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    Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack?
    Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack?
    Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack?
    Ebook51 pages49 minutes

    Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack?

    By Major William W. Hamilton

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    About this ebook

    One of German General Carl Von Clausewitz’s key concepts is culmination. His primary work On War describes culmination for the attacker as the point beyond which he can no longer continue his attack and risks destruction from a counterattack. For the defender it is the point beyond which the defender gains no more advantages by continuing his defense. At this point the defender must decide to act. Clausewitz envisioned that at this point the defender would release his flashing sword of vengeance and counterattack. Clausewitz developed the concept of culmination for what we regard today as the strategic and operational levels of war. This paper seeks to answer the question, Does the concept of defensive culmination apply at the tactical level and can the tactical defender use it to determine when to counterattack?

    This paper uses three historical examples to examine when and how commanders executed tactical counterattacks. The examples are used to evaluate a theoretical framework of Clausewitz’s defensive concepts. The criteria used to evaluate the historical cases are: defensive preparation, terrain, availability of intelligence on the attacker, timing for the defender and attacker, determination of the defender’s defeat mechanism, depth of the defense, type of counterattack, the timing of the counterattack, and condition of the attacker and defender when the counterattack was executed. The key concepts examined are culmination and counterattack timing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786252265
    Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack?

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      Book preview

      Defensive Culmination - When Does The Tactical Commander Counterattack? - Major William W. Hamilton

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1991 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      DEFENSIVE CULMINATION – WHEN DOES THE TACTICAL COMMANDER COUNTERATTACK?

      By

      Major William W. Hamilton, USA

      .

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ABSTRACT 5

      I. Introduction 6

      II. Theory 7

      III. Methods of Analysis 9

      IV. Historical Analysis 11

      ARDENNES 1944 11

      NAKTONG 1950 14

      GOLAN HEIGHTS 1973 18

      V. CONCLUSIONS 22

      BIBLIOGRAPHY 25

      BOOKS 25

      PERIODICALS 25

      MONOGRAPHS 25

      BATTLE STUDIES 26

      DOCUMENTS 26

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 27

      ABSTRACT

      One of German General Carl Von Clausewitz’s key concepts is culmination. His primary work On War describes culmination for the attacker as the point beyond which he can no longer continue his attack and risks destruction from a counterattack. For the defender it is the point beyond which the defender gains no more advantages by continuing his defense. At this point the defender must decide to act. Clausewitz envisioned that at this point the defender would release his flashing sword of vengeance and counterattack. Clausewitz developed the concept of culmination for what we regard today as the strategic and operational levels of war. This paper seeks to answer the question, Does the concept of defensive culmination apply at the tactical level and can the tactical defender use it to determine when to counterattack?

      This paper uses three historical examples to examine when and how commanders executed tactical counterattacks. The examples are used to evaluate a theoretical framework of Clausewitz’s defensive concepts. The criteria used to evaluate the historical cases are: defensive preparation, terrain, availability of intelligence on the attacker, timing for the defender and attacker, determination of the defender’s defeat mechanism, depth of the defense, type of counterattack, the timing of the counterattack, and condition of the attacker and defender when the counterattack was executed. The key concepts examined are culmination and counterattack timing.

      The study concludes that the tactical defender can use the concept of

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