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) . I. (Ii.~· I '<.. ~ILITARY REVIE~ MILITARY REVIEW VOLUME XXXVI JANUARY 1957 NUMBER 10 CONTENTS The Great Illusions of 1939............. _............................................. _ .... _............. _ 3 Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, British Army, Retired Noah Phelps, Father of G2 ......................................................... _................... 12 Colonel Benedict M_ Holden, Jr., United States Army, Retired Military Necessity, Humanity, and Military Government ....................... _ 15 Major Ned A. Holsten, Military Police Corps The Most Potent Force.................. ' ...................................................... _.... __ ... _ 22 Brigadier General Charles E. Hoy, United States Army . Gl-Your Personal Staff Officer..................................................... _..................,. 26 Colonel John A. Gavin, Infantry 50,000 Neutral Soldiers-Austria's Rearmament Problem .........................._ 29 Doctor Milton Colvin The Contact Layer............. ...... ............... ......................................... 36 Lieutenant Colonel Raymond G. Jones, Artillery Why Civil Works in the Corps of Engineers? ........................................_ 40 Lieutenant Colonel Harold J. St. Clair, Corps of Engineers How,Much Constitutes a Trend? ... ............... ......................_. ............... 47 Lieutenant Colonel Anthony L. Wermuth, Infantry A New Look for the· Soviet Ground Forces ........................... ........................ 54 Lieutenant Colonel Irving Heymont, Infantry MILITARY NOTES AROUND THE WORLD........ ............ 63 FOREIGN MILITARY DIGESTS . ..... .................... .... ..................__ 73 The Organization of Future Armies....... ............................................... _ 73 Swiss National Defense in the Atomic Age....................... ... 85 The Soviet Union and Afghanistan .................. ,.................._... _... _ 88 The Armored Arm in the !ltomic Age ......... ............... _... _ ....... _.... _... __ 90 The Importance of Patrols in Nuclear Warfare . .............................'_' 95 The Base for Airborne Penetration .......... ........................._..... _............. 97 Nuclear Arms and the Serviceman._... .................. .. .... ... ..... 99 War and the Art of War.. ..._..................................................... 102 A~r OP in Atomic Warfare .............. _.. ..........................._..........._ ...... 108 BOOKS OF INTEREST TO THE MILITARY READER_._.._................ '_"" 111 This copy is not for sale. It is intended for more than one reader. PLEASE READ IT AND PASS IT ALONG Military Review MISSION. The MILITARY REVIEW dissemi , nates modern military thought and EDITOR IN CHIEF current Army doctrine concerning LT COL WILLIAM D. McDOWELL, INF command and staff procedures of MANAGING EDITOR the division and higher echelons LT COL RODGER R. BANKSON, INF and provides a forum for articles which stimulate military thinking.' SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR Authors, civilian and military alike, LT COL ROBERT M. WALKER, ARTY are encouraged to submit articles SPANISH-AMERICAN EDITION which will assist in the fulfillment Editor of this mission. MAJ GILBERTO GONzALEz-JULIA, INF Assistant Editors MAJ TOMAS H. GUFFAIN, INF CAPT ORLANDO ORTIZ MORENO, INF POLICY. BRAZILIAN EDITION Editor Unless otherwise indicated, the LT COL HERMANN BERGQVIST, ARTY views expressed in the original arti Assistant Editor cles in this magazine are those of the LT COL T ACITO T. G. DE OLIVEIRA, INF individual authors and not neces sarily precisely those of the Depart Administrative Officer MAJ LINO BONUCCI, QMC ment of the Army or the Command and General Staff College. Production Officer Editor. MAJ JAMES A. TRENT, INF The printing of this publication has been approved by the Director of the Bureau, of the Budget 19 June 1956. MILITARY REVIEW-Published monthly by the Command and General Stal! College at Fort Leavenworth. Kansas. In the Englillh. Spanish. and PortuJrU""e lanJrUBlIes. Entered as lecond-claB8 matter AUJrUat 31. 