Wrath of Achilles

220 Pages·2012·1.52 MB·English

Wrath of Achilles
Essays on Command in Battle
Editor
Colonel Richard D. Hooker, Jr.
Combat Studies Institute Press
US Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

The Wrath of Achilles
Essays on Command in Battle
Editor
Colonel Richard D. Hooker, Jr.
Combat Studies Institute Press
US Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wrath of Achilles: Essays on Command in Battle
edited by Richard D. Hooker, Jr.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-9837226-4-9
1. Command of troops--History--20th century. 2. Military history--20th cen-
tury. I. Hooker, Richard D.
UB210.W73 2011
355.3’30410904--dc23
2011039681
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The views expressed in this CSI Press publication are those of the
author(s) and not necessarily those of the Department of the Army,
or the Department of Defense. A full list of CSI Press publica-
tions, many of them available for downloading, can be found at:
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The seal of the Combat Studies Institute authenticates this document as an
official publication of the CSI. It is prohibited to use CSI’s official seal on any
republication of this material without the expressed written permission of the
Director of CSI.
Foreword
“Sing Goddess, of the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ son.” So begins
the Iliad, the greatest war epic in western culture. Since the dawn of
recorded history, the history of man has been nearly synonymous with
the history of war, a history that begins with Homer and continues today.
Then as now, war remains the ultimate arbiter of human affairs, an awful
and ever-present reminder of humanity’s failure to escape its wrathful
roots. Seemingly inescapable, war is supremely important because it is the
great destroyer of states and populations and whole cultures. And so the
question itself is crucial to the survival of the state. What matters most in
battle?
There are many answers. Population, industrial capacity,
economic power and the civil and military institutions of the state all play
their roles. But in the end, leadership may loom largest. War is perhaps
the most complicated and demanding of all human endeavors. Any
junior leader who has attempted to move a small unit over rough terrain
at night, avoiding enemy outposts, deploy into a combat formation and
assault a position knows intuitively that fog and friction are masters of
the battlefield. Multiply those problems a thousandfold and the challenges
of battle command at higher levels begin to take shape. Throw in the
emotional and psychic elements inherent in command during war and its
daunting demands now appear in high relief.
Battle command, particularly of higher formations, is
extraordinarily complex, like brain surgery under fire. In all of history,
only a relative few have mastered it. Others have been skilled practitioners,
though they may have lacked the spark of genius — what Napoleon called
“coup d’oeil” — that marks the great captains. Only the chosen few will
succeed. But they will make history.
This anthology was inspired by its authors and the Soldiers and
Marines they lead. They have succeeded brilliantly in translating the reality
of combat to a rising generation of combat leaders. Many were moved to
delve deeply into military history as the wellspring of their profession,
even as they fought America’s wars and half-wars and rose to command
themselves. Their experiences and reflections appear in this volume, a
collection of battle studies that focus on leadership success, and failure,
in the great campaigns of the last 150 years. From brigade- to army-group
level, these lessons in battle command speak across the decades to the key
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questions of success in war. The authors are soldier-scholars of the first
rank, some of whom are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan today and will
rise to lead our military in tomorrow’s battles and campaigns.
Here we see the Prussians, ably led by General von Alvensleben,
attack a force five times their size to win the decisive battle of Mars-la-Tours,
the “Death Ride” of the Prussian cavalry in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.
In the opening days of the Great War, we see German Corps Commander
Herman von Francois haughtily ignore the supreme command to make
Tannenberg, the “modern Cannae,” a reality against all odds. In command
of the largest mounted force in British history, Australian Lieutenant
General Sir Harry Chauvel takes Beersheba, the “key to Jerusalem,” in
1917 with a cavalry charge of bayonet wielding Aussies who must take
the “Wells of Abraham” or see their horses die of thirst. The 1939 Winter
War shows Finnish Colonel Hjalmer Siilasvou, calmly annihilating two
huge Russian divisions, juggling his slender forces with “Motti” tactics
north of the Arctic Circle. In 1940, British Lieutenant General Sir Richard
O’Connor, undaunted by the huge Italian forces facing him, conducts a
graduate seminar on deception and maneuver and scores one of the most
decisive and glittering victories in the long history of the Commonwealth.
In other chapters, U.S. General Manton Eddy takes the measure
of Rommel’s matchless troopers at Bizerte in 1943 as his 9th Division,
the “Old Reliables,” comes of age. An old adage holds that more can be
learned from defeat than from victory, as we see in Hitler’s disastrous
strategic fumbling during Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia in
1941, which threw away a succession of brilliant tactical and operational
victories and changed the course of world history for the next 50 years.
Surrounded at Chipyong-Ni in 1951, Colonel Paul L. Freeman’s 23rd
Regimental Combat Team fights an epic rear guard battle, saved at the last
moment by the timely intervention of crusty, fifty-year-old Colonel Marcel
Gustave Crombez, yellow scarf at his throat and the 5th Cavalry Regiment
at his back. Israeli General “Bren” Adan battles both the Egyptians and
Ariel Sharon to cross the Suez and end the war in the 1973 “War of
Atonement.” Brigadier Julian Thompson, 8,000 miles from home, leads
his Royal Marines and Paras on an epic “yomp” of 70 miles in winter to
attack and defeat the Argentines in the 1982 Falklands War, where 2 Para
commander “H” Jones wins a posthumous Victoria Cross at Goose Green.

