Battle Studies

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Battle Studies is a book by Ardant du Picq, a colonel in the French Army who was killed in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The work was never completed, but Du Picq had written many chapters completely and left sufficient notes behind to complete the book.

Contents

Themes of the book

The theme of the book, according to Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch, is that "moral force" is the most powerful element in the strength of armies and the preponderating influence in the outcome of battles. In general form, he states:

The goal of the army

Combat is the object, the cause of being, and the supreme manifestation of an army. Every measure that does not keep combat as the object of the army is fatal. All the resources accumulated in time of peace, all the training, and all the strategic calculations must have the goal of combat.

Man in combat

Du Picq's work attempts to deal with the principles of warfare as an empirical study, based on case studies of battles.

Battle Studies became a key textbook in the French Army's École de Guerre in the years leading to World War I.

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References

  1. Du Picq, Ardant, Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battle. In Roots of Strategy, Book 2. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1987. pg 65.