33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Armchair Kitcheners, April 17, 2000
This review is from: Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (Third Edition) (Paperback)
Written early in the 20th Century to teach British officers how to wage war against non-European armies in Asia and Africa, "Small Wars" retains its fascination at century's end. In fact, many of its lessons could well be applied to conflicts today.
The author served in the Second Afghan and both Boer Wars, was an assiduous student of warfare around the globe and retired as a Major General after heading the British Army's Intelligence division during the Great War. The breadth of his knowledge is shown by the range of examples that illustrate the principles laid down in his book. The chapter on "Feints", for instance, draws on actions from the Zulu Wars, the Indian Mutiny, the 1821 Wallachian insurrection against the Ottoman Empire, the Second Afghan War, the Kaffir War of 1878, the French occupation of Algeria, the British expedition against Abyssinia in 1868, the siege of Khartoum, the suppression of Riel's revolt in Canada, the war against the Mahdi and a couple of Indian campaigns. Elsewhere, we are presented with the Russians in Central Asia, the French in Tonkin, Dahomey and Madagascar, the U.S. cavalry against the Indians of the Great Plains, the British and French in China, and many more now-obscure imbroglios.
The first several chapters lay down broad strategic principles, most of them flowing from the key insight that regular armies enjoy great tactical advantages over forces inferior in organization, arms, training and discipline but suffer equally great strategic handicaps. In a "small war", therefore, the more "advanced" power can easily lose, due to ignorance of the enemy, failure to formulate clear objectives or, worst of all, the pursuit of military objectives that do not contribute to the conflict's political goal. Erroneous strategy, Callwell warns again and again, leads to desultory, defensive war that exhausts the regulars' resources while merely exasperating rather than subduing their enemy. (The reader may draw his own contemporary parallels.)
After the strategic foundation come discussions of operations and tactics from multiple perspectives: the character of the action (attack, defense, pursuit, retreat, feint, etc.), the terrain on which it is fought, and the types of troops that fight it (including such exotica as camel corps and the not-yet-dominant machine gun). The commander who mastered Callwell's course was prepared to force a mountain pass, assault a Boer laager or Sudanese zeriba, maneuver through a jungle or carry out any of the other varied tasks that circumstances might demand.
Aside from the inherent interest of its variegated subject matter and its appeal to wargamers, "Small Wars" will prove illuminating to the reader who wishes to understand more fully what happened in colonial warfare and how and why European forces won and lost. It is one of those rare works that makes concrete the challenges and achievements of a bygone era.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must if you are studying insurgent strategies, August 15, 2006
This review is from: Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (Third Edition) (Paperback)
Long before the term "insurgent" entered the military vocabulary the British had developed a long experience in fighting them during much of the 19th century. Colonel Callwell's book is an excellent source if you want to understand the roots of counterinsurgent warfare in the 20th and 21st centuries. Callwell covers the topic completely from strategy to tactics used against different fighting styles e.g. mounted troops, fanatics, etc. hill and bush warfare, the use of infantry and mounted troops as well as night operations. Callwell supplies good examples accompanied by nice action maps for his subjects. Before reading this book I found it helpful to read "Queen Victoria's Little Wars" by Byron Farwell which gave me a much better appreciation of entire small wars from which Callwell takes his examples. If you are doing an indepth study of insurgent warfare this is a must, but if your time is limited you might want to come back to it and move on to more contemporary readings first.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the first to discuss counter-insurgency, May 7, 2006
This review is from: Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (Third Edition) (Paperback)
The author is one of the earliest and most influential writers on counter-insurgency. He was a British military officer writing to teach junior officers on how to defeat non-European forces. While many of his tactics seem rather tough and barbaric, one must be careful to judge him by the standards of his time (early 20th century), not by the whims of today. If one is able to look past many of tougher stances, like destroying the food and water sources of uncooperative local citizens, there is quite a bit worth learning. The Marine Corps Small Wars Manual of 1940 owes much to this work. While more modern counter-insurgency writers have overshadowed Caldwell's teachings, he still deserves credit for being one of the first to record the lessons and basic tenets of counter-insurgency. It is amazing the see how little has changed and how well this book holds up. I understand why this book is still required reading at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
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