Operational Warfare

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="04bb9c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="08ea0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>La Haye Sainte 15mm</B></div> <div> <B>by JR Miniatures</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0d6a0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>A Spanish village. Bridge by Stone Mountain.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0d8a0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>A Spanish windmill. The city block in which it sits is by Tactical Conflict Systems.</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Old Trousers: Rules for Warfare in the Horse & Musket Era</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Old Trousers: Rules for Warfare in the H"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Author"><U>The Author</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Design Details"><U>Design Details</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tactical Napoleonic Warfare"><U>Tactical Napoleonic Warfare</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kriegspeil Rules"><U>Kriegspeil Rules</U></A>   |   <B>Operational Warfare</B>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News Info on Updates"><U>News & Info on Updates</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Microarmor Stuff"><U>Microarmor Stuff</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Downloads"><U>Downloads</U></A></div> <div> Operational Warfare</div> <div> References include those used in the tactical section plus the following: "On War", by Clausewitz, "The Campaigns of Napoleon", by Chandler, "Supplying War", by van Creveld, & "Feeding Mars", by Lynn.</div> <bR> <div> Movement Rates</div> <div> March rates could vary tremendously as the need might arise, or regardless of the need. Reasonable estimates of average march rates are:</div> <bR> <div> Routine March    2 to 2.5 miles per hour    12 to 20 miles per day</div> <div> Forced March     3 miles per hour     18 to 30 miles per day</div> <div> Desperate March   3 to 4 miles per hour     25 to 35 miles per day</div> <bR> <div> Clausewitz states that 15 miles per day was considered a usual day's march. He estimates that this would take a division of 8,000 men 8 to 10 hours in level country on ordinary roads & 10 to 12 hours in mountainous country. A force march of 25 miles would take the same force 16 hours on good roads.</div> <div> Forces would not march every day but would take rest days. A corps would be expected to cover around 70 miles per week. Of course these are only general guidelines & remarkable exceptions occurred. One of the most famous was Davout's forced march to Austerlitz. His corps covered an astounding 80 miles in the course of only 50 hours!</div> <div> Smaller forces could move faster than larger forces. This was partly due to the length of the column. Clausewitz states that the head of a column can cover 15 miles in 8 hours. If the column consists of 4 infantry divisions plus a cavalry reserve, then it will actually take 13 hours for the entire column to complete this 15 mile march. Sapherson gives these estimates for the road space taken up by units on the march:</div> <bR> <div> Artillery company & transport, 1/8 mile</div> <div> Infantry brigade & transport, 1/3 mile</div> <div> Cavalry brigade & transport, 1 mile</div> <div> Infantry division (5,000 men) & transport, 2.25 miles</div> <div> Army corps (25,000 men), 16 miles</div> <bR> <div> The importance of dispatching smaller forces along parallel roads should be apparent.</div> <bR> <div> More to follow.</div> <div> 4/19/2001</div> <div> JPK</div> </td> </tr></table></body>