Surrendering the initiative? C2 on the digitized battlefield

Military Review, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Jim Dunivan

Rapid decisionmaking on an uncertain battlefield is essential to "seizing opportunity without hesitation," Sun Tzu's idea of courage. This courage gains the commander victory and the "ability to conquer doubts and create great plans." (13) This idea of courage closely resembles Clausewitz's idea of courage, which was to accept responsibility for his position, mission, and men in cutting through the friction and fog of war to make quick decisions and take decisive action to achieve military objectives successfully. (14) The fog of war, which is the only certainty in war, makes it imperative for commanders and leaders to be empowered to make timely, appropriate decisions despite having only uncertain information.

Another influential Prussian who understood the necessity of rapid decisionmaking in the fog of war was Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke. Von Moltke is perhaps most responsible for shaping modern German military thought. (15) He developed the concept of maneuvering against the enemy in one continuous sequence, combining mobilization, concentration, movement, and fighting while seizing the initiative from the outset. The intent of this maneuver was to trap one's enemy in a partial or complete envelopment to destroy him in a great, decisive battle of annihilation or encirclement. To control the execution of this maneuver, Von Moltke introduced mission tactics, or auftragstaktik, to allow decentralized initiative within an overall strategic design. (16)

Aware that "no plan of operation survives the first collision with the main enemy body," Von Moltke refrained from issuing any but the most essential orders. (17) He had no desire to paralyze the fighting spirit of the army or to cripple subordinate commanders' spontaneity of action and reaction. Von Moltke readily condoned deviations from his plan of operations if the subordinate commander could gain important tactical successes, for, as he expressed it, "In the case of tactical victory, strategy submits." (18) Realizing that not even the best plan of operations could anticipate the circumstances of war, Von Moltke empowered commanders to make tactical decisions on the spot. In his view, a dogmatic enforcement of the plan of operations was a deadly sin, and he took great care to encourage initiative on the part of all commanders, high and low. Much in contrast to the vaunted Prussian discipline, he placed a premium on his officers' independent judgment. (19)

Directive Control in the 21st-Century German Army

Although traditional German deference to higher authority and preference for well-defined procedures are the antitheses of directive control, the German Army made it work to a degree unparalleled by any other army in history. While armies are reflections of the societies in which they are drawn, the post-World War I German Army was successful in retaining and reinforcing aspects of German society that contributed most to successful combat operations while dampening or eliminating those features that tended to hinder effective operations. (20)