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    Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942
    Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942
    Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942
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    Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942

    By Captain Robert G. Walters

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    The U.S. Army’s current AirLand battle doctrine emphasizes maneuver warfare. Coupled to this revision in doctrine there has been no major update to U.S. command and control philosophy. The German Army of World War II also operated under a maneuver warfare doctrine. Its use of Auftragstaktik, a command and control philosophy, provides valuable lessons for our army from an historical perspective. This monograph presents an anatomy of the Chir River battles from a command and control, as opposed to a tactical, perspective. The brilliant defense of the German weak positions against a numerically superior Soviet attacker provides an interesting parallel to the current situation faced by NATO units in Central Europe. Auftragstaktik should serve well as a foundation from which the U.S. Army can develop a coherent command and control philosophy that complements the AirLand battle doctrine.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVerdun Press
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786250889
    Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942

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      Book preview

      Order Out Of Chaos - Captain Robert G. Walters

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1989 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      Order Out of Chaos: A Study of the Application of Auftragstaktik by the 11th Panzer Division During the Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942

      by

      Robert G. Walters Captain, United States Army

      B.S., United States Military Academy, 1978

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ABSTRACT 5

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6

      A NOTE ON SOURCES 7

      I. INTRODUCTION 8

      II. AUFTRAGSTAKTIK 10

      A.—HISTORY 10

      B.—THE CONCEPT 11

      C.—ORDERS 13

      D.—STAFFS 14

      E.—COMMANDER 15

      III. THE CHIR RIVER BATTLE 17

      A.—BACKGROUND 17

      1.—11th Panzer Division 17

      2.—Generalmajor Balck 18

      B.—6 DECEMBER 18

      C.—THE FIRST DAY-7 DECEMBER 19

      1.—General Overview 19

      2.—First Hand Accounts 20

      3.—Original Source Materials 21

      4.—Analysis 23

      D.—THE BATTLE OF SOVCHOS 79-8 DECEMBER. 25

      1.—General Overview 25

      2.—First Hand Accounts 25

      3.—Original Source Materials 26

      4.—Analysis 28

      E.—THE ATROCITY AT SOVCHOS 79 29

      F.—9 -17 DECEMBER 30

      1.—General Overview 30

      2.—First Hand Accounts 31

      3.—Original Source Materials 33

      4.—Analysis 34

      G.—18-19 DECEMBER 36

      1.—General Overview 36

      2.—First Hand Accounts 37

      3.—Original Source Materials 39

      4.—Analysis 43

      IV. TATSINSKAYA 45

      A.—GENERAL OVERVIEW 45

      B.—FIRST HAND ACCOUNT 45

      C.—ORIGINAL SOURCE MATERIAL 46

      D.—ANALYSIS 49

      V. CONCLUSION 50

      VI. APPLYING AUFTRAGSTAKTIK TO THE AIRLAND BATTLE 53

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 54

      BIBLIOGRAPHY 55

      ABSTRACT

      The U.S. Army’s current AirLand battle doctrine emphasizes maneuver warfare. Coupled to this revision in doctrine there has been no major update to U.S. command and control philosophy. The German Army of World War II also operated under a maneuver warfare doctrine. Its use of Auftragstaktik, a command and control philosophy, provides valuable lessons for our army from an historical perspective. This monograph presents an anatomy of the Chir River battles from a command and control, as opposed to a tactical, perspective. The brilliant defense of the German weak positions against a numerically superior Soviet attacker provides an interesting parallel to the current situation faced by NATO units in Central Europe. Auftragstaktik should serve well as a foundation from which the U.S. Army can develop a coherent command and control philosophy that complements the AirLand battle doctrine.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      This thesis allowed me to delve deeply into an area of study which interests me a great deal. Through fortuitous circumstances I was able to write a monograph which was not only fun and challenging, but hopefully also of some value to my profession.

      I would like to thank the many people who were vital in my endeavor. Colonel Russel H. S. Stolfi, USMCR, Ret., my thesis advisor, gave me much more of his time than I had a right to. His guidance gave focus to my disorganized ideas. It has been a singular pleasure to study under so eminent a warrior and historian.

      Dr. Donald Abenheim provided guidance in research as well as invaluable assistance in checking my translations. Dean Charles Burdick of San Jose State University provided the National Archives War Records which were the foundation of my research. His interest in my work was a real morale boost. Colonel David Glantz of the Soviet Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth provided very detailed maps on which I based mine.

      The maps, as well as the rest of this thesis, were prepared on a Macintosh computer. Major Thomas Brown provided vital assistance with the computer work. Mister Bill Thompson, of the Department of Operations Research, spent many hours computerizing the maps, for which I am grateful.

      Lastly, I would like to thank my curriculum, which allowed me to pursue a subject for study which is outside the envelope of topics normally pursued by its students.

      A NOTE ON SOURCES

      Many of the sources for this paper are not available in English. General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck’s Ordnung im Chaos, from which I have taken my title, presents his experiences as a soldier from a historically interesting viewpoint with a cunning wit that makes the autobiography very readable. It would be worthwhile for this valuable work to be translated into English. For those who read German, I recommend it highly.

      The war records, which were the backbone of my research, were taken from Germany at the end of the war and were photofilmed by the U.S. National Archives. Since then, the originals have been returned to the Federal Republic. Many of the documents are written records of radio messages, copied down by the radio operator as he received the call. They are often written in the old German script which, combined with the field conditions near Stalingrad in the winter of 1942 and the adrenaline of the moment, made them quite difficult to decipher. In most cases these records are quite complete and offer a vast sea of information for anyone willing to make the effort to use them. San Jose State University holds several hundred rolls of these microfilms, including the ones used in this thesis.

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