Customer Reviews

If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West (West Point Military Library)

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This is one of the few books covering German tactics in
the mid-late WW1 period. It discusses the development of the
defense of the reverse slope of a hill, intended to isolate
attacking troops from communication with artillery support,
because of the primitive communication systems of the day.
It is primarily about platoon-level or higher tactics, and
does not focus much on those of the individual soldier. It
discusses several battles, chosen for their significance in
the development of tactical principles, rather than their
operational significance. It is essentially the story of one
colonel, who ultimately led the German defense of
Paschendaal. It was written shortly before WW2, and the
title is a reference to a chapter speculating on how WW2
would be fought; the Maginot line is taken seriously!

During the First World War, there was a constant effort by Germany to develop new tactics, offensive and defensive. This is the story of the development of new defensive tactics, by Colonel Fritz von Lossberg and others on the German General Staff. They invented the concept of dispersed, elastic defense, based on the reverse slope, yielding to overwhelming force, then getting it back through counter-attack.

Here we have one of history's greatest tragedies. The German defensive innovations killed hundreds of thousands of Allied troops, and they are the basis of all modern infantry defense. But they developed too slowly for Germany to have a chance of winning. All they did was prolong the agony.

An extraordinarily good book for the military history buff. For the story of the development of offensive tactics, see _Stormtroop Tactics_ by Bruce I. Gudmundsson, or _Doctrine and Dogma_ by Martin Samuels.