1900-1914: The nature of industrial war

Jean de Bloch

‘The Transvaal War: Its lessons in regard to Militarism and Army Re-organisation’ RUSI Journal (Vol. 45, No. 2, 1901)

jean de blochJean de Bloch was a successful banker and Russian railroad financier of Polish origin. Bloch pioneered study of the wider implications of modern industrialised warfare on politics, strategy, operations and tactics. He argued industrialised societies would have to mobilise populations in their millions and that wars would become a matter of economic attrition. Bloch emphasised that new arms technology had rendered existing tactics obsolete: decisive victories were now impossible and he visualised future wars of entrenchment. His six volume La Guerre Future published in 1898 was translated into English as Is War Now Impossible? Recent research suggests Bloch’s message was not well received by the military elites. He himself declared in 1901: ‘The steadfastness with which the military caste clings to the memory of a state of things which has already died is pathetic and honourable. Unfortunately it is also costly and dangerous’. This article was delivered as a lecture by Jean de Bloch at RUSI in 1901 and assessed the lessons of the South African War, which continued still to be fought, in the context of a future European conflict between the Great Powers. He argued that the South African campaign had underlined the superiority of the defensive at all levels. A civilian population’s resisting power had been exponentially strengthened by modern small arms. The war emphasised that the attacker will experience infinitely greater wear from both an economic and military point of view. At the tactical level, regulations and drill were proven to have not kept pace with technology developments that demanded greater initiative on the soldier’s part.

Colmar von der Goltz

von der goltz‘What can we learn from the Boer War?’ translated from 'Deutsche Revue', RUSI Journal (Vol. 46, No. 2, 1902)

RUSI Journal's publication of a translated version of this article which first appeared in Deutsche Revue in August 1902, is one of many examples of the journal's determination to draw upon international military theory. Von der Goltz was an established German military theorist who espoused the view that future war would be absolute in its effects. He provided the definition of modern war with the title of his best-selling book Das volk in Waffen (‘nation in arms’). ‘All moral energy will be gathered for a life and death struggle, the whole sum of the intelligence residing in nations will be employed for their mutual destruction’, he declared in this work. During the First World War he served as a senior officer in the Turkish army and directed operations against the British in Mesopotamia before his death in April 1916. In this article von der Goltz seeks to answer how a population the size of Munich or Cologne was able to maintain a war for three years against the ‘first power in the world’. Increased firepower was obviously important defensive tactical advantage on the battlefield, but these lessons were not new in 1900. Rather, strong traits of patriotism and nationalism in the Boer republics enabled a small population to withstand the pressures of modern war – a lesson that in von der Goltz's view should be disseminated in Europe for future reference.

Winston Churchill

‘Some Impressions of the War in South Africa’ RUSI Journal (Vol. 45, No. 2, 1901)

Winston Churchill’s lecture at RUSI in 1901 provided an overview of his experiences in South Africa, and added his voice to the continental debate. He called for the British not to imitate their continental neighbours but instead to pursue a distinct military policy behind the shield of the Royal Navy.

Charles James Burke

‘Aeroplanes of today and their use in war’ RUSI Journal (Vol. 55, No. 1, 1911)

‘Aeroplane as an aid to the solution of existing strategical problems’ RUSI Journal (Vol. 55. No. 2, 1911)

C J BurkeCharles James Burke, a pioneer aviator, was one of the British army’s earliest theorists on airpower and the conduct of war. In his articles published in RUSI Journal he emphasised that the aeroplane’s importance lay ‘in the amount of good and accurate information it brings back’. He foresaw a future where troops and supplies would be transported by aeroplanes, but that for the present they should serves as the ‘eyes and ears’ of armies, as a means of rapid transmission of information, and as a weapon of offence and defence against their own kind. During 1914 he commanded No. 2 Wing RFC on the Western Front. Burke returned to the Royal Irish Regiment in 1917 and was killed whilst commanding 1st East Lancashire Regiment on 9 April 1917.



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