to large units numbering thousands of men. The Celtic/Iberian horsemen, in particular, appear to be more than a match for those of Rome, a fact proved in earlier years by the key role such allied cavalry played in Hannibal's victories. Favourable mobility and knowledge of the local terrain were to help the tribes immensely. One of the most successful ambushes was pulled off by a chieftain named Carus, who liquidated around 6,000 Romans in a combined cavalry-infantry strike.
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After a highly successful summer campaign in 1941 as part of Army Group South, the Romanian Armed Forces regained the territory between the Prut and Dniestr rivers. General Antonescu decided to continue to advance alongside the Wehrmacht, disregarding the Romanian High Command's doubts over the possibility of sustaining a mobile warfare campaign deep inside Soviet territory. In October 1941, the Romanian Fourth Army occupied Odessa after a protracted siege which caused more than 80,000 casualties on the Romanian side, severe destruction and many casualties among the civilian population (the Odessa massacre). The spring and summer of 1942 saw the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies in action in the Battle of Crimea and the Battle of the Caucasus.
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The reduction in units also allowed to mechanize most of the remaining units in Northern Italy and Italy's defense strategy changed from a hold-at-all-costs territorial defense to one of mobile warfare. The reform was pushed through by General Andrea Cucino. Having become Chief of the General Staff of the Army on 1 February 1975, Cucino, concerned with the number of undermanned and underequipped units, ordered an immediate review of the army's structure. After two months Cucino and his staff presented a plan to restructure the entire army, and having secured an additional 1,100 billion Lire over 10 years to modernize the army's equipment, Cucino ordered the reform to begin with 1 September 1975.
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In the modern era they continue with the operations of insurgent, revolutionary and terrorist groups. The upper end is composed of a fully integrated political-military strategy, comprising both large and small units, engaging in constantly shifting mobile warfare, both on the low-end "guerrilla" scale, and that of large, mobile formations with modern arms. The latter phase came to fullest expression in the operations of Mao Zedong in China and Võ Nguyên Giáp in Vietnam. In between are a large variety of situations – from the wars waged against Israel by Palestinian irregulars in the contemporary era, to Spanish and Portuguese irregulars operating with the conventional units of British General Wellington, during the Peninsular War against Napoleon.
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Marshal Rodolfo Graziani had complained that due to the lack of motor vehicles, the Italian army would be unable to undertake mobile warfare as had been envisioned let alone on the levels the German military was demonstrating. The issues also extended to the equipment used. Overall, the Italian troops were poorly equipped and such equipment was inferior to that in use by the French. After the invasion had begun, a circular advised that troops were to be billeted in private homes where possible because of a shortage of tent flies. The vast majority of Italy's tanks were L3/35 tankettes, mounting only a machine gun and protected by light armour unable to prevent machine gun rounds from penetrating.
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Tactical air power, including CAS, was largely instrumental in staunching communist offensives as the opposing forces swept back and forth in mobile warfare. (See graphic below.) Notable from the beginning was the reinvention of the airborne FAC; the T-6 "Mosquitos" of the 6147th Tactical Control Group would fly 40,354 FAC sorties, be credited with killing 184,808 communist troops, and win two U.S. and one Korean Presidential Unit Citations. Though only United Nations air superiority from the earliest days of the war made "Mosquito" operations possible, other FACs also inflicted serious casualties on the communists. However, forward air control techniques paid off in diminishing returns once the opposing sides settled into trench warfare.
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He grasped the doctrines of mobile warfare that would eventually become prevalent in the 20th century. Paramount in his strategy was fast movement, even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace, to constantly harass the enemy during raids by disrupting their supply trains and communications with the destruction of railroad tracks and the cutting of telegraph lines, as he wheeled around his opponent's flank. The Civil War scholar Bruce Catton writes: Forrest is often erroneously quoted as saying his strategy was to "git thar fustest with the mostest". Now often recast as "Getting there firstest with the mostest", this misquote first appeared in a New York Tribune article written to provide colorful comments in reaction to European interest in Civil War generals.
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This further decentralization of the command was purportedly in preparation for the move to the continent, where mobile warfare would require decentralized operations. In addition, the two headquarters could be, and were, of value in organizing and training the many service units formed in the United Kingdom by the IX AFSC. Beginning in August 1943, RAF Grove was used by the 3rd Tactical Air Depot of IX Air Service Command, repairing A-20 Havocs and P-61 Black Widows. Starting on 31 October, the 31st Transport Group, IX Air Service Command used the airfield with C-47 Skytrains with the mission of transporting cargo and personnel between IX Air Force airfields in the UK. The 31st TG consisted of the 87th, 313th and 314th Transport Squadrons.
