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PREFACE
The Lectures in this volume are based upon the official Text-books issued by the Imperial General Staff and upon the works of recognised authorities on the Art of Warfare.
The aim of the Author is to examine the Principles which underlie the Art of Warfare, and to provide illustrations from Military History of the successes which have attended knowledge and intelligent application of Text-book Principles, and of the disasters which have accompanied ignorance or neglect of the teaching provided by the Text-books. The "dry bones" of the official publications are clothed with materials which may be supplemented at will by the student of Military History, and the Lectures may thus, it is hoped, be of assistance to Infantry Officers, either in the course of their own studies, or as a convenient groundwork upon which the instruction of others may be based.
The scope of the work may be gathered from the Table of Contents and from the Index, and it will be seen that the general Principles underlying the Art of Warfare are included in the scheme, while advantage has been taken of the revision of the official Text-books to incorporate in the Lectures the lessons gained from the experience of leaders in the Great War.
Upwards of 230 citations are made of "Battle incidents," and, as an example of the Author's methods, attention may perhaps be directed to the reinforcement of the Text-book Principle of co-operation and mutual support by the citation of an instance, on the grand {viii} scale, by Army Corps (during the First Battle of the Marne), and on the minor scale, by tanks, bombers, aircraft, and riflemen (during the First Battle of the Somme); to the successful application of established Principles by the Advanced Guard Commander at Nachod, and to the neglect of those Principles by "Jeb" Stuart at Evelington Heights, and by the Prussian Advanced Guard Commanders in 1870; and to the value of Musketry Training by instancing the successes achieved at the Heights of Abraham, at Bunker Hill, Coruña, and at Fredericksburg, which were repeated during the Retreat from Mons and at the Second Battle of the Somme.
While every effort has been made to achieve accuracy in citation, and to avoid ambiguity or error in the enunciation of Principles, the Author will be very grateful if his readers will notify to him (at the address of the Publishers) any inaccuracies or omissions which may come under their notice.
LONDON,
March, 1922.
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