1984• • t the Post Oftlce at Fort Leavenworth, KansaB, under the Act of March S, 1879. Subocrlptlon rates: $3.50 (US currency) • year In the United States, United State. military post oftlceo, and those countri"" which are membero of the Pan-American Postal Union (Including Spain): $'.50 a year In all other countrleo. The Great Illusions of 1939 Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, British Army, Retired ON Friday, 1 September 1939, the Ger illusion which prevailed, among many peo man armies invaded Poland. On Sunday, ple, when the plunge was taken. For no 3 September, the British Government de reasonable calculation of the re$pective clared war on Germany, in fulfillment of forces and resources provided any ground the guarantee it had earlier given to Po for believing that the war could be "swift land. Six hours later the French Govern and short," or even for hoping that ment, more reluctantly, followed the France and Great Britain alone would be British lead. able to overcome Germany-however long In making his fateful announcement the the war continued. Even mOI;e green was 70-year old Prime Minister, Mr. Cham the assumption that "we now know the berlain, finished by saying: "I trust I may worst." live to see the day when Hitlerism has been destroyed and ~ a liberated Europh Too Much Misplaced Faith has been reestablished." Within less than There were illusions about the strength a month Poland had been overrun. Within of Poland. Lord Halifax-who as Foreign nine months most of Western Europe had Minister ought to have been well in been submerged by the spreading flood of formed-believed that Poland was of more war. And although Hitler was ultimately military value than Russia. and preferred overthrown, a liberated Europe has not to secure her as an ally. That was what been reestablished. Ten years later half he conveyed to the American Ambassador of Europe is enclosed within the "Iron on 24 March, a few days before the sud Curiain." den decision to offer our guarantee to Po land. In July the Inspector General of the" "We Now Know the Worst" Forces, General Ironside, visited the In welcoming the declaration of war, Polish Army and on his return gave what Mr. Greenwood, speaking for the Opposi Mr. Churchill calls a "mo~t favorable" re tion, expressed his relief that "the intol port on it. erable agony of suspense from which all There were still greater illusions about of us have suffered is over. We now know the French Army. Mr. Churchill himself the worst." From the volume of cheers it described it as "the most perfectly trained was clear that he was expressing the gen and faithful mobile force in Europe." eral feeling of the House. He ended: Each of those descriptive terms was far "May the war be swift and short, and from the truth, especially the last. In his may the peace which follows stand proudly memoirs he admits that when he saw the forever on the shattered ruin of an evil Commander in Chief of the French field name." armies a few days before the war, and, Such a conclusion revealed the state of saw the comparative figures of French' The 1939 downfall of both France and Poland was not the result 01 a power imbalance, but can be directly attributed to reliance on out· . moded concepts in the face of Germany's effective armor employment 4 MILITAlty ltEVIE:W JkNUARY 1957 and German strength, be was so favorably accept Hitler's demands, it is clear ••• impressed as to say: "But you are the that they will in all probability be forced masters." to yield far more territory than he is de manding. It is also clear that France and Lloyd George Dissented Britain can do nothing effective to prevent This may help to explain the eagerness this los8 of territory, while very doubtful with which he joined in pressing the whether even the utmost military efforts French to hasten to declare war in sup on their part would avail to regain it• ••• port of Poland-the French Ambassador's The most probable result of prolonged ef dispatch said: "One of the most excited forts to restore Poland's territory would was Mr. Winston Churchill; bursts of his be the mutual exhaustion of all the war voice made the telephone vibrate." In ring countries, with the consequent estab March, too, Mr. Churchill had declared lishment of Russia's supremacy in Europe. himself "in the most complete agreement A more immediate danger to France with the Prime Minister" over the offer to and Britain is that the demonstration of guarantee Poland. Along with almost all their incapacity to preserve Poland will Great Britain's political leaders he had cause them such a loss of prestige in the dwelt on its value as a means of preserv eyes of the world that other aggressive ing peace. Mr. Lloyd George had been minded countries, now sitting on the fence, alone in pointing out its impracticability may be encouraged to join Germany in and danger-upon which The Times the combined effort to conquer and divide scoffed at his speech as "an outburst of up the British and French Empires. unconsolable pessimism from Mr. Lloyd George who now seems to inhabit an odd Strategically Unsound and remote world of his own." A further note emphasized the possibil: These illusions about the prospect were ity that before long the French would lose not shared, however, by a number of the heart and drop out of the war, and that more sober soldiers and modern-minded Great Britain would thus be left to con students of war, particularly the small tinue the war alone. "In sum, by