Warfare. The Path From Napoleon to Modern Times Essay

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Land warfare has made leaps in bounds since this time some 200 years ago. 200 years to this day in 1807 it was Napoleon’s headway he pioneered the use of shock-tactics and combined-arms warfare in the gun-powder era. Despite his leading edge innovations then Napoleon would be lost in a modern battlefield. This paper aims to discuss the evolution of land warfare along the lines that Sun Tzu and Clausewitz taught.

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The standard infantry weapon of Napoleon’s troops and his enemies was the musket, this crude firearm while considerably more refined that what previous armies had to use it was still a ineffective by today’s standards. A musketeer could hope to hit his target as far as 70 yards. Any further and he was wasting ammunition. Today’s standard infantry firearm is the assault rifle two of the most common assault rifles the M-16 and the AK-47 have effective ranges of 600 yrds and 328 yrds respectively. Not only that but the magazine fed assault rifles are capable of automatic or semi-automatic fire spitting out their 30 round magazines in less time that it took a musket to discharge a single round. In the interim, rifles had increasingly better range to the point that World War I era rifles were comparable to Today’s sniper rifles in terms of accuracy.

Artillery has also come a long way. Napoleon used 10-pdr or 12-pdr, defined by the weight of the shell they fired, smoothbore cannons to fling solid cannon balls or sometimes grape-shot which contained lots of small cannon balls. Their range was at best one mile. Artillery for the rest of the century became rifled to increase accuracy but decreased killing power or became bigger. The real limitation of Artillery was that the gunners could only shoot at targets they could see keeping their range limited to around 1 – 2 miles. It was not until improved communications brought about by the radio allowed artillery spotters to relay targeting information to the gunners could artillery really begin to shine. The famous Big Berthe could shoot at Paris from German positions some 12.5 km away (Jäger). Schwerer Gustav the massive German artillery piece used in the siege of Sevastopol could fling 60 cm 7 ton projectiles up to 48 km. However more reasonable ranges of around 10 km – 30 km and calibers 105 mm – 203 mm are used by modern artillery (FAS.org) since mobility is a more important consideration on a modern battle-field. Modern artillery is also more accurate but even with modern computer assisted targeting only 50% of all rounds fired during a bombardment will actually impact close to the target. Modern Artillery can fire everything from regular explosive shells, armor piercing shells, artillery deployed mines, even chemical and nuclear shells.

Speaking of mobility, Sun Tzu always spoke of the importance of maneuvering to avoid the enemy’s strong points, seeking to assault his weak points as well as hiding your own. Artillery while tremendously lethal is also vulnerable to attack. Given the weight and size of the cannon, artillery batteries that did not have supporting infantry were helpless against an infantry attack. Their slow rate of fire meant that the enemy would be upon them long before they could reload. They also could not escape without abandoning their weapons. Napoleon made extensive use of Horse Artillery, these units had lighter guns and more horses to make them more mobile and the crews were trained to limber or unlimber their guns quickly so they could close with the enemy and escape when they were threatened. Horse Artillery was replaced by self-propelled guns in World War II. Modern self-propelled guns are almost as mobile as the tanks and mechanized infantry they were supposed to support.

Cavalry was a critical striking arm in Napoleon’s armies. Even in the earlier time period Cavalry was a decisive arm. Alexander the great and his father Philip of Macedon pioneered the combined arms tactics of using infantry to pin down the enemy while cavalry struck the vulnerable flank or rear (Delbrück). Only the most disciplined infantrymen would stand up to a full force cavalry charge. Even with the development of firearms infantry men were still reluctant to stand up to cavalry. For example at the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon charged his cavalry at the British lines fully expecting them to break. Ironically, after his cavalry failed to break the British infantry he sent in his famed Imperial Guards who also failed to break the British but when they floundered the British struck with their own cavalry breaking them and forever ending Napoleon’s imperial ambitions.

The Charge of the Light brigade at Crimea showed that against massed artillery and prepared positions Cavalry was no longer the decisive arm it once was. In World War I cavalry was next to useless in the western front because trenches, artillery and machineguns would massacre the cavalry. However, cavalry evolved instead of horse mounted troops cavalry became men inside Iron horses, Tanks.

The first tanks were crude in comparison to modern main battle tanks. But the basic principles are still the same, heavy armor to prevent most weapons from harming the tank, heavy weapons to decimate the enemy and high speed to prevent heavy anti-tank weapons from catching up and slaying these modern knights. Tanks are highly mobile assault platforms that are used to devastating effect. Like cavalry from the previous centuries, Tanks were used in the 20th century as a decisive breakthrough arm penetrating deep into enemy territory once the lines were broken. Tanks are the vital spearhead of an offensive army.

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The radio was another modern innovation. In the 19th century many battles were lost because the generals could not coordinate their movements. In the American Civil War the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia bested the Union Army of the Potomac many times because the larger Army of the Potomac was poorly coordinated and its commander learned of enemy movements too late to properly react. Such problems are less likely to happen today as radio communication allows tanks, infantry, and artillery to coordinate their movements. One example is in the recent American Invasion of Iraq where American forces made significant use of support elements like artillery and airpower to soften resistance before infantry moved-in to occupy the objectives.

Attack aircraft and helicopters added new dimensions of mobility as gave new aspects of fire-support to the modern battle field. Armored personnel carriers also made troops movements faster and safer.

One of Sun Tzu’s famous sayings is “Know thy enemy”. Napoleon relied on spies, scouts and his wits to know his foes. Many armies came to ruin because of inadequate intelligence. Today not only do modern armies make use of all the tools Napoleon and his contemporaries had but they also have aerial reconnaissance, Satellite intelligence and many other tools to ensure that their commanders will have the best possible idea of enemy dispositions.

Finally, logistics have evolved greatly from Napoleon’s time. His invasion of Russia came to ruin when he failed to adequately supply his men relying on non-existent forage to keep them fed. Hitler more than a century later watched his previously invincible Blitzkrieg grind to a halt when his own relatively modern logistics system failed to supply his armies. That an army marches on its stomach remains true, but an army must also have fuel, ammunitions and many other consumables making an army’s umbilical cord of supplies ever more important.

References

Jäger, Herbert German Artillery of World War One, The Crowood Press.

Federation of American Scientists at FAS.ORG.

DelbrĂĽck, Hans History of the Art of War.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Warfare. The Path From Napoleon to Modern Times'. 17 September.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Warfare. The Path From Napoleon to Modern Times." September 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/warfare-the-path-from-napoleon-to-modern-times/.

1. IvyPanda. "Warfare. The Path From Napoleon to Modern Times." September 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/warfare-the-path-from-napoleon-to-modern-times/.


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IvyPanda. "Warfare. The Path From Napoleon to Modern Times." September 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/warfare-the-path-from-napoleon-to-modern-times/.

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