What's really needed is a section in the Gutenberg project that includes ALL public domain publications on military stuff. All. Period.
Sort it by
Land / Sea /Aerospace / general,
with language subdivisions,
followed by era subdivisions (such as pre-blackpowder era, blackpowder era, early smokeless powder era, WWI till End of Cold War era, post-Cold War)
OK, until that happens maybe you can suggest which classic German military works are available in translated edition and what each covers and what specific lessons can be learned? Perhaps on a book of the month basis?Originally Posted by Fuchs
Most big ones are available in English. Pick up a copy of any old Eike Middeldorf (author) book you find (the best one should be called "handbook of tactics"). I saw an ad in one of his later books that claimed an earlier book of his was translated in 3 languages, so there's almost certainly some English book of his around, and I'd spend 100+ bucks on it if I hadn't have it already. German copies are easily found, didn't ever find an English one in google. maybe library networks know more.
must have:
The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West by Karl-heinz Frieser and John T. Greenwood (Hardcover - Nov 10, 2005)
the classic "TF":
On the German Art of War: Truppenfhrung: German Army Manual for Unit Command in World War II by Bruce Condell and David T. Zabecki (Paperback - Dec 17, 2008)
this one might fit your interests:
Gefechtsfeld Mitteleuropa: by Franz Uhle-Wettler ~1980. Not sure if it was ever translated, though.
should have:
The German Infantry Handbook 1939-1945: by Alex Buchner (Hardcover - Apr 1, 1991) It's not meant to provide general lessons, but there are still plenty. A newer English edition may exist, for a newer German edition exists.
depending on taste:
Panzer Tactics: German Small-Unit Armor Tactics in World War II by Wolfgang Schneider (Paperback - Nov 30, 2005) About life and skills of German armour crews in WW2, very different from other armour-related books.
That's all German stuff from my 'favourite' stack of books that's available in English.
Maybe sometime some wealthy army will spend something on translating "Kriegsnah ausbilden", but don't hold your breath on this. Google will probably translate it earlier.
This one perhaps?
Battlefield Central Europe ;: Danger of overreliance on technology by the armed forces / by BG Franz Uhle-Wettler ; translation approved by Franz Uhle-Wettler
Will keep an eye out for it.Bundeswehr General Uhle-Wettler’s paper discusses the problems of overreliance on mechanized forces at the expense of foot-mobile infantry. Wehrmacht armored units during WWII were supported by large numbers of marching infantry units. Who will support the modern Bundeswehr when it moves to a completely mechanized force? Who will protect the flanks and rear? Who will fight in built-up areas and execute those difficult infantry-specific tasks?
Yes, it's a bit dated and some of his ideas were a bit more extreme than necessary (such as using agricultural tractors to pull towed howitzers in reserve brigades), but he's really good at convincing one that infantry was being neglected.
The Bundeswehr accepted the book, promoted him once more - but ultimately it only shrugged its shoulders, knowing that a good infantry coverage of the Central European frontier would require more reservists and budget than politicians would allow. Cold War talks were about missiles, aircraft, helicopters, tanks, artillery ordnance - not about the ability to block forest roads with infantry.
Luckily, the post-WW2 Red Army structure was rather weak on actually available infantry as well - a consequence of bleeding white in 41-45.
Interestingly, the Bundeswehr neglected its motorised rifle (Jger) units even more during the 90's and 00's (drawing down to almost only mountain, mechanised and airborne infantry), trying to keep a decent quantity of highly visible big equipment (AFVs). Eventually, it had to admit that more infantry is needed. The draft for the new army structure ("Heer 2011") has a most strange mix in some brigades:
1x HQ Coy
1x Armour Bn
1x Mech Infantry Bn
1x Motorised Rifle Bn
1x Recce Bn
1x Armoured Engineer Bn
1x Supply Bn
Looks like a one-size-should-fit-all-rotation-schedules structure.
The entire brigade has only a single 120 mm mortar platoon (which is an infinite improvement over the earlier structure), that's how much organic indirect fires are being neglected. The designation of this as armour brigade instead of mech infantry brigade is strange as well, but the earlier Heeresstruktur wasn't consistent in this regard either.
I'd know more about their reasoning if some phone was manned at the centre for transformation of the Bundeswehr for a change. I kept calling them for a while, but there's never an answer. Even the PR officer is apparently rarely if ever at his desk - even during early afternoon on work days.
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