THE LOOSE MARBLE–AND THE ORIGINS OF OPERATIONAL ART

Abstract

For over 2000 years armies had maneuvered in single dense masses. These densely packed armies presented very little linear extension or depth.4 When the opposing forces collided in battle, the area of the battlefieldseldom greater than a few square miles-resembled a mere "point" relative to the size of the theater of operations. It was this characteristic of warfare that led to Isserson's descriptive terminology. This style of warfare varied little throughout its long history. In the first place the art of maneuver was rather prosaic. With only one force to maneuver, it was virtually impossible to develop the complex combinations of maneuver characteristic of modern operational art. In the second place the compression of forces in space and time on a concentrated battlefield meant that the outcome had a more profound and immediate effect. The fate of empires was often decided in an afternoon. The third characteristic of the concentrated style of warfare was that battles were incredibly lethal. It was the emphasis upon mass and concentration that particularly characterized the core of this style of warfare.