Tactical Symbols

The articles link to this page deal expressly with the use of graphical figures of various kinds to depict tactical, technical, or organizational reality.

The Tactical Notebook
Red versus Blue
In the middle years of the nineteenth century, officers of the Prussian General Staff adopted the custom of depicting friendly forces with blue tactical symbols and hostile units with red hieroglyphs. Over the years, this led to the related practice of referring, in both speech and writing, to friendly forces as “Blue” and enemy forces as “Red…
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3 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Depicting Infantry Guns
In the days when field artillery pieces frequently fired over open sights, batteries could assist nearby infantry units by rolling up a gun or two to engage particularly obstreperous obstacles. When, however, gunners adopted the custom of indirect laying, and moved several thousand meters to the rear of the places where foot soldiers fought, the infant…
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2 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Depicting Anti-Tank Guns
During the Second World War, German soldiers wishing to depict anti-tank guns on maps and diagrams faced two considerable challenges. One of these was the frequency with which anti-tank guns of a given type achieved obsolescence. The other was the changes in nomenclature that resulted from the replacement of the anti-tank guns of one generation with t…
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3 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Depicting Mortars
Between 1919 and 1935, the light Minenwerfer of the German Army fulfilled two distinct functions. When configured for high angle fire, they served as mortars. When employed in the direct-fire mode, they did the work of infantry guns. Nonetheless, when German soldiers depicted these dual-purpose weapons (or units armed with them) on a map or diagram, …
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3 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Depicting Minenwerfer
The trench mortar made its debut in 1914, a time when, thanks a proliferation of new weapons and types of units, the standardization of tactical symbols lagged far behind the creation of such hieroglyphs…
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3 months ago · 2 likes · Bruce I Gudmundsson