The Military Weapon Is But

As Has Happened So Often In History, Victory Had Bred A Complacency And Fostered An Orthodoxy Which Led To Defeat In The Next War.

The Most Consistently Successful Commanders, When Faced By An Enemy In A Position That Was Strong Naturally Or Materially, Have Hardly Ever Tackled It In A Direct Way. And When, Under Pressure Of Circumstances, They Have Risked A Direct Attack, The Result Has Commonly Been To Blot Their Record With A Failure.

With Growing Experience, All Skillful Commanders Sought To Profit By The Power Of The Defensive, Even When On The Offensive.

The Art Of The Indirect Approach Can Only Be Mastered, And Its Full Scope Appreciated, By Study Of And Reflection Upon The Whole History Of War. But We Can At Least Crystallize The Lessons Into Two Simple Maxims- One Negative, The Other Positive. The First Is That, In Face Of The Overwhelming Evidence Of History, No General Is Justified In Launching His Troops To A Direct Attack Upon An Enemy Firmly In Position. The Second, That Instead Of Seeking To Upset The Enemy's Equilibrium By One's Attack, It Must Be Upset Before A Real Attack Is, Or Can Be Successfully Launched

The More Closely [the German Army] Converged On [stalingrad], The Narrower Became Their Scope For Tactical Manoeuvre As A Lever In Loosening Resistance. By Contrast, The Narrowing Of The Frontage Made It Easier For The Defender To Switch His Local Reserves To Any Threatened Point On The Defensive Arc.