IV. The Modern Model of the Battlefield Tour and Staff Ride: Post‐1815 Prussian and German Traditions

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Notes

1 Gen. Rudolf M. Hofmann, War Games MS # P‐094. trans. P. Luetzkendorf (Historical Division, Headquarters, US Army, Europe 1952).

2 Generaloberst Franz Halder, ‘Forward’ in Hofmann, War Games MS # P‐094.

3 G. Venturini, Beschreibung und Regeln eines neuen Kriegs‐Spiels (Schleswig 1798) and War Games MS # P‐094, p.xiv.

4 David Fraser, Frederick the Great (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press 2000) pp.44, 48–50; Nicholas Henderson, Prince Eugen of Savoy (London: Weidenfeld 1964).

5 R.R. Palmer, ‘Frederick the Great, Guibert, Bülow: From Dynastic to National War’ in Peter Paret (ed.) Makers of Modern Strategy (Princeton UP 1986) pp.95–9; Fraser, Frederick (note 4) pp.126–9. Frederick’s operational doctrine is summarised clearly and concisely in W. von Bremen, Friedrich der Grosse (Berlin: B. Behr’s 1905). See also Dennis Showalter, The Wars of Frederick the Great (London: Longman 1995).

6 Karl Demeter, The German Officer‐Corps in Society and State, 1650–1945. trans. Angus Malcolm (New York: Praeger 1965) p.67.

7 Steven E. Clemente, For King and Kaiser! The Making of the Prussian Army Officer, 1860–1914 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1992) pp.3–4; Fraser, Frederick (note 4), pp.129–30. See also the Military Instruction from the late King of Prussia to his Generals trans. (from French, orig. 1747) Major T.W. Forster (Sherborne and London: William Cruttwell (printer) and Egerton (seller) 1797).

8 William O. Shanahan, Prussian Military Reforms 1786–1813 (New York: AMS Press 1966) pp.72–3.

9 David Nash, The Prussian Army 1801–1815 (London: Almark Publishing 1972) p.5; and Shanahan, Prussian Military Reforms (note 8) p.232.

10 Hajo Holborn, ‘The Prusso‐German School: Moltke and the Rise of the General Staff’ in Paret, Makers of Modern Strategy (Princeton UP 1986) pp.281–4; and Nash, Prussian Army (note 9) pp.5–14.

11 Daniel Hughes, The King’s Finest: A Social and Bureaucratic Profile of Prussia’s General Officers, 1871–1914 (Westport, CT: Praeger 1987) p.83; and Louis A. von Scharfenort, Die königlich preussische Kriegsakademie (Berlin: E.S. Mittler 1910) pp.2–4. The General or Universal War School (Allgemeine Kriegsschule) opened in Berlin on 15 Oct. 1810. In 1859 the Army renamed the school the War Academy (Kriegsakademie).

12 Von Scharfenort, Kriegsakademie (note 11), Chapter 1; and Hughes, The King’s Finest (note 11) pp.83–5.

13 Holborn, ‘The Prusso‐German School’(note 10) p.283.

14 Hughes (note 11) p.85; and Bernard Schwertfeger, Die grossen Erzieher des Heeres (Potsdam: Rütten und Loening 1936) pp.32, 47.

15 The Role of Military History in Officer Education in Great Britain, the United States of America and Germany in the Twentieth Century. Report commissioned by Ministry of Defence, UK, and produced by Dept. of War Studies, King’s College London (Oct. 1983–1984) pp.247–9, 252; Friedrich A. J. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus meinem Leben nach gleichzeitigen Aufzeichnungen und im Lichte der Erinnerugh (Berlin 1927); Herbert Rosinski, The German Army (London: Hogarth Press 1939) p.165; Holborn (note 10) p.290; and Hughes (note 11) p.85.

16 Moltke was Chief of the General Staff from 1857 to 1888; Schlieffen, Moltke’s eventual successor, occupied the post from 1891 to 1906. Together, their views dominated Prusso‐German military thought from the mid‐nineteenth century to World War I and beyond. See Gunther E. Rothenberg, ‘Moltke, Schlieffen, and the Doctrine of Strategic Envelopment’, in Paret (note 5) pp.296–325. See also Arden Bucholz, Moltke, Schlieffen and Prussian War Planning (Providence, RI: Berg 1991) and Robert T. Foley, ‘Schlieffen’s Last Kriegsspiel’, War Studies Journal 3/2 (Summer 1998) pp.117–33 and ibid. 4/1 (Summer 1999) pp.97–115.

17 Hansgeorg Model, Der deutsche Generalstabsoffizier: Seine Auswahl und Ausbildung in Reichswehr, Wehrmacht und Bundeswehr (Frankfurt am Main: Bernard & Graefe 1968).

18 The Role of Military History in Officer Education (note 15) pp.247–55.

19 Gen. Hans von Seeckt was commander‐in‐chief of the Reichswehr from 1920 to 1926. His successor, Gen. Wilhelm Heye held the post from Oct. 1926 to Oct. 1930. See James S. Corum, The Roots of Blitzkrieg: Hans von Seeckt and German Military Reforms (Lawrence : UP of Kansas 1992) and Martin Kitchen, ‘The Army and the Weimar Republic’ in idem, A Military History of Germany (Secaucus, NJ: The Citadel Press 1975) pp.235–80.

20 Prof. Dr Hans W. Ziegler, ‘Wehrerziehung im neuen Geiste’ (nd., 53 pages) Special Collections, McMaster University Archives, pp.8–10; for a scholarly account of the development of the warrior spirit in the Prusso‐German Army see Antulio J. Echevarria II, ‘On the Brink of the Abyss: The Warrior Identity and German Military Thought before the Great War’, War & Society 13/2 (Oct. 1995) pp.23–40.

21 Organised sport in the armed forces of the Third Reich emphasised physical exertion for the obvious corollary benefits of improved fitness and increased physical toughness. Competitive sports were discouraged as they might lead to ‘the development of useless competitive emotions’ and divisive rivalries. Commanders, therefore, were urged to promote sporting activities that imbued their subordinates with ‘the feeling of co‐operation’ so that either on the playing field or the battlefield German soldiers would find it natural to ‘go out of their way to assist one another.’ See German Military Training 1940 a pamphlet produced by the Military Intelligence Service, War Department (Washington DC: 17 Sept. 1942) reprinted by the Military Library Research Service (Derbyshire 2004) pp.19–21, 27, 40–1.

22 The Role of Military History (note 15), pp.257–66.

23 Karl Wilhelm Thilo, ‘Generalstabsreisen’, Wehrkunde 13 (1964) pp.516–20.

24 David Spires, Image and Reality. The Making of the German Officer, 1921–1933 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1984) pp.41–2. For a description of the Reichswehr training programme see Wiegand Schmidt‐Richberg, Die Generalstäbe in Deutschland 1871–1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags‐Anstalt 1962) pp.55–72.

25 Spires, German Officer (note 24) p.43.

26 Ibid. pp.43–4;

27 Ibid. pp.103–4; The Role of Military History (note 15) p.292.

28 Spires (note 24) pp.34–5.

29 The Role of Military History (note 15) pp.284–8.