The Nation in Arms: a Treatise on Modern Military Systems and the Conduct of WarH. Rees, 1913 - 475 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
able action advance guard advantage Amanvillers army corps artillery attack August 18 Austrian battalions batteries battle battle of Orleans battlefield become Blücher body Bohemia campaign cavalry cavalry divisions certainly circumstances Clausewitz command commander-in-chief concentration considerable course danger decisive defeat defensive demands detached difficult direction distance duty effect enemy enemy's engaged favourable field fighting fire flank march forces France Franco-German war Frederick French frequently front frontier gained German army greater guns headquarters immediately importance independent infantry instance Königgrätz large number latter letters of guidance Loire manœuvres masses means Metz miles military mobilisation modern movement Napoleon nature necessary object offensive officers organisation outflanking peace position possible project of operations Prussian army quarters railway rear regiment reserve retreat Rhine roads rule Scharnhorst Second Army side single situation soldier staff strategical strength subordinate success sufficient superior tactical Thionville tion troops victory Vionville whilst whole
Popular passages
Page 186 - ... unity of teaching which pervades the art from its beginning unto this day. It has, moreover, the special value of illustrating the reciprocal needs and offices of the army and navy, than which no lesson is more valuable to a nation situated as ours is. — MAHAN. AFTER a war one ought to write not only the history of what has taken place, but also the history of what was intended.— VON DER GOLTZ. FOOLS say that you can only gain experience at your own expense, but I have always contrived to...
Page 77 - Cowards die many times before their deaths ; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.
Page 13 - ... a step backward in humanity and civilisation. By these means, on the contrary, the battle is only the more rapidly decided and the war brought to an end sooner than in the days of old...
Page 79 - Again: the ex-trainer of the Turks, FieldMarshal Von der Goltz, assures us that "wars are the fate of mankind, the inevitable destiny of nations," and that "inexorability and seemingly hideous callousness are among the attributes necessary to him who would achieve great things in war.
Page 10 - ... ranks. None the less must we face the fact that, individual stupidities apart, the German theory of war is the only logical one. The theory is laid down by Clausewitz at the very beginning of his classical treatise On Wars: — Philanthropists may think it possible that the disarmament or subjection of the enemy can be effected by some artificial means, without causing too many wounds, and that this is the true aim of all military science. Pretty as that looks...
Page 8 - WE frequently hear the complaint that all advances made by modern science and technical art are immediately applied to the abominable end of annihilating mankind. Instead...
Page 419 - Among all relations between fortress and field army, the latter must make it a supreme rule never to allow itself to be thrown into a fortress.
Page 463 - War is now an exodus of [nations, and no longer a mere conflict between armies. All moral energy will be gathered for a life and death struggle, the whole sum of the intelligence residing in either people will be employed for their mutual destruction.
Page 10 - Von der Goltz in The Nation in Arms (English translation, page 22) : — If, from humanitarian principles, a nation decided not to resort to extremities, but to employ its strength up to a given point only, it would soon find itself swept onward against its will. No enemy would consider itself bound to observe a similar limitation. So far from this being the case, each would avail itself of the voluntary moderation of the other to outstrip him at once in activity.
Page 11 - The enigma to be solved in the present development of things is how to completely fuse the military life into the life of the people, so that the former may impede the latter as little as possible, and that, on the other hand, all the resources of the latter may find expression in the former.