To summarize this month’s topic, we thought there was no better expert to reflect on lessons learned regarding the withdrawal than Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin. During World War II, von Mellenthin served in nearly every campaign the German Army fought. Von Mellenthin aptly discusses these campaigns in his superb book, Panzer Battles. Within Panzer Battles he describes at great length the German Army’s experience in planning and executing withdrawal operations.
Below you will find von Mellenthin’s thoughts on the withdrawal as shared in Panzer Battles. The vast majority of his recommendations are still extremely relevant today.
First thorough preparations must be made:
Roads, bridges, tracks, and river crossings must be systemically improved, assembly areas for troops chosen and camouflaged, and elaborate calculations made to determine what equipment and material can be moved, and what transport would be required.
All telephone lines must be removed – a vital precaution – and command posts and battle headquarters established in the rear before movement begins.
Demolitions, road blocks, and minefields must be designed to fit in with the plan for delaying actions on a specific line of resistance.
The gravest problem was the evacuation of civilians. A mass migration of this sort had not been foreseen by the German military authorities, and to cope with it a special organization had to be improvised.
The main thing was to canalize the movement, but to direct it off the main lines of withdrawal of tracks and routes.
Engineers and construction detachments must be sent to build bridges and roads to enable these masses to keep going in orderly fashion.
Supply and ration centers must be organized; medical and veterinary aid posts can not be forgotten.
The most important point is traffic control. As long as the civilians were near the front line, their moves took place by night. If day moves were inevitable, the refugees were taught to avoid bunching together and move in dispersed order as a protection against Russian aircraft.
In modern war, long-range planning and detailed preparations have to be made to help the civil population in their flight; otherwise the movements of troops will be brought to a complete standstill.
In modern war there is no such thing as a purely military withdrawal; the civil population has to be included in any plans for a retreat.
It is essential to keep secret the intention to withdraw, and to conceal the retreat as long as possible after it has started.
The real difficulty starts when the forward troops are drawn out of the line. They must get out immediately after dark, without making any noise, and their first bound should be as far back as possible. On no account should they form columns of more than battalion strength and each company must move as a separate unit.
The enemy must be denied the use of airfields or landing strips at all costs; at the same time they must remain operational for one’s own aircraft up to the very last moment and then be thoroughly blown up.
A withdrawal of this kind, harassed by the enemy and carried out in the greatest hurry, does not absolve commanders from their duty to maintain order and discipline. This depends partly on the example and leadership of the officers, and partly on their ability to keep their heads and improvise some sort of plan. Even in a hurried withdrawal there is much that can be done.
Engineers must guard and keep intact all bridges and prepare their demolition; construction units have to be handy to repair roads and tracks; recovery parties with tractors must be placed along the routes to keep vehicles and guns on the move or to pull casualties off the road.
Antiaircraft guns have to be stationed at crossroads and important bridges and defiles.
Fighter protection, if available, should be provided to cover the main arteries of the withdrawal.
Traffic control points should be numerous, and are indispensable at road crossings, at bridges, and in narrow lanes. There must be a number of officers, including high-ranking ones, in charge of control points. This is important, as the military police NCO is unable to wield enough authority in withdrawals of this kind.
So as to avoid chaos, the responsible commanders must issue clear orders, stating which units are to destroy their heavy weapons and vehicles.
His most critical comment regarding withdrawal and the German Supreme Command follows:
One does not have to look far or abroad to find experts for the most difficult military task: Withdrawal under fire. Confederate General William Joseph Hardee is an acknowledged expert. Here an excerpt gleaned from the Internet.
By the way: descendent of the Hardee family live in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Gerhardt Thamm
William Joseph Hardee
(Supplemental Biography From The Confederate Military History)
Lieutenant-General William J. Hardee was born in Camden county, Georgia, in November, 1815. After receiving a military education at West Point, he entered the army with the class of 1838, as a second-lieutenant of the Second cavalry, and was promoted first-lieutenant in 1839, and served in the Florida war of 1840. He was then sent to Europe by the government as a member of a military commission to study the organization of foreign armies, and in that capacity visited the military school at St. Maur, France.
