COMBINED ARMS IN THE GREAT WAR
It's very common these days to talk of combined arms (multiple branches within a service), joint operations (multiple services) and combined operations (multiple countries). It wasn't always so, someone had to do it first. This month I'll focus on the man that put together the original 'modern' combined arms operation, General Sir John Monash.
During WW I, the major combatants put everything they had into the war effort, with the possible exception of tactical ability. The war ground to a halt and degenerated into trench warfare, with both sides at stalemate. The abilities of the high command on both sides appeared to be non existent, as they threw troops into mass attacks against entrenched machine gun positions. When each attack failed, the brass maintained the belief that 'just one more attack' would break the enemy. There was not enough originality of thinking to overcome the inertia of the stultified minds at the top.
One problem was the lack of reliable machinery. The new tanks were not reliable when they first went into action. They also stuck in the mud and shell holes very easily. Aircraft in the first part of the war were frail things, barely suited for their scouting role. They didn't improve to the point of being formed into useful fighter squadrons until early 1916. True combined arms operations require robust and reliable equipment that will at least approach the kind of performance that your operation needs. This type of equipment was not available early in the war.
Strictly speaking, combined arms operations have been going on for centuries, with mixes of infantry, cavalry, archers, artillery, etc. The modern age brought in the new machinery of war, with its tanks, airplanes, accurate indirect artillery fire, improved rail transport, and chemical and fire operations. The expanded ability to deliver fires, both direct and indirect; and the expansion of support services, required improved planning to address the complexities of modern war. This planning was somewhat lacking early in WWI, as staffs were usually mired in outmoded thinking that favored frontal assaults into machine gun fire. Combined arms just wasn't happenin'.
General John Monash believed in planning. "A perfected modern battle plan is like a score for an orchestral composition, where the various arms and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases. Every individual unit must make its entry precisely at the proper moment, and play its phrase in the general harmony. The whole program is controlled by an exact timetable, to which every infantryman, every heavy or light gun, every tank and aeroplane must respond with punctuality; otherwise there will be discords which will impair the success of the operation and increase the cost of it." http://www.adfa.edu.au/~rmallett/Thesis/...
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