Word: axioms
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...came death or wounds. But at no time in the Civil War did any unit of more than 1,000 men suffer higher than 20% casualties. That was when war was still in the mule and carbine stage. But changes in war technique have not changed an old military axiom: you cannot expect a unit which has lost more than one man in five to continue effective. It must be withdrawn from action, given two months' rest, completely reorganized. One reason that World War I fell into so many clinches and deadlocks was that the 20% Axiom was often...
...around the 20% Axiom, General Erich Ludendorff invented the tactic of "infiltration," opposed to previous mop-as-you-go theories. He postulated that when various parts of an advancing line meet heavy resistance, they should halt; the others, finding weakness, should penetrate and, as the surrounded enemy capitulates, join forces beyond. Usable in big or little units, infiltration was the plan of Ludendorff's big push on March 21, 1918, which almost licked the Allies...
Since World War I, tacticians have become increasingly conscious of the Axiom. Theme of every drill manual, every military article has been to cut casualties. French training doctrine admonishes not to attack unless you can throw over four pounds of steel and high explosive for every pound the enemy can deliver back. British instructors are beginning to teach their infantry not to dress right in ordinary drill because that makes them tend to line up on the battlefield-offering a much better target for machine gunners...
Remembering from "last time" the futility of trying to charge against a machine gun, Captain Liddell Hart lays down the axiom that in modern warfare the defense has a great advantage over the attack: no attack succeeds unless the attackers secure surprise or have at least a 3-to-1 preponderance over the attacked. This does not mean merely in men (in the last war some attacks failed with a 16-to-1 preponderance in men), but in fire power. Says...
...penknives, coins and pencils may be found distributed in the body, and occasionally outside objects such as pebbles, bits of masonry, and even the bones and soft tissues of a nearby victim may cause wounds." Grease, dirt and bits of clothing are driven into wounds. It is a military axiom that "every wound is infected...