You already know that logistics is hard, it should not be, but it just is. The key components to supply and movement consist of receive, store, issue, and move. It should be that simple. Bottom line: it just is not that simple. There are too many moveable parts where the synergy of the operation could provide a scenario where the combined requirements needed to sustain a theater are greater than the sum of their individual effects or capabilities. . This book outlines some of these logistical components and their doctrinal relationship to the operation, as well as provides some new ideas. . The chapters are formatted in a fashion that offer the reader the doctrinal concept that the operation or function is based on, and then presents new theories on how to better execute the logistical function or capability as it relates to the operation. . The goal is to discuss those hard logistical topics and their conception to improve the general knowledge and understanding on "why it happens", and "how we can improve the outcome".
This book is designed to provide the reader with a back to the basics look at tactical logistics, focusing on a more formal and detailed understanding of proper field and staff procedures, processes, relationships, and development that encompass the before, during, and after combat operations. So sit back and enjoy for Ive done all the long and exhausting research for you and placed all the pertinent information in one book rather than multiple documents. The book is written with a series of lessons formatted in a fashion that offers the reader a doctrinal concept in developing a tactical standing operating procedure (TACSOP) and its components, but with a logistical flavor providing detailed instructions to standardize a complicated routine and recurring field and staff procedures that can enhance the overall logistical functions and capability of every mission.
This book outlines some logistical maneuvers and their doctrinal relationship to the operation, and provides some new ideas. The lessons are formatted in a fashion that offers the reader the doctrinal concept that the operation or function is based on, and then presents new theories on how to better execute the logistical function or capability as it relates to tactical operations. Even though combat maneuver may be more exciting to discuss, logistical maneuver is just as effective in its results to maintain combat power. And isnt that the real key to successfully sustaining any decisive action operationsto maintain combat power across the battlefield? And the only way to achieve this effect is to understand the different ways to execute logistical maneuver to support the mission. As I have pointed out on more than one occasion, you cannot have one without the other.
Mariners made a major - but neglected - contribution to England's warfare in the middle ages. Here their role is examined anew, showing their importance. During the fourteenth century England was scarred by famine, plague and warfare. Through such disasters, however, emerged great feats of human endurance. Not only did the English population recover from starvation and disease butthousands of the kingdom's subjects went on to defeat the Scots and the French in several notable battles. Victories such as Halidon Hill, Neville's Cross, Crécy and Poitiers not only helped to recover the pride of the English chivalrous class but also secured the reputation of Edward III and the Black Prince. Yet what has been underemphasized in this historical narrative is the role played by men of more humble origins, none more so than the medievalmariner. This is unfortunate because during the fourteenth century the manpower and ships provided by the English merchant fleet underpinned every military expedition. The aim of this book is to address this gap. Its fresh approach to the sources allows the enormous contribution of the English merchant fleet to the wars conducted by Edward II and Edward III to be revealed; the author also explores the complex administrative process of raising a fleet andprovides career profiles for many mariners, examining the familial relationships that existed in port communities and the shipping resources of English ports. Craig L. Lambert is Research Assistant at the University ofHull.
Why did Napoleon succeed in 1805 but fail in 1812? Were the railways vital to Prussia's victory over France in 1870? Was the famous Schlieffen Plan militarily sound? Could the European half of World War II have been ended in 1944? These are only a few of the questions that form the subject-matter of this meticulously researched, lively book. Drawing on a very wide range of unpublished and previously unexploited sources, Martin van Creveld examines the 'nuts and bolts' of war: namely, those formidable problems of movement and supply, transportation and administration, so often mentioned - but rarely explored - by the vast majority of books on military history. In doing so he casts his net far and wide, from Gustavus Adolphus to Rommel, from Marlborough to Patton, subjecting the operations of each to a thorough analysis from a fresh and unusual point of view. The result is a fascinating book that has something new to say about virtually every one of the most important campaigns waged in Europe during the last two centuries.
You already know that logistics is hard, it should not be, but it just is. The key components to supply and movement consist of receive, store, issue, and move. It should be that simple. Bottom line: it just is not that simple. There are too many moveable parts where the synergy of the operation could provide a scenario where the combined requirements needed to sustain a theater are greater than the sum of their individual effects or capabilities. . This book outlines some of these logistical components and their doctrinal relationship to the operation, as well as provides some new ideas. . The chapters are formatted in a fashion that offer the reader the doctrinal concept that the operation or function is based on, and then presents new theories on how to better execute the logistical function or capability as it relates to the operation. . The goal is to discuss those hard logistical topics and their conception to improve the general knowledge and understanding on "why it happens," and "how we can improve the outcome."
