Balck Hermann: Order in Chaos

January 01, 2025

Table of Contents

As so often when an incompetent government is facing internal problems it cannot solve, it seeks to overcome domestic failures through foreign policy
A successful attack is less costly than a failed defense.
Russian general Mikhail Skobelev once told his chief of staff, Alexei Kuropatkin, “You will always accomplish great things as the second in charge; God help Russia if you are ever put in charge.”
Wisdom always comes after the fact.
There is an iron rule of tactics - do not start an attack unless all your forces are assembled.
During the attack there are always some individuals who propel the fight forward, with the masses following. In the defense, every individual, the lone fighters as well as the weak masses, must stand alone to maintain the defense.
individual power of the monarchs declined because of the lack of superior personalities
The so-called Stab-in-the-Back was carried out by the independent social democratic movement.
“The enthusiasm is over after the first bivouac in a rainstorm. More important are sense of duty, political attitude, warrior spirit, and esprit de corps.”
Ignorance and carelessness of ruling circles, holding on to their privileges, and the stubborn trust in the authoritarian state and the discipline of the army made the Stab-in-the-Back possible. And thus, the murder victim himself can be blamed.
disability of his crippled left arm (Kaiser Wilhelm II)
Everyone did what he wanted, without concern for the whole. Criminal actions often were the driving force.
The only effective countermeasures were solid arguments and disassociation from the population.
Socialism is nothing but the dissatisfaction of the masses on a religious level.
Heye was succeeded by General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, a highly capable but notoriously lazy officer.
“The military must learn to follow the civilian authority blindly.”
Values are a tender plant. They take a great deal of time to develop. If the process is rushed, it fails.
A firm and clear character is far more important than the correct conviction.
The future, however, lays before us - not behind us.
German Gentlemen’s Round Table, where gentlemen from all professions met each Thursday evening … Everyone who attended was required to give a presentation and then defend it.
If you destroy Germany, you invite Asia into Europe.
From that point on I refused to give any credence to any political rumors and turned a deaf ear toward all such uselessness.
The NCO who knows his business does not scream or mistreat his troops. If he understands the importance of making duty interesting, that eliminates a key cause of mistreatment.
He often prefaced his concerns with the caveat, “… if you can comment in your position on this …”. He was a true Prussian gentleman.
The great lesson of Dunkirk was that a victory on the ground can be only won by ground troops, as valuable and indispensable as the air force might be.
Clausewitz theses:
- “I do not want to hear about field commanders who think they can win without shedding blood”
- “Humans are more valuable than material. Material can be replaced, human beings cannot.
The other ethnic groups, the Slovaks, the Romanians, the Rusyns, and the Serbs, were just poor, uncultured farmers.
Never to give up in war; the enemy is at least as bad off as you are.
“If the man has to be forced to do the right thing, just forget it. We are better than that”.
Finally he agreed to three months, which I then quietly extended to a six-months course as I originally had requested. A modern NCO cannot be trained in less time than that.
One must start with the positive and then if one in the course of the work gets to the negative, one is right there. If one starts with the negative, one remains there.
Hungary’s curse was the “Hungarian globe” – in other words, looking at Hungary as the center of the world.
I did not issue a written order, but rather oriented all the commanders using a detailed map exercise and a terrain walk. That technique had the advantage that all doubts could be cleared up immediately and wrong interpretations and misunderstandings came to light right away.
Night marches save blood.
“What do you want to do, bleed or march?”
We managed because of our superior leadership and hight mobility, but it all took a toll on our equipment.
The side that wants to play it save will lose inevitably. Just look at France.
The soldier only respects the leader he sees next to him in the battle.
The most important thing was never to repeat our tactics and only to do what would catch the enemy by total surprise.
We always issued orders well in advance, putting them into effect by broadcasting a pre-designated code word.
A satisfied neighbour is worth more than a subjugated colony.
I had always believed in leave policies based on one’s word of honor.
War does not favor repeated patterns. All action must be based on the immediate situation.
Wars are on and lost on the political level.
Wherever our administration was good, as in eastern Galicia, the population stood loyally behind us.
Superior weapons and equipment were worth more than good operational leadership.
Attaquez donc tojours.
There is no justice without the power to enforce it.
Up to that point I had conduced almost all these defensive battles by attacking. The attack is easier.
The attack always results in lower losses, assuming that it is well prepared and it succeeds, or is broken off in time.
Any breaks, however, must be earned through fighting, and that was the big psychological fallacy of the defensive line.
You always had to remain on guard to avoid getting sucked in. People masterfully attempted all forms of social corruption.
“conversion disorder”. People in the wrong become obsessed with a reversed truth and finally believe it themselves. It is an exaggerated defensive measure of the ego.
Defensive action in such a situation always leads to self-destruction. Only the attack would be effective here.
Bismark’s wait-and-see approach, letting events develop and then proceeding as if “carried by the cloak of the Deity”.
Hitler thought very logically and followed events to the bitter end. But in doing so he frequently went past the point where reason becomes irrational and things reverse themselves. What he lacked as wan audience that he listened to, with whom he could exchange his thoughts.
anyone with a laid-back personality, now matter now intelligent, was immediately overwhelmed by Hitler.
he was our downfall. Beware of strong men who do not know the limits of their power.
the surest way to get an American to do something is to tell him that it cannot be done because it is impossible.
But American’s personal courage ends where public opinion starts, which I learned here for the first time.
Russia did not receive its fatal blow at Tannenberg, but rather at the Dardanelles.
The conduct of war is an art, not science. Strong academic credentials alone are worthless.
While you must have a clear idea of how you want to win a battle before it starts, the situation can change later by the hour.
A correctly organized division should be small enough so that even an average leader can command it efficiently.
Intelligence is a curse if not supported by a strong personality.
We also were to slow to replace human beings with machines wherever possible.
I do not give pacifism a chance; it is too contrary to human nature. No idealist yet has succeeded in leading humanity into a so-called better feature.
In the future it will be increasingly important to address military problems with economic tools.
The solution to this problem is a free but firmly led democracy that makes human life worth living.