In 1844 he was promoted captain, and in 1846 crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor. He behaved with gallantry in the Mexican war, was taken prisoner at Curricito, but exchanged, and for his valor at La Hoya was brevetted major. In 1853 his professional accomplishments caused his selection by the secretary of war, for the compilation of a system of infantry tactics, which was adopted in March, 1855. In the following year “Hardee’s Tactics” was introduced at West Point, where he was appointed commandant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 he resigned this commission and entered the Confederate service as colonel of cavalry March 16th, being assigned to command at Fort Morgan, Ala. On June 17th, he was promoted to brigadier-general, in which rank he organized a brigade of Arkansas regiments, and operated in that State until called with his men across the Mississippi, when he was commissioned major-general and put in command of a division of the army in Kentucky and Tennessee under Albert Sidney Johnston. He led the advance from Corinth in command of the Third army corps, and commanded the first line of attack at Shiloh, where he was wounded, but managed his command with such energy that he was promoted major-general.
In the following summer he was put in immediate command of the army of the Mississippi, afterward called the army of Tennessee, and during the Kentucky campaign he commanded the left wing of Bragg’s army. In the battle of Perryville he bore a conspicuous part, and he was immediately afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the battle of Murfreesboro the left wing under his masterly leadership was successful in the fight, and he was especially commended by General Bragg “for skill, valor and ability.”
General Hardee had now well earned the exalted rank which he held and a military reputation which was tersely expressed by his soldiers in the cognomen “Old Reliable.” In 1863 he was detailed to defend Mississippi and Alabama, but returned to the command of his corps at Chattanooga, and commanded the right wing at Missionary Ridge, where General Thomas declared he was “the most efficient general the Confederacy had on the field.” The subsequent maneuver of his troops at Cassville and his masterly retreat in echelon of divisions won the renewed admiration of his opponents. On December 2, 1863, he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army, but soon turned this over to General Polk, who in turn gave place to Gen. J. E. Johnston. Under the latter and his successor, J. B. Hood, he commanded a corps of the army of Tennessee through the Atlanta campaign, taking a prominent part in the fighting at Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and other points, and particularly at Peach Tree Creek and the battle of July 22d, where he commanded the flank movement against the Federal left wing. His corps was again engaged at Jonesboro and the last fighting of the campaign.
In October, 1864, he was assigned to command the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the task of collecting at Savannah forces to operate against Sherman’s advance. The troops he required were no longer to be found in the South, and by one of the most masterly retreats of the war he evaded Sherman’s overwhelming force before Savannah, and withdrew to Charleston and thence to Columbia. At Averysboro, in March, 1865, he punished the enemy effectively, and a few days later he led in the battle of Bentonville the last charge that was made by the Confederacy’s war-worn soldiers, and his only son, sixteen years of age, was among the last to fall. In this last battle of the four years, with undiminished spirit, the general, as Johnston has described it, “with his knightly gallantry dashed over the enemy’s breastworks on horseback in front of his men.” It is told of General Hardee, illustrating his thoroughness as a soldier, that he was the only lieutenant-general who personally inspected the arms and accoutrements of each soldier of his corps. General J. E. Johnston said of him that “he was more capable of commanding twenty thousand men in battle than any other Confederate general.” General Hardee died at Wytheville, Va., November 6, 1873, and his remains were interred at Selma, Ala., where he had resided after the war.
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One Comment to “Tactics 101 035 – The Withdrawal”
One does not have to look far or abroad to find experts for the most difficult military task: Withdrawal under fire. Confederate General William Joseph Hardee is an acknowledged expert. Here an excerpt gleaned from the Internet.
