Reviews for Military Effectiveness, Vol. 1

The average rating for Military Effectiveness, Vol. 1 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-24 00:00:00 Natasha Sutton This collection of scholarly essays on the military effectiveness of the major combatants in both world wars - volume I covering the First World War - has become something of a classic, and it doesn't disappoint. The editors defined that effectiveness in terms of four levels of activity: political, strategic, operational and tactical, and each of the nations' armies and navies are examined thereby. The Great War was a unique military phenomenon in that the most brilliant strategic and operations combinations almost inevitably foundered on the rock of the supremacy of the tactical defense. Since it is almost impossible to find a modern work on the military history of the 20th century that does not have this series in its bibliography, one must conclude that these books are authoritative. Some of the best minds in military history were recruited to write here as well. The only drawback is that the countries invoked (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy and the United States) had to have been actively involved in both world wars, so unfortunately several important combatants in those wars didn't make the cut, such as Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and China, for example. But other than that, anyone with an interest in how various military and associated organizations functioned (or didn't) in the first half of the 20th century cannot afford to give this series a miss.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-01-30 00:00:00 Miguel Trejo This third and last volume of his military history presents few commanders for whom Fuller seems to have much regard. Robert E Lee cops a shellacking in the opening chapters, and about the only person involved with WW2 who he admits showed any strategic judgement is Stalin (though I guess doing otherwise would have undermined flow of his "Beware the Communist Menace!" sermon). There are some interesting insights here, but you will have to wade through some very outdated attitudes and assumptions to find them.