August 4, 1914
August 4, 1914 The Army of the Meuse crossed the border into Belgium on a forty-kilometer front: six brigades of infantry and all of HKK 2—approximately twenty-five thousand soldiers and…
August 3, 1914
August 3, 1914 The plan to seize a contested Liège was developed in 1911, a requirement created by avoiding Holland. The plan was known as the Handstreich. The very existence…
August 2, 1914
August 2, 1914We are going to make use of the month of August as an anniversary. Similar to the book, we are going to follow some of the events day…
Marksmanship Training – part two
Marksmanship Training - part twoEight exercises. (Hauptübungen), again in all three aiming positions (prone (some free-handed, some with rifle resting on a sandbag), kneeling, and standing positions) were fired at…
Marksmanship Training – part one
Marksmanship Training - part oneMarksmanship training took a major role in military training. First, soldiers had to be drilled in weapons handling followed by theoretical lessons about ballistics, bullet trajectory,…
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part four
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part four Regiments attacking first broke up into their battalions, one next to another, and then again into company columns. A company forming an…
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part three
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part threeTraditionally, the German military had always distinguished between geleitetem Feuerand Schützenfeuer. Geleitetes Feuer or directed fire was where officers controlled distance, target, and…
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part two
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part two Only a very few elite Prussian units, such as light infantry battalions (the Jäger), were equipped with the more precise rifled muzzleloaders.…
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part one
The Development of Infantry Doctrine – part one Why was there such a gap between the prevailing doctrinal idea of war and the truth of actual war in 1914? The development of…
HKK – Höherer Kavallerie Kommandeur – part one
HKK - Höherer Kavallerie Kommandeur - part one Just about everyone who is a fan of World War I has the wrong understanding of corps sized cavalry units in the German…