I wonder how the opening battles of WWI would have gone if the revised Règlement de manœuvre d’infanterie you reference had been adopted on 20 April 1910 instead of 20 April 1914? It might not have changed everything as the Battle of the Frontiers was a right disaster for the French, but it could not have hurt and it certainly reflected the realities of the battles ahead of them.
The French 1914 experience of changing organization but unable to change tactics at the same time points to a problem of fielding new equipment and training on it, any change in organization or tactics having to run into each other in peace or cantonment … or be executed in the presence or near presence of the enemy with unnecessary costs including sub-par results.
The solution is the unit is sequestered for say 45-90 days under temporary command of a General greater in rank than the next higher echelon, to hold off all conflicts and training disruptions for the period necessary. This needs to happen outside of long range enemy artillery, for example the Iskander missile.
We need a Supremo (British term BTW) to handle changes, with one star greater than the next echelon commander.
The Supremo takes the unit out for x ~ of days of training on tactics and equipment and his higher rank prevents the normal interference that disrupts units from concentrating on… war.
We already do this with service schools, unfortunately the training gained there can’t be passed on to the units because reasons. The reasons outweigh the need to pass on skills.
This means; Train the trainer fails, and the units must be trained as if in schools . My inspiration is actually being loaned out to not just an ordinary General- but an allied monarch. More below-
Now as to the allied monarchy, well there’s several aren’t there, so we’ll let that remain vague.
The point is our quite American unit was asked to train their soldiers and units for several months, with a particular focus on bringing their NCOs more in line with our style of NCO as opposed to other nations where the officers perform many NCO duties. This requires focus and.. a lack of the normal gyrations we have been known to engage in.
Here is where a Monarch as the Supreme Commander of the armed forces is most effective, for you see one might trouble a General or Defense Secretary with the cirque d'horaire, one does not lightly disturb one’s Monarch.
I end in a note of gratitude to our host for an opportunity to express myself in less earthly terms, and to google translate for cirque d'horaire, a term that I do hope leaks its way into our discourse, the French language is so useful for expressing certain things…
I wonder how the opening battles of WWI would have gone if the revised Règlement de manœuvre d’infanterie you reference had been adopted on 20 April 1910 instead of 20 April 1914? It might not have changed everything as the Battle of the Frontiers was a right disaster for the French, but it could not have hurt and it certainly reflected the realities of the battles ahead of them.
“thereby replacing fire and movement by platoons with fire and movement within platoons.”
So did this fire and movement within platoons catch on when they got a breather? Say …1915?
I've been looking for an answer to that question for a long time. Stay tuned!
Ah.
The French 1914 experience of changing organization but unable to change tactics at the same time points to a problem of fielding new equipment and training on it, any change in organization or tactics having to run into each other in peace or cantonment … or be executed in the presence or near presence of the enemy with unnecessary costs including sub-par results.
I propose a solution below.
The solution is the unit is sequestered for say 45-90 days under temporary command of a General greater in rank than the next higher echelon, to hold off all conflicts and training disruptions for the period necessary. This needs to happen outside of long range enemy artillery, for example the Iskander missile.
We need a Supremo (British term BTW) to handle changes, with one star greater than the next echelon commander.
The Supremo takes the unit out for x ~ of days of training on tactics and equipment and his higher rank prevents the normal interference that disrupts units from concentrating on… war.
We already do this with service schools, unfortunately the training gained there can’t be passed on to the units because reasons. The reasons outweigh the need to pass on skills.
This means; Train the trainer fails, and the units must be trained as if in schools . My inspiration is actually being loaned out to not just an ordinary General- but an allied monarch. More below-
Now as to the allied monarchy, well there’s several aren’t there, so we’ll let that remain vague.
The point is our quite American unit was asked to train their soldiers and units for several months, with a particular focus on bringing their NCOs more in line with our style of NCO as opposed to other nations where the officers perform many NCO duties. This requires focus and.. a lack of the normal gyrations we have been known to engage in.
Here is where a Monarch as the Supreme Commander of the armed forces is most effective, for you see one might trouble a General or Defense Secretary with the cirque d'horaire, one does not lightly disturb one’s Monarch.
El Supremo?
Smiling triangle.
Yes… the nice 😊 Supremo has been texted…
Whoh ! What happened to El Supremo ?
I need that emoji lol
With velcro …
I end in a note of gratitude to our host for an opportunity to express myself in less earthly terms, and to google translate for cirque d'horaire, a term that I do hope leaks its way into our discourse, the French language is so useful for expressing certain things…