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Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics
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Historical SummaryIn an unimportant battle, February 21, 1760, Major General Czetteritz, of the Prussian army, was captured. In examining his baggage a small volume entitled Military Instructions for the Generals was discovered. This was the instruction for the generals of Frederick the Great, which they were religiously bound to keep secret. It was duly prized and immediately translated into English, French, Polish and Russian. In it is synthesized the wisdom of the great soldier-king. Prussian discipline and Prussian military methods were adapted from it by all armies, for it contained the secrets of Frederick’s military success. Next to Clauswitz this small volume is the most influential work in founding the German military system of today. Most of the great Frederick’s observations apply to modern war. Understanding of German military success and the development of German methods is impossible without this book.
THE REASONS FOR MINUTE CAVALRY AND INFANTRY MANEUVERS.
You will have seen by what I have had occasion to delineate concerning war that promptness contributes 395 a great deal to success in marches and even more in battles. That is why our army is drilled in such a fashion that it acts faster than others. From drill comes these maneuvers which enable us to form in the twinkling of an eye, and from this that speed in all cavalry movements. And as for cavalry attack, I have considered it necessary to make it so fast and so close for more than one reason: (1) so that this large movement will carry the coward along with the brave man; (2) so that the cavalryman will not have time to reflect; (3) so that the power of our big horses and their speed will certainly overthrow whatever tries to resist them; and (4) to deprive the simple cavalryman of any influence in the decision of such a big affair.
So long as the line is contiguous and the squadrons well closed, it is almost impossible to come to hand-to-hand combat. The squadrons are unable to mix, since the enemy, being more open than we are and having more intervals, is unable to resist our shock. The force of our shock is double theirs, because they have many flanks and we only have one which the general fortifies to the extent possible, and finally because the fury of our attack disconcerts them. If they fire, they will take themselves to flight; if they attack at a slow trot, they are overthrown; if they wish to come at us with the same speed with which we attack, they come in confusion and we defeat them, as it were, in detail.
As for the rapid step of the infantry and the attack, rifle on the shoulder, I have some very good reasons to prefer it to any other. It is not the greater or lesser 396 number of dead that decides an action but the ground you gain. It is not fire but bearing which defeats the enemy. And because the decision is gained more quickly by always marching against the enemy than by amusing yourself firing, the sooner a battle is decided, the fewer men are lost in it. My system is based on the idea then that it is up to the infantry to expel the enemy and to push him, so to speak, off the field of battle, and that it is the cavalry which crowns the action and gives it brilliance by the number of prisoners that it is up to them to take.
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Chicago: Frederick, "Frederick the Great For His Generals: The Reasons For Minute Cavalry and Infantry Maneuvers," Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, ed. Thomas R. Phillips (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1940), Original Sources, accessed December 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=L3HI4DKDX16SZV3.
MLA: Frederick. "Frederick the Great For His Generals: The Reasons For Minute Cavalry and Infantry Maneuvers." Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, edited by Thomas R. Phillips, Harrisburg, PA, The Military Service Publishing Company, 1940, Original Sources. 21 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=L3HI4DKDX16SZV3.
Harvard: Frederick, 'Frederick the Great For His Generals: The Reasons For Minute Cavalry and Infantry Maneuvers' in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics. cited in 1940, Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, ed. , The Military Service Publishing Company, Harrisburg, PA. Original Sources, retrieved 21 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=L3HI4DKDX16SZV3.
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