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Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics
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Historical SummaryIn an unimportant battle, February 21, 1760, Major General Czetteritz, of the Prussian army, was captured. In examining his baggage a small volume entitled Military Instructions for the Generals was discovered. This was the instruction for the generals of Frederick the Great, which they were religiously bound to keep secret. It was duly prized and immediately translated into English, French, Polish and Russian. In it is synthesized the wisdom of the great soldier-king. Prussian discipline and Prussian military methods were adapted from it by all armies, for it contained the secrets of Frederick’s military success. Next to Clauswitz this small volume is the most influential work in founding the German military system of today. Most of the great Frederick’s observations apply to modern war. Understanding of German military success and the development of German methods is impossible without this book.
SUBSISTENCE AND COMMISSARY.
Understand that the foundation of an army is the belly. It is necessary to 324 procure nourishment for the soldier wherever you assemble him and wherever you wish to conduct him. This is the primary duty of a general.
I divide the problem of subsistence into two parts, of which one deals with the place and manner of assembling supplies and the other with the means of rendering these magazines mobile and making them follow the army. The first rule is always to place magazines and fortified places behind the localities where you are assembling the army. In Silesia our principal magazine has always been at Breslau. By placing your principal magazine at the head of your army, you risk being cut off from it by the first misfortune, and then you would be without resources; whereas, if your supplies were distributed by echelons the loss of one of these parts would not lead to that of the whole. In the defense of the Electorate, one of your magazines should be at Spandau, the other at Magdebourg. The latter could serve for the offensive, and it is in relation to Saxony much like the depot of Schweidnitz to Bohemia, and Neisse to Moravia. The first attention that should be given magazines is to choose the chief commissaries carefully. If they are dishonest men, the sovereign can lose prodigiously from theft; under any circumstances they should be watched carefully.
There are two methods of assembling magazines; one is to collect the grain in the country and credit the contributions of the peasants and gentlemen against their regular tax. It is not necessary to have recourse to the other expedient—that of contractors—except when this 325 one is physically impossible. These men plunder pitilessly and make their own law by the exorbitant prices they place on food.
I add again to these maxims that it is always necessary to form large magazines in good time, because considerable time is required to amass them and sometimes the weather makes the roads bad, or rivers useless, or wagons impracticable. Besides the caissons attached to the regiments, the commissary should have enough caissons to carry meal to subsist your army for a three weeks’ period. These caissons should be drawn by horses. Experience has demonstrated to us that oxen are of no use. Inspectors are required for the horses and the caissons. The care that they should have for their preservation is of the more consequence, for if they break down without your being able to replace them, your whole project will be halted. It is necessary for the general to keep his eye on all this.
Whenever an army operates along a river, subsistence becomes easier. The great generals, when they were able, have always reflected on this fact as being of great advantage. The Elbe gives us this advantage against the Saxons; but, if you wish to act in Bohemia or in Moravia, you can only count on your caissons. Sometimes three or four magazines are formed in file, from which you subsist, but as soon as you wish to progress into the enemy country, the magazine at Schweidnitz, for example, is fortified, while that at Breslau is obliged to refill in proportion as supplies are drawn from the first. The caissons which follow the army are filled from this 326 one. Then you are assured of supplies for four weeks. In addition to the caissons, the field commissary carries with it its iron ovens. A large number are necessary in order to have plenty of bread, for it is impossible to do without this. If you undertake an expedition, bread should be on hand for ten days ahead and biscuits for five. Biscuits are excellent in case of need, but in place of eating them like bread, our soldiers break them up and make soup of them, which is not sufficient for their nourishment.
I shall be asked: but if you advance, for example, into Bohemia with all this meal, where will you store it? I answer that this only can be done at Pardubitz, which is the only locality at all reasonable. If not, it will have to be in a city from which your army is supported and where you have your ovens. And upon advancing from there this ambulating magazine always follows the army. I have had hand mills made for each company. These can be useful because wheat can be found everywhere and the soldiers can grind it. They then deliver the meal to the commissary who returns it to them converted into bread. This is a resource in necessity that experience should show whether more or less use should be made of it. But, I may be told, what will you do when you have lived four weeks in the enemy’s country; then your meal will be eaten. Before reaching that point I would return my caissons to the nearest depot and have them filled and conducted to the army.
This is the place to speak of convoys.
The number of troops required to escort convoys increases 327 or diminishes according to circumstances, the distance or the nearness of the enemy, the strength of his light troops, and the localities where he posts them. I have always made infantry the principal element of my convoys. This infantry is given some cannon and one hundred, two hundred or more hussars, simply to scout and notify the escort of the places where the enemy is. The cities where the escort rests should be garrisoned with troops and in the same way, if there is some village located on difficult terrain, such as a mountain gorge, it should be occupied to facilitate the passage. The general also takes the precaution of putting out a detachment forward which covers the march of the convoy toward the most exposed flank. I cover the duties of the minor officers in my Institutions Militaires.
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Chicago: Frederick, "Frederick the Great For His Generals: Subsistence and Commissary," Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, ed. Thomas R. Phillips (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Company, 1940), Original Sources, accessed December 10, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8R4KMB85N7YKBW9.
MLA: Frederick. "Frederick the Great For His Generals: Subsistence and Commissary." Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, edited by Thomas R. Phillips, Harrisburg, PA, The Military Service Publishing Company, 1940, Original Sources. 10 Dec. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8R4KMB85N7YKBW9.
Harvard: Frederick, 'Frederick the Great For His Generals: Subsistence and Commissary' in Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics. cited in 1940, Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics, ed. , The Military Service Publishing Company, Harrisburg, PA. Original Sources, retrieved 10 December 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8R4KMB85N7YKBW9.
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