Month June 2019

The Prokhorovka book is still discounted

Even though The Battle of Prokhorovka book has been released, it is still available through Amazon.com for $28.43: Buy from Amazon. The list price on the hardcover is $44.95. I have no idea for how long Amazon.com will continue to sell it at this price.

The chapters for the book are listed in this post:

The Battle of Prokhorovka – 16 chapters

What else is in the book (besides words) is listed in this post:

The Battle of Prokhorovka — what does the book consist of

The reason why I wrote this book is discussed in this post:

The Battle of Prokhorovka book — why?

The book can obtained from Stackpole at: Stackpole Books

Or from Amazon.com at: Buy from Amazon

Dupuy on D-Day

A LCVP from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) at the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944. American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division. During the initial landing, two-thirds of Company E became casualties.

Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy by U.S., British, Canadian and other allied forces. The American who announced the D-Day invasion on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 was the journalist, soldier and historian, R. Ernest Dupuy (1887-1975) of New York. The announcement from SHAEF can be heard here (Dupuy’s announcements starts at 2:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xk9GaV0NE

Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.

He was the father of Trevor N. Dupuy, the founder of The Dupuy Institute.

R. Ernest Dupuy’s obituary is here: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/26/archives/col-r-ernest-dupuy-88-dead-publicist-and-military-historian.html

 

P.S. https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2011/05/r-ernest-dupuy-1887-1975.html

 

The Probable Characteristics of the Next War

Lt. Col. George S. Patton, Jr.: I Tank Battalion, Renault tank, summer 1918

Noted the following paper “The Probable Characteristics of the Next War and the Organizations, Tactics, and Equipment Necessary to Meet Them.” It was dated February 29, 1932 and done at the U.S. Army War College. The author was Major G. S. Patton, Jr. Cavalry: Patton Paper, 1932

A relevant article from The Strategy Bridge: Reviewing 21st Century Patton: Strategic Insights for the Modern Era

The Battles of the Donetsk Airport (May 2014 – Jan 2015)

Just published by The Institute of Land Warfare is a paper by Major Amos C. Fox, U.S. Army called “Cyborgs at Little Stalingrad”: A Brief History of the Battle of the Donetsk Airport. It is not long (16 pages) and definitely worth a read.

A few highlights:

  1. “Contrary to conventional narratives on the primacy and high-mindedness of maneuver warfare and the crippling effects of electronic and cyber warfare, positional warfare and sieges are the zeitgeist of contemporary war.” (page 12)
  2. “Positional battles and sieges have also commanded the counter-Islamic State campaigns in Iraq, Syria and the Philippines.” (page 12)
  3. “These battles are important because they remind students of war that rugged, land-centric combat arms warfare has not been thrown into the dustbin of history but is instead alive and well.” (page 16)
  4. He does document the downing of 10 Ukrainian aircraft in May – July 2014 (pages 11-12), but leaves out any reference to the downing of Flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 over Eastern Ukraine, killing 298 civilians.

To quote from the last paragraph of my book, War by Numbers (page 328):

The post-Cold War world appears to be world of many small conflicts…the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 proved that the United States is not immune to attack and that we do have to remain engaged with the rest of the world to some degree. Certainly U.S. armed forces will be part of that engagement, and they will be called upon to fight a range of wars, from drone strikes and special operations to full-scale guerrilla wars and conventional campaigns. All must be addressed and planned for.