Auftragstaktik

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> > >The NSL have always permitted a certain amount of
> > >lattitude in field commanders and so will likely by
> > >most comfortable with this situation of loose
> > control.
> > >
> >
> > Comfortable?  I doubt it.  But realistic, yes.
>
> They will do what they always have done:
> Strong general staff system to standardize doctrine
> and practice across the officer corps, and issuing
> 'mission directive' that are more concerned with end
> results than how one achieves them.

It has proven effective, so it is likely to remain in effect, but I am
not
certain enough about it to say "always".

It took more or less half a century from the inception of such
"Auftzragstaktik" in the Napoleonic era to its general adoption
throughout
the army, and even longer to be effectively used in practice.

I have read discussions by Bundeswehr officers that the long peace time
has
tended to enhance bureaucracy, excessive careerism and to reduce
independent
thinking. And modern means of communications make it tempting to
centralize
control. They are relearning some of the old lessons in its various
foreign
deployment now.

Greetings
Karl Heinz