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On October 10, 1934 the three-man communist leadership issued an order to retreat; on October 16 the Chinese Red Army begun what was later known as the Long March, leaving the CSR. Seventeen days after the main communist force left its base, the nationalists realized they had escaped when they reached the abandoned city of Ruijin on November 5. The original destination was He Long's communist base in Hubei; the final destination (Yan'an) was not chosen until later, after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept secret from most people (including Mao Zedong); the public was told that a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare with the nationalist forces, and this part of the army was renamed the “Field Army”.
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At the outbreak of the One Year War, the Dreadnought-oriented Earth Federation was caught completely by surprise when the Principality of Zeon deployed the agile mobile suits against their fleets. The Federation military quickly realised that they would also need mobile suits if they were to have any chance of victory, and instituted the famed Project V in order to develop a mass-production mobile suit design. The Federation also realised that their existing line of space warships — mostly the cannon-heavy Magellan-class battleships, Salamis-class cruisers, and the unarmed Columbus-class transporters — are severely lacking in mobile suit transport and support capacity, and thus desperately in need of designs capable of mobile warfare. A new revolutionary warship class exclusively designed for MS combat and support was born — the Pegasus-class assault carrier.
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Lewin p. 205 Rommel felt that most U.S. units and commanders had showed their inexperience, losing sight of the broader picture.Lewin p. 202 Rommel was unable to exploit Allied failings due to a lack of forces and freedom of maneuver and the opportunity was missed, but he praised the 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment of the 1st Armored Division in its defense of Sbeitla for being "clever and well fought".Zaloga (2005), Rommel was later impressed with how quickly U.S. commanders came to understand and implement mobile warfare and also praised U.S. equipment: "British experience has been put to good use in American equipment". Of particular interest to the Germans was the sturdy M3 armored half track, and for some time after the battle, German units deployed large numbers of captured U.S. vehicles.
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Tracked or all-wheel drive vehicles were to be the solution. Following the war, development of mechanized forces was largely theoretical for some time, but many nations began rearming in the 1930s. The British Army had established an Experimental Mechanized Force in 1927, but it failed to pursue that line because of budget constraints and the prior need to garrison the frontiers of the British Empire. Although some proponents of mobile warfare, such as J. F. C. Fuller, advocated building "tank fleets", other, such as Heinz Guderian in Germany, Adna R. Chaffee Jr. in the United States, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the Soviet Union, recognized that tank units required close support from infantry and other arms and that such supporting arms needed to maintain the same pace as the tanks.
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One was the assumption that the small and highly mobile but lightly armed SADF expeditionary force was suited to mounting frontal attacks on well-prepared defenders supported by dug in artillery west of Cuito. The use of battalions trained and organised for mobile warfare in this manner was in violation of the SADF's own mechanised doctrine. The defending Angolans had ample armour, anti-tank weapons, and the benefit of air cover: the Soviet Union's increased willingness to supply FAPLA with advanced fighter aircraft and even Soviet pilots on loan posed a serious threat to South African air operations over Cuito Cuanavale. As Soviet involvement grew, and the number of air battles increased, South Africa's air force began encountering MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters flown by well-trained Soviet pilots.
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The gunners' increasing proximity to and participation in direct combat against other combat arms and attacks by aircraft made the introduction of a gun shield necessary. The problems of how to employ a fixed or horse-towed gun in mobile warfare necessitated the development of new methods of transporting the artillery into combat. Two distinct forms of artillery were developed: the towed gun, which was used primarily to attack or defend a fixed-line; and the self-propelled gun, which was designed to accompany a mobile force and provide continuous fire support and/or suppression. These influences have guided the development of artillery ordnance, systems, organizations, and operations until the present, with artillery systems capable of providing support at ranges from as little as 100 m to the intercontinental ranges of ballistic missiles.
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Much of this business was conducted through local subsidiaries such as Springfield-Büssing SA, an East Rand company which was the franchise holder for all Büssing products in South Africa. Springfield-Büssing assembled its vehicles with locally manufactured bodies and engine and chassis components imported from its German parent firm. In 1968, the SADF began formulating a new mobile warfare doctrine which centered around the independent deployment of mechanised infantry to defend the vast borders of South West Africa (Namibia), which were deemed vulnerable to the threat of insurgency and external infiltration. Mechanised infantry mounted in their own infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)s could arrive sooner at contact points, with greater firepower to engage and destroy the enemy where contact was made, as well as greater protection and convenience for troops.
