land Warf are: Theory and Practice Stephen Biddle

Introduction

The First World War: The emergence of modern warfare

The Second World War: Responses to mechanization

The 1973 Arab-Israeli war: Relearning the importance of combined arms The 1991 Gulf war: Revolution or continuity?

Conclusion

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This chapter explores the relationship between ideas about hovv war on land should be conducted and the way high-intensity land warfare has actually been fought since 1900. How well or badly have theorists anticipated the demands of such wars, and why did their ideas succeed or fail? The chapter presents technological change as the central challenge facing modern theorists, and identifies a series of interrelated tactical and doctrinal responses that emerged in reaction to the high lethality of twentieth-century weapons. These responses emphasized cover, concealment, tight integration of sup­pressive fire and movement, depth, and heavy reliance on reserves. These concepts formed the foundation for most twentieth-century tactics and doctrine. Though theorists have periodically expected new weapons to invalidate this canon, such expectations have often been frustrated by subsequent combat experience; the most suc­cessful twentieth-century doctrinal systems have been among the most conservative. The chapter traces the relationship between theory and practice in four case studies: the European theatre in the two world wars, and the Middle Eastern conflicts of 1973 and 1991. The chapter ends by considering the prospects for revolutionary change in land warfare in the twenty-first century, and concludes that there remain powerful elements of continuity, as well as change, in the military experience of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.