Science of Warfare

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23879, 1 February 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

Science of Warfare

British Military Failures Analysed

THE military hierarchy of the bull-at-the-gate, "Wellington's 'Up, guards, and at 'cm' is good enough for me" school will like Lid doll llart still less after they have, read his latest book, "Dynamic Defence." They will not appreciate having pointed out to them that the disasters suffered by British arms in Norway and in the Low Countries wero due to their own folly in ignoring modern methods of making war. Nor will they be keen to grasp the inference that General Wavell's successes in tho Western Desert owe more to applied study than to the fact that he is fighting only Italians. Tho comfort that Liddell Hart is merely being wise after tho events is not open to them, for they aro given chapter and verso to provo that he and other writers, in and out of tho services, tho school of reformers, foretold clearly how this war would be fought by* tho enemy and of the counter-measures we should tako. 'I o this extent, "Dynamic Defence" is an

By J.L.S.

apologia, for tho author, whom Sir lan Hamilton has described as "tho most far-sighted and thought-stimulating military writer of our time," a description endorsed by outstanding American commentators, has been' tho victim of much superficial reading. His critics aver that ho camo down heavily for tho supremacy of defenco and that this war, with its German offensives, has proved him wrong. What they fail to grasp is that neither tho French nor ourselves tried to meet the German modern methods of attack with modern methods of defence and that in tho few instances when tho Germans did encounter adequate defence they suffered very heavily. They read of defenco and missed tho prescriptions for it. Tho chapter on "Wasted Brains" is disheartening, but there is some satisfaction now that tho men best suited for tho new methods of war havo been placed in jobs whero they can _ give effect to their ideas. As with Liddell Hart's other works, there aro plenty of constructive ideas, somo of which could well bo applied to tho training of New Zealand's forces. "Dynamio Defence," by B. H. Liddell Hart. (Faber und Fabcr.)