By the way: descendent of the Hardee family live in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Gerhardt Thamm
William Joseph Hardee
(Supplemental Biography From The Confederate Military History)
Lieutenant-General William J. Hardee was born in Camden county, Georgia, in November, 1815. After receiving a military education at West Point, he entered the army with the class of 1838, as a second-lieutenant of the Second cavalry, and was promoted first-lieutenant in 1839, and served in the Florida war of 1840. He was then sent to Europe by the government as a member of a military commission to study the organization of foreign armies, and in that capacity visited the military school at St. Maur, France.
In 1844 he was promoted captain, and in 1846 crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor. He behaved with gallantry in the Mexican war, was taken prisoner at Curricito, but exchanged, and for his valor at La Hoya was brevetted major. In 1853 his professional accomplishments caused his selection by the secretary of war, for the compilation of a system of infantry tactics, which was adopted in March, 1855. In the following year “Hardee’s Tactics” was introduced at West Point, where he was appointed commandant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 he resigned this commission and entered the Confederate service as colonel of cavalry March 16th, being assigned to command at Fort Morgan, Ala. On June 17th, he was promoted to brigadier-general, in which rank he organized a brigade of Arkansas regiments, and operated in that State until called with his men across the Mississippi, when he was commissioned major-general and put in command of a division of the army in Kentucky and Tennessee under Albert Sidney Johnston. He led the advance from Corinth in command of the Third army corps, and commanded the first line of attack at Shiloh, where he was wounded, but managed his command with such energy that he was promoted major-general.
In the following summer he was put in immediate command of the army of the Mississippi, afterward called the army of Tennessee, and during the Kentucky campaign he commanded the left wing of Bragg’s army. In the battle of Perryville he bore a conspicuous part, and he was immediately afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the battle of Murfreesboro the left wing under his masterly leadership was successful in the fight, and he was especially commended by General Bragg “for skill, valor and ability.”
General Hardee had now well earned the exalted rank which he held and a military reputation which was tersely expressed by his soldiers in the cognomen “Old Reliable.” In 1863 he was detailed to defend Mississippi and Alabama, but returned to the command of his corps at Chattanooga, and commanded the right wing at Missionary Ridge, where General Thomas declared he was “the most efficient general the Confederacy had on the field.” The subsequent maneuver of his troops at Cassville and his masterly retreat in echelon of divisions won the renewed admiration of his opponents. On December 2, 1863, he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army, but soon turned this over to General Polk, who in turn gave place to Gen. J. E. Johnston. Under the latter and his successor, J. B. Hood, he commanded a corps of the army of Tennessee through the Atlanta campaign, taking a prominent part in the fighting at Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and other points, and particularly at Peach Tree Creek and the battle of July 22d, where he commanded the flank movement against the Federal left wing. His corps was again engaged at Jonesboro and the last fighting of the campaign.
In October, 1864, he was assigned to command the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the task of collecting at Savannah forces to operate against Sherman’s advance. The troops he required were no longer to be found in the South, and by one of the most masterly retreats of the war he evaded Sherman’s overwhelming force before Savannah, and withdrew to Charleston and thence to Columbia. At Averysboro, in March, 1865, he punished the enemy effectively, and a few days later he led in the battle of Bentonville the last charge that was made by the Confederacy’s war-worn soldiers, and his only son, sixteen years of age, was among the last to fall. In this last battle of the four years, with undiminished spirit, the general, as Johnston has described it, “with his knightly gallantry dashed over the enemy’s breastworks on horseback in front of his men.” It is told of General Hardee, illustrating his thoroughness as a soldier, that he was the only lieutenant-general who personally inspected the arms and accoutrements of each soldier of his corps. General J. E. Johnston said of him that “he was more capable of commanding twenty thousand men in battle than any other Confederate general.” General Hardee died at Wytheville, Va., November 6, 1873, and his remains were interred at Selma, Ala., where he had resided after the war.
By Gerhardt Thamm on Feb 21, 2009 at 10:07 am