These battle studies reinforce a principle less often heard today in
an age of high technology and “standoff precision strike.” Former Army
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Chief of Staff General Erik Shinseki, a badly wounded combat veteran,
would often begin sessions with officers by asking “can you fight?” Today,
in Afghanistan and Iraq, America is re-learning a central lesson: in the
end, wars are fought and won on the ground, in the mud, not by superior
machines but by tough Soldiers and Marines enabled by superior battle
command. That is not likely to change. America’s military must always
have a ready answer to the question “can you fight?” If this volume spurs
any young commander to pick up his Homer and read about war, the labors
of its authors will be amply rewarded.

Richard D. Hooker, Jr.
Colonel, USA (Retired)
Deputy Commandant and Dean
NATO Defense College, Rome, Italy
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Contents
Page
Foreword ..................................................................................................iii
Chapter 1
When Mars Smiled: The Field of Mars-la-Tour
by LTC Antulio J. Echevarria II, USA (Ret) .......................................1
Chapter 2
Ghosts of Tannenberg: German I Corps in East Prussia, August 1914
by COL David R. Gray, USA (Ret) ...................................................19
Chapter 3
Lighthorse! The Australians Take Beersheba
by COL Richard D. Hooker, Sr., USA (Ret) ......................................43
Chapter 4
White Death Coming: The Battle of Suomussalmi
by COL Richard D. Hooker, Jr., USA (Ret) ......................................63
Chapter 5
Stout Hearts and a Worthy Cause: The Battle of Sidi Barrani
by COL Arthur W. Connor, USA (Ret) ..............................................81
Chapter 6
The Road to Bizerte: The 9th Division Comes of Age
by COL Peter R. Mansoor, USA (Ret) .............................................111
Chapter 7
Hang On! We Are Coming! The Relief of Chipyong-Ni
by COL John F. Antal, USA (Ret) ...................................................131
Chapter 8
We Are Crossing Into Africa: Andan’s Division Triumphs in Sinai
by MG John W. Nicholson, Jr., USA ...............................................149
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Chapter 9
Setting Sun of Empire
by Col Steve Zotti, USMC ...............................................................177
Glossary ................................................................................................201
About the Editor and Authors ...............................................................205
Maps
1. Battle of Mars-la-Tour, France ............................................................5
2. East Prussia: Battle of Tannenberg, 1914 .........................................20
3. Beersheba: Third Battle of Gaza, 31 October 1917 ..........................51
4. Beersheba: British Positions, 6 November 1917 ..............................57
5. Suomussalmi: 30 November - 8 December 1939 .............................64
6. Suomussalmi: 11 December 1939 - 8 January 1940 .........................69
7. Sidi Barrani: Graziani’s Advance-Wavell’s Offensive ......................92
8. Bizerte: Taking the Bridgehead, 20 April - 13 May 1943 ................118
9. Bizerte: Operations, Phase II, 4-9 May 1943 ..................................124
10. Battle of Chipyong-Ni, 1951 ...........................................................145
11. Campaign in Sinai, 6-13 October 1973 ...........................................154
12. The Battle of Goose Green..............................................................185
13. Falklands Landings, 1982 ...............................................................188
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