Strategy In The Interwar Period
Strategy
Military historians have long fought over a precise definition for the “catch all” term known as “Strategy”. There has not been a consensus on how the term should be defined, but in terms of warfare in the 20th century, a good definition and the one that will be used for this paper defines strategy as “the development, intellectual mastery, and utilization of all of the state’s resources for the purpose of implementing its policy in war.” This definition is used because it covers the aspects of total war, which the Second World War was. The interwar period, or the two decades of uneasy peace that separated the First and Second World Wars, saw three major thinkers emerge that had a great effect on the way that the Second World War was to be fought. These thinkers were J.F.C Fuller, Basil Liddell-Hart, and Hans Von Seeckt. All three of these thinkers sought to create solutions to the problems created by the deadlock of the Western Front, but all three of them also neglected to search for or implement proper solutions that fit the definition of strategy that works for total war. For example, …show more content…
Fuller remained a very influential figure throughout the interwar period and began to not only influence his fellow Britons, but also the Germans. Considering a German panzer division in 1940, one can see numerous parallels in Fuller’s ideas and the character of the division. In short, Fuller’s visions can be seen as identifying the operational problem in warfare of his time rather than the strategic solution. He himself wrote “If we employ mechanical means, [attacks] become feasible with a comparatively small force”. However, no army or nation had the means nor the will to completely mechanize its forces during the interwar period despite Fuller’s
Military historians have long fought over a precise definition for the “catch all” term known as “Strategy”. There has not been a consensus on how the term should be defined, but in terms of warfare in the 20th century, a good definition and the one that will be used for this paper defines strategy as “the development, intellectual mastery, and utilization of all of the state’s resources for the purpose of implementing its policy in war.” This definition is used because it covers the aspects of total war, which the Second World War was. The interwar period, or the two decades of uneasy peace that separated the First and Second World Wars, saw three major thinkers emerge that had a great effect on the way that the Second World War was to be fought. These thinkers were J.F.C Fuller, Basil Liddell-Hart, and Hans Von Seeckt. All three of these thinkers sought to create solutions to the problems created by the deadlock of the Western Front, but all three of them also neglected to search for or implement proper solutions that fit the definition of strategy that works for total war. For example, …show more content…
Fuller remained a very influential figure throughout the interwar period and began to not only influence his fellow Britons, but also the Germans. Considering a German panzer division in 1940, one can see numerous parallels in Fuller’s ideas and the character of the division. In short, Fuller’s visions can be seen as identifying the operational problem in warfare of his time rather than the strategic solution. He himself wrote “If we employ mechanical means, [attacks] become feasible with a comparatively small force”. However, no army or nation had the means nor the will to completely mechanize its forces during the interwar period despite Fuller’s