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Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945

Planning and preparation: alliances, staff work and the limits of planning

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on coalitions against France, the Crimean allies, Entente coordination in 1918, the Central Powers, staff work for mass armies, command and control, the Prussian short-service system, logistics and why plans failed.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What weakened the allied conduct of the Crimean War?

Key term

Why were the coalitions against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France so often ineffective?

Numbers

What weakened the Central Powers' planning as an alliance?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why were the coalitions against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France so often ineffective?

    Model answer

    The allies had different aims, distrusted each other and rarely coordinated their operations, which allowed the French to defeat them one at a time.

  2. 2

    What weakened the allied conduct of the Crimean War?

    Model answer

    Command was divided between the British, French and Ottoman forces, there was no agreed strategy for winning quickly, and the logistic arrangements broke down.

  3. 3

    How did the Entente powers improve the coordination of their war effort in 1918?

    Model answer

    After the German breakthrough in March 1918 they agreed at Doullens to place their armies under a single coordinating commander, Foch, which allowed reserves to be moved wherever the crisis was greatest.

  4. 4

    What weakened the Central Powers' planning as an alliance?

    Model answer

    Germany and Austria-Hungary did not coordinate their war plans before 1914, and Austro-Hungarian failures increasingly forced Germany to prop up its partner with troops and direction.

  5. 5

    Why did the size of nineteenth-century armies force changes in staff work?

    Model answer

    Verbal orders and personal supervision were no longer possible, so armies needed written orders, accurate maps, standard procedures and trained staff officers to move and feed hundreds of thousands of men.

  6. 6

    Explain the central command and control problem of a First World War attack.

    Model answer

    Once the infantry left the trenches the telephone line ended, so commanders relied on runners, pigeons and flares and could not influence the battle for hours.

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