The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 2

one’s intention and not the other way round. In World War I, this kind of warfare was

restricted to just those units capable of exercising speed and flexibility – Stosstruppen

(shock troops). Relatively small infiltration units consisting of specialists (e.g. flamethrower

operators) ventured into no-mans-land and tried to flush out pockets of resistance or

assaulted narrow sections of trenches. These tactics, although successful, were too few and

applied too late to turn the tide of the war. In World War II, the Stosstruppen were

transformed to Kampfgruppen (combat formations) as ad-hoc combined formations of tanks,

infantry and artillery.

La Bataille Conduit versus Bewegungskrieg

This chapter provides a contrasting analysis between two distinctively different military

doctrines – La Bataille Conduit (Methodical Battle) and Bewegungskrieg (Manoeuvre

Warfare). Indeed, it shows that both parties, the French and their Allies as well the Germans

focussed their efforts on strategising, on preparing themselves for the next war. What is

different is that the Allies rested on the laurels acquired in winning the last war, whereas the

Germans put forward visionary strategies that allowed them to avoid fighting a battle on

terms dictated by their enemy.

The French were to advance in carefully planned steps, pausing after each one to allow the

artillery to move forwards. The pace was to be set by the speed of the infantry and the time

needed to prepare for the next artillery bombardment (Doughty 1985).The Germans, in

contrast, relied on a doctrine of anticipatory military opportunism; they were bold and novel

in appreciating of the need to avoid a war of attrition, opting instead for their best and only

chance of bringing the most powerful army in the world to its knees. They attempted to

defeat it by incapacitating its decision-making capacity through shock and disruption: by

surprise.

The Challenge: ‘Surprising’ an enemy

Planning a campaign in the west, the Germans were faced with a range of unexpected

challenges, among them how to break through the Maginot Line. And yet, pressure was

mounting to commence a campaign, as the French and British were in the process of

reorganising their forces, and America had been stepping up its deliveries to France. The

USSR was also perceived as offering an imminent threat of a strike against Germany, after

Poland was divided up between both countries. Poland capitulated on 27 th September 1939. On 10 th October, Hitler produced a

Memorandum that outlined a campaign against France, and ordered the German High

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