English

DTIC ADA442230: The Strategy of Liddell Hart and the Campaign for Vicksburg

Armies of World War I fought battles using Jominian strategy and tactics. Frontal assaults which massed one army against the other and maintenance of lines of communication, preferably interior, were the choice of most generals. They believed the larger, better equipped army would always emerge victorious providing they were able to find or make and then attack a weak point in the enemy's line. However, the age of the rifle and rifled artillery had extended the distance between opposing armies and reduced frontal assaults to trench warfare and wars of attrition or even worse, led to massive casualties to both armies when one side left its trench to approach the other. This costly and ineffective strategy had been in use since the Napoleonic Wars. Leading with your chin was not efficient in boxing nor battle but it was supported by the writings of Clausewitz and Jomini and etched in the minds of military students and leaders for over a century. Were there not examples enough during the nineteenth century which demonstrated the cost of frontal assault? More important, were there examples of what would work better in this new age of warfare? There were some campaigns and battles where

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