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Whilst watching the film it rekindled a desire I've always had - but long forgotten - to understand the strategy of war & battle.
Barring Sun Tzu's "Art of war" - a philosophical treatise - are there any recommendations of books or sites that you would give relative to understanding battle strategy, and which would provide explanations and justifications of the tactics used in historical examples?
Syzygy
Numbers, Prediction, and War: Using History to Evaluate Combat Factors and Predict the Outcome of Battles, by Trevor Nevitt Dupuy
US World War II Amphibious Tactics, Army and Marine Corps, Pacific Theater by Gordon L. Rottman,
Modern Aspects of the Laws of Naval Warfare and Maritime Neutrality by George Politaki
The Dawn of Modern Warfare: History of the Art of War (History of the Art of War, Vol 4) by Hans Delbruck, aslo see 1-3.
Modern Fighter Aircraft Technology and Tactics: Into Combat With Today's Fighter Pilots by Anthony Thornborough
Tactical exploitation: Neglected imperative of modern combat by James L Boling
Modern Land Combat by David Miller
Modern Naval Combat by David Miller
Toward combined arms warfare: A survey of tactics, doctrine, and organization in the 20th century by Jonathan M House
Those should get you started. You didn't mention a preference for modern or historical, infantry, mechanized, naval, air, missile, electronic, intelligence, urban, guerilla, siege etc. (yes you did, but I overlooked it in my hurry to the bookshelves) ;)
I'm particularly fond of naval warfare history. The Treatise of Leo VI and Captain Mahan's Influence of Sea Power on History are quite good.
Principles of Maritime Strategy by Julian S. Corbett and Seapower As Strategy: Navies and National Interests by Norman Friedman are must reads.
It's hard to separate a lot of the tactics and strategies into modern and historical as many ancient methods are still being used, just with modern equipment, communication and training. Many modern questions are answered with historical examples. The complexity of modern warfare ensures the compartmentalization of techniques and tactics, while the overall strategies remain somewhat static. A flanking maneuver is a flanking manuever.
Caveat - Mechanization and quick, reliable communication made possible strategies that were outside the real of knowledge of many of the best historical tacticians. Can you imagine Alexander the Great with access to an air force and mechanized troop movement?
You might want to dive into some of the Avalon Hill strategy games too. They cover the gamut of ancient and modern warfare and offer some unique perspectives during gameplay.
At this stage I have no idea what I want to learn - I know nothing about battlefield strategy ('battlefield' to me is the 'theatre'..) but find the concept & reality of it fascinating - just principles I suppose. Primarily (to juxtapose myself) it's historical battles that I do want to learn from - as a starting point.
(Rhetorical in part) Why do/did 'Generals' make certain decisions that outwitted their opponents, relative to force/terrain/conditions/formation? What were the factors & why did it work? What is 'Strategy'? And show me examples of it... That's what I want to learn.
That's one hell of a reading list - where do I start?
Syzygy
Strategy and tactics are words that are so interchanged incorrectly, that the difference between the two should be the starting point of military "strategy" discussions.
Strategy is the overall plan to achieve a goal, and tactics are the methods used to realize that goal.
A good place to start is here [au.af.mil]. Google agrees. ;)
At the head of the chain is doctrine. Soviet doctrine versus U.S. doctrine, v. Chinese doctrine, etc. Doctrine, Strategy, Tactics.
Then you need to decide how granular you'd like the information to be. Napolean at Waterloo? Or Capt. Winters' Tactical Assualt On A Fortified Position On D-Day +1. The site referenced above should provide you with enough reading to whet your appetite. ;) Then you can delve into logistics, a science in itself.
As for the reading list, I'd start with Toward combined arms warfare: A survey of tactics, doctrine, and organization in the 20th century by Jonathan M House.
A good place to start is here
Wow, digitalghost! Very interesting stuff to be found there.
Syzygy, if you're looking for fiction with a heavy leaning into the military (albeit a futuristic miliary) you might like David Weber's books. I just finished Bolo! [baen.com]
LisaB