"The most important work on Alexander the Great to appear in a long time. Neither scholarship nor semi-fictional biography will ever be the same again. . . .Engels at last uses all the archaeological work done in Asia in the past generation and makes it accessible. ... Careful analyses of terrain, climate, and supply requirements are throughout combined in a masterly fashion to help account for Alexander's strategic decision in the light of the options open to him ... The chief merit of this splendid book is perhaps the way in which it brings an ancient army to life, as it really was and moved: the hours it took for simple operations of washing and cooking and feeding animals; the train of noncombatants moving with the army. ... this is a book that will set the reader thinking. There are not many books on Alexander the Great that do."--New York Review of Books.
Winner of the Eugene Feit Award in Civil War Studies by the New York Military Affairs Symposium During the Civil War, neither the Union nor the Confederate army could have operated without effective transportation systems. Moving men, supplies, and equipment required coordination on a massive scale, and Earl J. Hess’s Civil War Logistics offers the first comprehensive analysis of this vital process. Utilizing an enormous array of reports, dispatches, and personal accounts by quartermasters involved in transporting war materials, Hess reveals how each conveyance system operated as well as the degree to which both armies accomplished their logistical goals. In a society just realizing the benefits of modern travel technology, both sides of the conflict faced challenges in maintaining national and regional lines of transportation. Union and Confederate quartermasters used riverboats, steamers, coastal shipping, railroads, wagon trains, pack trains, cattle herds, and their soldiers in the long and complicated chain that supported the military operations of their forces. Soldiers in blue and gray alike tried to destroy the transportation facilities of their enemy, firing on river boats and dismantling rails to disrupt opposing supply lines while defending their own means of transport. According to Hess, Union logistical efforts proved far more successful than Confederate attempts to move and supply its fighting forces, due mainly to the North’s superior administrative management and willingness to seize transportation resources when needed. As the war went on, the Union’s protean system grew in complexity, size, and efficiency, while that of the Confederates steadily declined in size and effectiveness until it hardly met the needs of its army. Indeed, Hess concludes that in its use of all types of military transportation, the Federal government far surpassed its opponent and thus laid the foundation for Union victory in the Civil War.
Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this entertaining romp through the secret military history of practically everything you buy at the supermarket. In a nondescript Boston suburb, in a handful of low buildings buffered by trees and a lake, a group of men and women spend their days researching, testing, tasting, and producing the foods that form the bedrock of the American diet. If you stumbled into the facility, you might think the technicians dressed in lab coats and the shiny kitchen equipment belonged to one of the giant food conglomerates responsible for your favorite brand of frozen pizza or microwavable breakfast burritos. So you’d be surprised to learn that you’ve just entered the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, ground zero for the processed food industry. Ever since Napoleon, armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport food for battle. As part of this quest, although most people don’t realize it, the U.S. military spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, instant coffee, and much more. But there’s been an insidious mission creep: because the military enlisted industry—huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever—to help develop and manufacture food for soldiers on the front line, over the years combat rations, or the key technologies used in engineering them, have ended up dominating grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases. TV dinners, the cheese powder in snack foods, cling wrap . . . The list is almost endless. Now food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo scrutinizes the world of processed food and its long relationship with the military—unveiling the twists, turns, successes, failures, and products that have found their way from the armed forces’ and contractors’ laboratories into our kitchens. In developing these rations, the army was looking for some of the very same qualities as we do in our hectic, fast-paced twenty-first-century lives: portability, ease of preparation, extended shelf life at room temperature, affordability, and appeal to even the least adventurous eaters. In other words, the military has us chowing down like special ops. What is the effect of such a diet, eaten—as it is by soldiers and most consumers—day in and day out, year after year? We don’t really know. We’re the guinea pigs in a giant public health experiment, one in which science and technology, at the beck and call of the military, have taken over our kitchens.
Th is book is designed to provide the reader with a diverse look at the di?erent logistical processes that make up the Science and Art of Logistics, focusing on old as well as new doctrine and theorys, and how to implement new ideas, procedures, and technology that can enhance the overall logistical capability of any operations. WARNING: Th e last three Chapters are conceptual and not under development, but I sure wish I would have had this functionality when I was in a uniform! Other Publications: The Process of Military Distribution Management; A Guide to Assist Military and Civilian Logisticians in Linking Commodities and Movement Logistics in Support of Disaster Relief Military Logistics Made Easy; Concept, Theory, and Execution
