"source of strength" is way too prone for misinterpretation.Originally Posted by William F. Owen
The Schwerpunkt is mostly about concentrating your power (and leave only token, "economy of force" units elsewhere) in order to have the maximum probability of success in battle. Only militarily weak powers can have a different Schwerpunkt (and this is then a political/strategic concept, nto a military one anymore), such as a capital or something related to allies (more about that later).
"source of strength" and "from which the enemy draws his strength ..." push a reader into a wrong direction.
The industry or the population or culture and such are never a Schwerpunkt in the CvC sense.
A Heer that moved in separate corps and unites for a battle like Sedan or Königgratz forms a Schwerpunkt in order to be strong enough for a monumental battle.
A Heer than focuses almost all its armor divisions at the decisive location of the Camaping and adds maximum CAS once the surprise is lost - such a Heer forms a Schwerpunkt in order to succeed with its most critical task of a campaign.
CvC IV/11
"Die Hauptschlacht ist daher als der konzentrierte Krieg, als der Schwerpunkt des ganzen Krieges oder Feldzuges anzusehen."
my translation:
"The main battle is therefore to be seen as the concentrated war, as the Schwerpunkt of the whole war of campaign."
CvC IV/11
"Darum ist eine beabsichtigte Hauptschlacht nach ihren Verhältnissen mehr oder weniger, in gewissen Graden aber immer als der vorläufige Mittel- und Schwerpunkt des ganzen Systems zu betrachten."
My translation:
"Therefore is an intentional main battle by its conditions more or less, in a certain degree always to be considered as the preliminary central point or Schwerpunkt of the whole system."
CvC VI/25:
"Der Wirkungskreis eines Sieges wird natürlich abhängen von der Größe des Sieges und diese von der Masse der besiegten Truppen. Also gegen den Teil, wo die meisten feindlichen Streitkräfte beisammen sind, wird derjenige Stoß geschehen können, dessen glückliche Wirkungen am weitesten reichen; und wir werden dieses Erfolges am meisten gewiß sein, je größer die Masse der eigenen Streitkräfte ist, die wir zu diesem Stoß verwenden. (...)
So wie sich der Schwerpunkt immer da findet, wo die meiste Masse beisammen ist, und wie jeder Stoß gegen den Schwerpunkt der Last am wirksamsten ist, wie ferner der stärkste Stoß mit dem Schwerpunkt der Kraft erhalten wird, so ist es auch im Kriege. "
This is the most important part, so I'll translate it despite the length. The grammar is terrible because his grammar was complicated and I'll stick close to the original.
"The range or the effect of a victory will naturally depend on the size of the victory and this one on the quantity of defeated troops. Therefore against that part where the most enemy forces are united will be the thrust possible whose advantageous effects will have the greatest consequences (or: longest range); and we will be most sure about this success, the greater the mass of the own forces, that we employ for this thrust. (...)
Just as the Schwerpunkt (physics' center of gravity) is to be found where the most mass is close to each other, and just as every thrust against the Schwerpunkt of a load the most effective, and as furthermore the strongest thrust with the Schwerpunkt of a force is being maintained, so is it as well in war."
CVC VII/4 (a book that was especially unfinished)
"Alexander, Gustav Adolf, Karl XII., Friedrich der Große hatten ihren Schwerpunkt in ihrem Heer, wäre dies zertrümmert worden, so würden sie ihre Rolle schlecht ausgespielt haben; bei Staaten, die durch innere Parteiungen zerrissen sind, liegt er meistens in der Hauptstadt; bei kleinen Staaten, die sich an mächtige stützen, liegt er im Heer dieser Bundesgenossen; bei Bündnissen liegt er in der Einheit des Interesses; bei Volksbewaffnung in der Person der Hauptführer und in der öffentlichen Meinung."
"Alexander, Gustav Adolf, Karl VII, Frederick the great had their Schwerpunkt in their army, would this have been shattered, so they would have played their role poorly; with states that are disunited by internal partisanship, lies it most often in the capital; with small states that rest on powerful ones, does it lie in the army of their ally; in alliances does it lie in the unity of interests, in (improvised militias) in the person of the main leader and in the public opinion."
The extension of the Schwerpunkt idea into the realm of policy seems to have been a later idea than the original thought about campaigning (operational art). He also struggled a bit with wars against multiple enemies that had not one big army, bur several ones.
It's probably the root for the re-interpretation in American literature.
Ironically, his understanding of Newtonian physics was very crappy.
And yes, his original writing is this complicated and chaotic.
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