Paddy Griffith

Following the early battles of 1914 along the Marne and in the Ypres salient, World War I rapidly changed from a war of movement into one of attrition, with the opposing sides entrenching themselves in a line of fortified positions from the Flanders coastline to the Swiss border. This volume details the different styles of fortification used on the Western Front throughout the course of the war, from the early ditches of 1914 to the complicated systems of 1918. It explains the development of the 'defence in depth' German system and the British reaction to it, as well as illustrating the importance of the pre-war forts, particularly around Verdun.

Este innovador y bien documentado estudio sobre los vikingos establece los hechos que explican su emergencia y terrible reputación. Paddy Griffith somete a un incisivo examen el arte vikingo de la guerra: utiliza el pensamiento militar moderno para analizar sus tacticas, su pericia nautica, su movilidad, su estrategia, su concepto de la batalla, y el modo en que afrontaban la victoria y la derrota. Muestra como fueron capaces de fundar y mantener colonias en territorios hostiles y de enfrentarse a un enorme espectro de enemigos ? desde los francos y los anglosajones hasta los bulgaros del Volga y las tribus salvajes de Irlanda ? a lo largo de mas de trescientos años de batallas, conquistas militares y arriesgadas empresas.

The first edition (1981) took a critical look at the accepted wisdom of historians who interpreted battlefield events primarily by reference to firepower. It showed that Wellingtons infantry had won by their mobility rather than their musketry, that the bayonet did not become obsolete in the nineteenth century as is often claimed, and that the tank never supplanted the infantryman in the twentieth. A decade later, the author has been able to fill out many parts of his analysis and has extended it into the near future. The Napoleonic section includes an analysis of firepower and fortification, notably at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Additional discussions of the tactics of the American Civil War have been included. The evolution of small-unit tactics in the First World War is next considered, then the problem of making an armored breakthrough in the Second World War. Following is a discussion of the limitations of both the helicopter and firepower in Vietnam. The author points to some of the lessons learned by the U.S. military and the doctrine which resulted from that experience. Concluding is a glimpse at the strangely empty battlefield landscape that might be expected in any future high technology conflict.

Este innovador y bien documentado estudio sobre los vikingos establece los hechos que explican su emergencia y terrible reputación. Paddy Griffith somete a un incisivo examen el arte vikingo de la guerra: utiliza el pensamiento militar moderno para analizar sus tacticas, su pericia nautica, su movilidad, su estrategia, su concepto de la batalla, y el modo en que afrontaban la victoria y la derrota. Muestra como fueron capaces de fundar y mantener colonias en territorios hostiles y de enfrentarse a un enorme espectro de enemigos ? desde los francos y los anglosajones hasta los bulgaros del Volga y las tribus salvajes de Irlanda ? a lo largo de mas de trescientos años de batallas, conquistas militares y arriesgadas empresas.