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In 1915, the Army Cyclist Corps was founded to encompass these battalions; it later extended to cover a dozen more battalions raised from second-line yeomanry regiments which had been converted to cyclists. Most units of the Corps served out their time in the United Kingdom, providing replacement drafts to infantry battalions; some were converted back to conventional infantry and saw active service, such as the Kent Cyclists (on the North-West Frontier) or the 2/10th Royal Scots (in northern Russia). Formed units of the Corps were not sent overseas; this was done in small groups of men, with the divisions possessing individual cyclist companies and composite battalions later formed at corps level. These were rarely committed to action, rather being held back in preparation for the resumption of "normal" mobile warfare.
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The reforms also promoted frontal assaults to the exclusion of other theories, dropping the previous emphasis on fast mobile warfare backed by artillery. Cyrenaica the eastern province of Libya had been an Italian colony since the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912). With Tunisia, a part of French North Africa to the west and Egypt to the east, the Italians prepared to defend both frontiers through a North Africa Supreme Headquarters, under the command of the Governor-General of Italian Libya, Marshal of the Air Force Italo Balbo. The Supreme Headquarters in Libya had the 5th Army (General Italo Gariboldi) and the 10th Army (General Mario Berti), which in mid-1940 had nine metropolitan divisions of about each, three Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale (Blackshirt) and two Libyan Colonial divisions with each.
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Mesopotamia 1918 British Empire divisions were initially equipped with three batteries of four mortars designated X, Y and Z. From February 1918 onwards, these were consolidated into two batteries, X and Y, of six mortars each, and Z was dissolved. In British use, they were operated by the Royal Field Artillery and formed part of the divisional artillery, with one battery attached to each of the divisional artillery brigades. The United States Army began production and equipping with this mortar late in the war but it is doubtful whether any were used in combat. 3rd Australian Medium Trench Mortar Battery in action, Ville-sur-Ancre, Somme, 29 May 1918 The mortar was operated from concealed pits close to the front line during trench warfare, and was used in the open during the final "mobile warfare" phase of the First World War, depending on available transport.
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Although other air forces also had training programs and pilots equal to the Germans, the Luftwaffe emphasised training its large units, the Geschwader (Wings), Corps and Luftflotten (Air Fleet) staffs in large-scale manoeuvres with the army in the pre-war years. War games and communication exercises in a different variety of combat operations allowed the officers to familiarise themselves with mobile warfare, and this produced proficient doctrine and better prepared operational methods than most of its opponents. With notable exceptions, such as RAF Fighter Command, most of the Allied air forces did not conduct large-scale unit and staff exercises, testing tactics and doctrine. Given the slight numerical and technological advantage of the Luftwaffe over its enemies in 1939–1941, its success during these years can largely be attributed to extensive officer and staff training programs along with the experiences of the Condor Legion in Spain.
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The Gloucestershire Regiment was formed in 1881 as a line infantry regiment of the British Army, and at the outbreak of World War I it comprised two regular battalions, three territorial battalions, and a reserve battalion. As the war progressed, it raised 18 more battalions, most of them New Army battalions of citizen soldiers answering Lord Kitchener's call to arms. The Battle of the Somme was one of many battles to involve the Gloucestershire Regiment in World War I. It was a major offensive launched on 1 July 1916 by the British Army, with French support, on the River Somme between Montauban in the south and Serre in the north. Initially planned to break through the German lines and restore mobile warfare to the Western Front, a stubborn defence by German forces in well-defended positions forced the British into a succession of battles and a lengthy war of attrition that was brought to a halt by bad weather on 18 November 1916.
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Ford F15A with opened windscreen panel on driver side Canadian factories produced around 850,000 vehicles in World War II, including some 50,000 armoured vehicles, self-propelled guns and tanks. But the greatest significance had the vast majority – more than 800,000 units — of trucks and light wheeled vehicles, produced by Ford, General Motors and Chrysler of Canada. Thanks to a large pre-war automotive sector, Canada's great wartime achievement was to build more military trucks than the main Axis nations — Germany, Italy and Japan — combined, matching the demands of mobile warfare in the age of Blitzkrieg. Canada's military truck production focused predominantly on a broad range of medium-rated vehicles — light jeeps and trucks over 3-tons capacity, required by the Canadian Army, were purchased from outside suppliers.Blueprint for Victory.. Canadian industry production included both modified civilian / commercial designs (306,000 of which were classified as Modified Conventional Pattern, or MCP), as well as dedicated military-purpose designs, conforming to the Canadian Military Pattern specification, in roughly equal numbers.
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50th Division, however, played a relatively minor role in the pursuit, but, after a brief rest, was ordered to the front once again in early September, where it fought in the Battle of Geel. Again playing only a minor role in Operation Market Garden − Montgomery's attempt to cross the Rhine and end the war before Christmas − the division instead spent the next few weeks garrisoning "The Island", the area between the River Waal and the Lower Rhine, after the operation failed, in turn relieving the 43rd Division, commanded by Major General Ivor Thomas, who had been one of Graham's fellow students at the Staff College in the mid-1920s. On "The Island" static warfare replaced the fast and mobile warfare of the previous few weeks. In early October Graham received a leg injury and returned to England for recovery, his place as GOC being taken over by Major General Lyne, formerly Graham's senior brigade commander in the 56th Division before taking over the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division.
