Unassailable Advantage: The British Use of Principles of Joint Operations from 1758-1762

Abstract

In the Seven Years War the British defeated the French and created the most powerful empire on earth. However, from 1755-1757 British joint operations were marred by defeats to outright disasters. This monograph investigates the British ability as a learning organization to reformulate doctrine, improve their unity of effort, mass, and understanding of objective. The British formulated specific command and control over amphibious operations to ensure both the British Army and Royal Navy understood their roles and responsibilities in getting land forces to the shore and sustaining them there. This monograph investigates what US military planners can learn from the study of historical joint operations. This monograph focuses on four joint operations during the Seven Years War: Rochefort, Louisbourg, Guadeloupe, and Havana. Rochefort, a failed operation, highlights the importance lessons learned by Britain to apply later in the war. Each one of these operations highlights the ability of the British to continually improve their joint operations. The ability of the British to conduct joint operations gave them an unassailable advantage over the French.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 25, 2017
Accession Number
AD1038894

Entities

People

  • Matthew J. Cahill

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amphibious Operations
  • Combat Operations
  • Commerce
  • Disasters
  • Doctrine
  • Governments
  • Interagency Coordination
  • Landing Craft
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • New York
  • North America
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Warfare
  • West Indies

Fields of Study

  • History

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control