History 361

How Great Generals Win

The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror

4 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. Monday, Wednesday

Spring 2006

Instructor: Bevin Alexander Office: History Department

bevin@direcway.com

Website: BevinAlexander.com

Office phone: 434-395-2224 Pearl Agee Office hours: appointment

Course description: The course will concentrate on the thirteen essential maxims of warfare. It will analyze how great commanders have exploited the weapons, technology, and military and social organizations available to them, and how they have applied universal principles to achieve victory. The course will examine how success or failure is usually dependent upon the quality of the military leadership that a people or a nation is able to command. Special emphasis on the revolution in warfare due to changed technology and to terrorist attacks.

Course objectives: To give the student a working knowledge of 1) the rules of war; 2) the principles of strategy, or the application of military means to fulfill the ends of a nation's or a coalition's policy, and 3) the essentials of tactics, or achieving a decision in actual combat. To show that the maxims of war do not change but that their application depends upon the weapons, technology and social structure of a people, nation or civilization at any given point in history. To demonstrate that the course of history is not preordained by the strengths or weaknesses of the contending sides, but that a single great commander can influence decisions and the fate of nations by artfully applying the rules of war.

Class schedule:

Week 1

January 18 Introduction to strategy and tactics. Lecture

on the revolution in warfare caused by new

technology and terrorist attacks, implications

of the September 11, 2001, strikes on the World

Trade Center and Pentagon, and on the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. One meeting this week.

Week 2

January 23 Striking at enemy weakness. Discussion of

avoiding enemy strength entirely by refusing to

fight pitched battles. Lectures on how Scotland

kept independence from England by adopting policy

of defense; how French won first phase of the

Hundred Years War by avoiding battle, striking at

English supplies, ambushes; Spanish partisan war

against Napoleon; Boer War 1899-1902, whereby the

Boers succeeded against the British army by going

over to guerrilla operations; Lawrence of Arabia

forcing Turks in World War I to wage “war against

a vapor,” strikes against the railway supplying

Turkish army; guerrilla tactics developed by Mao

Zedong in China; the strategy of the Vietnam War;

the guerrilla wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 2003;

new theories of battle that have grown out of

unconventional war because modern weapons are so

powerful and accurate, the concept of “swarming

tactics” or eliminating main lines of resistance

and other traditional methods of warfare.

Week 3

January 30 Defend then attack. Process of weakening an

enemy by forcing him to attack, then going

over to the attack oneself. Lectures on

Belisarius and Narses of Byzantium, battle of

Crécy 1346, Second Manassas 1862, Gettysburg

1863.

Week 4

February 6 Holding one place, striking another. Lectures on

delivering blow in one place while holding

remainder of enemy in another. Lectures on Lech

river battle Bavaria 1632, Jena and Auerstädt

1806, Kum river battle Korea 1950.

Week 5

February 13 Feigned retreat. Deceptive withdrawal to pull

enemy in pursuit, then attack. Lectures on

battle methods of steppe warriors of Eurasia 900

B.C. onward, Manzikert in Anatolia 1071, Mongols

At Cracow, Liegnitz, Budapest 1241.

Week 6

February 20 Gaining the central position. Maneuvering so

one’s force lands between two smaller forces in

order to destroy one before having to turn to the

other. Lectures on Stonewall Jackson’s

Shenandoah Valley Campaign 1862, Bonaparte’s

Italian campaign 1796-1797, Waterloo 1815, German

General Rommel in Tunisia 1943.

Week 7

February 27 Employing a superior weapon. Developing or using

a weapon the enemy does not use or can’t adopt.

Lectures on Adrianople 378 A.D. between Goths and

Romans, Hastings 1066 William the Conqueror,

Breitenfeld 1631 and Lützen 1632 by Gustavus

Adolphus, German General Rommel’s use of 88mm

antiaircraft gun as main tank killer in the War

in the Desert 1941-1942.

Week 8

March 6 A stake in the enemy’s heart. Striking at the

vitals of an enemy’s ability to resist. Lectures

on Winfield Scott’s march from Veracruz to Mexico

City in 1847 in the Mexican War, the German

Stalingrad-Caucasus campaign 1942, the disastrous

campaign to seize North Korea fall of 1950.

Week 9

March 13 Spring break March 13-17, no classes

Week 10

March 20 Blocking the enemy’s retreat. Cutting off means

of withdrawal and supply of an army. Lectures on

battle of Teutoburger Wald 9 A.D., Saratoga 1777

and Yorktown 1781 in American Revolution,

Chancellorsville 1863 Civil War.

Week 11

March 27 Landing an overwhelming blow. Concentrating

force on one part of the enemy, while preventing

other enemy from interfering. Lectures on

Leuctra 371 B.C. Epaminondas v. Spartans,

Rossbach and Leuthen 1757 Frederick the Great,

Trafalgar 1805 Admiral Nelson and destruction of

French sea power.

Week 12

April 3 Decisive stroke at a weak spot. Finding or

creating a weak point in the enemy position, then

striking through it. Lectures on Alexander the

Great’s first three major battles Granicus 334

B.C., Issus 333 B.C., and Arbela 331 B.C.,

Austerlitz 1805 Napoleon.

Week 13

April 10 Caldron battles. Enveloping an enemy by blocking

him in the front, then closing in on his sides

and rear. Lectures on Cannae 216 B.C. Hannibal,

the German Schlieffen plan to defeat France 1914,

battles of the Marne and Tannenberg 1914 to show

failure and success of the principle, German

invasion of the Soviet Union 1941, designed as a

series of caldron battles.

Week 14

April 17 Uproar east, attack west. Advice of Sun Tzu 400

B.C. Feinting in one direction, striking in

another. Lectures on Hydaspes river India 326

B.C. Alexander the Great, battle of Quebec 1759

James Wolfe and seizure of Canada, German

invasion of the west 1940.

Week 15

April 24 Maneuvers on the rear. Strategic strikes on the

enemy rear to establish a barrier on his line of

communications. Lectures on Marengo 1800 and

opening act of Austerlitz campaign of 1805 (Ulm),

the island-hopping strategy of the Americans in

war in the Pacific 1944-1945 against Japan,

invasion of Inchon September 1950 Korea.

Grading: Each student must write two papers taken from the topics covered in the weekly lectures above. Each student must submit to the instructor his choice of topic for the first paper by February 6 or sooner. The first paper will be due March 6, 2006. Topic for the second paper must be submitted to the instructor by March 20. The second paper will be due on April 24, 2006. The two papers together will constitute one-half of the course grade. No excuse for failure to meet these deadlines, unless sickness, or other unavoidable cause intervenes. Failure to present a paper or unexcused delay will result in an automatic F. There will be a final examination covering the entire semester, also counting one-half. No makeup for this exam unless a student proves a valid reason for absence.

Attendance policy: Since the material for each segment will be covered in prepared lectures, students will find it to their advantage to attend all classes. Otherwise they will miss out on material on which they will be tested. Any student who misses 30 percent or more of the classes will automatically receive an F grade, unless the instructor is provided evidence showing that excessive absences were because of ill health or other legitimate causes beyond the student's control.

Honor Code: Students are expected to live by Longwood University Honor Code. All work for class must be pledged.

Text for course: Bevin Alexander, How Wars Are Won (New York: Crown, 2002). Other material will be provided in class. Sources in bibliography of Wars.