A counterpart to this book is “Strange Victory” by Ernest May, a Harvard historian. One of its main points is that experts on the German side were often wrong as well, and for many of the same reasons.
“They (the Germans) relied on action and on improvisation. We, on the other hand, believed in doing nothing and in behaving as we always had behaved.”
Which is ironic, since France was a democracy and Germany a dictatorship. It's analogous to the way that the SU had different groups working to landing on the Moon, competing against each-other, while the US had just one group, directed from the top. It's counterintuitive.
Normally our reading list 🇺🇸 is topped by “This Kind Of War.”
As to solving the problem of mental agility; have a look at this column on the Networked state we’re building on the fly in America 🇺🇸 under the new administration. (Don’t let politics cloud analysis of friends or foes).
A counterpart to this book is “Strange Victory” by Ernest May, a Harvard historian. One of its main points is that experts on the German side were often wrong as well, and for many of the same reasons.
Germany invaded poland on it's own. There was no help from USSR.
Great review and analysis here.
“They (the Germans) relied on action and on improvisation. We, on the other hand, believed in doing nothing and in behaving as we always had behaved.”
Which is ironic, since France was a democracy and Germany a dictatorship. It's analogous to the way that the SU had different groups working to landing on the Moon, competing against each-other, while the US had just one group, directed from the top. It's counterintuitive.
This sounds like a great read - I'll have to pick it up.
So many nervous parallels to today.
Brilliant book and great review. You keyed on the exact same passages that I did! Thank you
Excellent book, read 2 years ago.
I’d put it at the top of reading lists.
Normally our reading list 🇺🇸 is topped by “This Kind Of War.”
As to solving the problem of mental agility; have a look at this column on the Networked state we’re building on the fly in America 🇺🇸 under the new administration. (Don’t let politics cloud analysis of friends or foes).
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnrobb/p/prototyping-the-network-state?r=91o16&utm_medium=ios
John Robb has been on the networks and war trail since at least 2003.
- his old Blog and Book Global Guerrillas is also most instructive.
This isn’t dated it’s prescient.
https://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2004/06/index.html