WHY
GENERALS FAIL
Psychologist and
former army officer Norman Dixon writes that the very qualities that get a
military man to the top are often also the ones that contribute to defeat in
battle. Generals lose battles and/or campaigns not because of stupidity, rather
because of the way they have been socialized in the peace-time army. The
syndrome (a group or pattern of symptoms) of incompetence follows a well
established pattern. It involves :
* Ignoring or misusing
military intelligence.
* Underestimating the
enemy.
* Clinging to
traditions.
* Indecision and
procrastination, (i.e., fear of failure).
* A preference for the
straightforward frontal assault.
* A tendency toward
blaming and scapegoating.
* A tendency to
conceal unpleasant facts from oneself and others.
The fog of war
contributes to the complexity of the battlefield situation, as well.
Lord Raglan, commander
of the British army in the
At the Battle Methuen
A few days
later, not having learnt from his mistakes, he attempted the same kind of
attack against the Magersfontein hills. He bombarded the deserted slopes
causing only three (3) Boer casualties, then the following day, he executed a
frontal assault which was bloodily repulsed.
In the same war,
General Featherstonehaugh rode up and down in front of his men exhorting them
to greater efforts. The Austro-Prussian and the Franco-Prussian Wars had
established that a mounted man could survive no more than a few minutes in the
firing line. Old Feathers was shot off his horse.
At Colenso, General
Hart gave his brigade thirty minutes of parade-ground drill, then he marched
them in close formation, (to keep them in hand), across the open toward the Boer
riflemen.He lost 1,138 men and 10 guns to the Boers 6 dead and 21 wounded.
 |
| Botha at Colenso |
Nevertheless, the
British learnt something from the Boers which they put into practice against
Kaiser Wilhelm's troops, in the Great War. The German units caught manoeuvring
in the open in close order by British riflemen thought they were under
machine-gun fire, and suffered high casualties.
Note that the Germans
had had observers on the Boer side during the Second Boer War.
