Logistical Art
Abstract
The United States has fought its recent wars by dominating its enemies with overwhelming logistical support. In today's resource-constrained environment, however, the shoe may be on the other foot. In Western Europe, for example, the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact may well have the advantage in bringing brute force logistics to bear. The success of American military strategy in Europe, or anywhere else in the world, may depend on how well the U.S. Army's logistics philosophy adapts to new realities. The Army can no longer afford a logistics philosophy which allows its commanders to assume an endless supply of everything. As war becomes more dependent on science and technology, commanders tend to rely more heavily on their logisticians to keep the machinery of war operating. The science of logistics is not new to warfare, but it came to its ultimate fruition during World War II. Between the World Wars both tanks and trucks were introduced into armies on a mass scale, During World War II at the tactical and operational levels, the truck became to logistics what the tank became to battle. The tank-truck team revolutionized warfare and logistics, and as logistics became more technical it tended to become regarded more as a science and less as an art. But the art of logistics was not lost on all military planners. There were those commanders who successfully combined logistical and operational art in World War II. By 1944 Allied logistics planning reached its zenith with Operation Overlord, the campaign that began with the Allies' invasion of France and ended with their armies in the very heart of Germany. Logisticians labored for years preparing meticulous plans to support that effort. Yet in the end, it was not so much the logistics planning that measured the success of the Allied invasion of Europe, but the initiative and imagination of commanders in ignoring, adapting, and improvising logistics plans and systems as the campaign progressed: logistical art.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA517022
Entities
People
- Clayton R. Newell
Organizations
- United States Army Center of Military History