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As the Western Front in France and Belgium stagnated into trench warfare in late 1914, British forces found themselves with no means of replying to the German minenwerfers (trench mortars) which were lobbing both small and large (over 100 pound) high-explosive shells into their frontline trenches from short range. British commanders requested an accurate short-range weapon which was manually portable in the trenches, could be safely used to attack enemy trenches as close as 100 yards to the British trenches, was easily concealed and projected a reasonably large explosive charge capable of damaging protected enemy positions. The British Expeditionary Force had been expected to participate only in mobile warfare and was not equipped with any mortars. Various alternative designs for light and medium mortars were evaluated, prompted by the need to place at least some weapon into action without diverting manufacturing capacity from guns and howitzers, which weapons were given priority.
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For the opening attack of the Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918, 174 Bde was given the initial objective of capturing Malard Wood. 6th and 7th Londons led the assault, with 8th Bn in support. The attack proceeded well, but all three battalions became mixed up. After reorganization on the first objective, the four companies of 7th Bn went forward and captured the ravine behind, and supplies were brought up by supply tank and dropped by aircraft. 173 Brigade had been unable to take their objective of Chipilly Eidge, so they took over the Malard Wood line to launch a second attack. On 9 August the 7th then made a hastily organised attack with tanks and American troops, which successfully cleared Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood. Casualties had been heavy – over two days the 7th lost 300 men – but the results were excellent. After the Battle of Amiens, the battalion was reinforced with men from the Staffords and the Lincolns and began to train intensively for mobile warfare.
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Gough was appointed to command the Reserve Corps in April, which was renamed Reserve Army in June. There was some uncertainty over the role of the army, Kiggell, the BEF Chief of Staff writing on 4 June, "The area in which the Reserve Corps (sic) may be employed must be dependent on events and cannot be foreseen". Gough was told to train the cavalry in the all-arms concept and to convince cavalry officers of the effectiveness of cavalry, when co-operating with artillery and infantry. In 1996, Badsey wrote that the Reserve Army was organised as a conveyor belt, to exploit the success of the Fourth Army, with the 25th Division first, followed by two cavalry divisions and then the II Corps infantry divisions. Sheffield wrote that the all-arms concept was an imaginative response to the tactical problems of 1915 and anticipated post-war moves towards mobile warfare, but was ambitious, and the staff work and traffic control required to make it work, would have been a great burden on the inexperienced armies and staffs of 1916.
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Italian generals considered Rommel apolitical, too: According to Scianna, when Badoglio took over Italy in 1943, the Allies became hopeful that a similar development would happen in Germany with Rommel as head of the new regime, but captured Italian generals rebuked this pipe-dream, telling them that Rommel, unlike other German generals, did not care about politics. Caddick-Adams writes that Rommel was a "complicated man of many contradictions", while Beckett notes that "Rommel's myth ... has proved remarkably resilient" and that more work is needed to put him in proper historical context. Zabecki concludes that "the blind hero worship ... only distorts the real lessons to be learned from [his] career and battles", and Watson notes that the legend has been a "distraction" that obscured the evolution of Rommel as a military commander and his changing attitudes towards the regime that he served. John Pimlott writes that Rommel was an impressive military commander who richly deserved his reputation as a leading exponent of mobile warfare, hampered by factors he could not control, although he usually accepted high risks and could become frustrated when forced on the defensive.
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In early February, 1933, the nationalist successful strategy of holding their position in the newly built fortifications with large troops prevailed. Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, the communist commander-in-chief and general political commissar of the Chinese Red Army realized it was simply impossible to destroy nationalist forces on the eastern bank of Fu (抚) River, and decided to lead the communist main force to cross the Fu (抚) River and attack the town of Southern Abundance (Nanfeng, 南丰) instead. The two communist commanders also acknowledged that it was quite possible that the nationalists would not fall for the communist trick and communists had to give up the attempt to take the town of Southern Abundance (Nanfeng, 南丰) and attack Yihuang (宜黄) and Yue'an (乐安) instead, so that the nationalists could be ambushed in mobile warfare in the mountains where the numerically and technically inferior communists had advantages over their nationalist adversary. In the evening on February 12, 1933, communist 3rd and 5th Legions of Chinese Red Army begun their attack on nationalist positions in the northwestern suburb of the town of Southern Abundance (Nanfeng, 南丰).
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