when the Germans invaded Russia in the summer of 1941 they had 3,300 tanks
available to them and to just give you a comparison plan 1919 was going to be
using over 5,000 tanks if it had ever come off and that's why this small
introduction we're just going to look at plan 1919 and why it seen is so
significant now at the beginning of 1918 the Western Allies think that they're
just going to have to hold on for the following year Germany has in essence
won on the Eastern Front Russia has withdrawn from the war dozens
of German divisions come back to face the Western Allies and America is not
yet seriously in the fight it is joined the war but its army is in training it's
only starting to arrive and the American commander Pershing does not want the
American forces to be used until they're really were ready so for the Western
Allies there is this period at the beginning of 1918
where all they can do is hope they can hang on both sides in essence in 1918
are getting worn out but the Germans have this injection of those new
divisions from the Eastern Front now their attack at the beginning of 1918
that goes on really till the early summer fails and they don't actually knock
the Western Allies out in time but meanwhile in the background planning is
going on in those Western Allies ready for the next year when they do think
they might be able to win the war with American material American men and their
own plans which include a much greater use of the tank now in January of 1918
fuller having looked at how the tank was used at Cambrai Fuller is the chief of
staff of the tank corps his nickname bony fuller perhaps after napoleon
bonaparte but also he's got this great domed balding forehead and he's
considered a real thinker now full of comes up with this idea instead of just
doing a small area break through with tanks why don't we have a massive tank
force to break through the enemy line but also have a new type of tank and
they've been discussing out in France a vehicle that a chap called Johnson has
been designing thinking through the ideas of and that they're going to call
the medium D now the medium D gives the idea to fuller that actually if you've
got the right type of equipment not only will you break through but you can
exploit that gap in the German front line to the point of going very deep and
going very deep quickly and the big difference about plan 1919 is he's not
just talking here about a local area tactical gain by the use of tanks he's
talking about a massive blow that will completely knock out the Germans on the
western front and therefore lead to an allied victory and there's a real big
step change in difference he sees the use of those medium D's after the heavier tanks
are broken through they race ahead they have lorried infantry to accompany them we
have aircraft overhead they're starting to design a vehicle that is called the
sopwith salamander so it's armor plated so it's actually good for ground
attack they're going to resupply the advancing troops with aeroplanes so they
can drop supplies to keep them going and key to his plan he's saying don't go for
the body in essence in trying to knock out the enemy go for the head a bullet
or the brain is one of the phrases he uses and his idea there is that if you
take away the thinking power in other words the headquarters the high command
of the German military in these different areas that are being attacked
they will not be able to respond and again his argument is saying that an
organized force will always defeat a disorganized force and if you take the
organizing ability away in other words the command structure that will work
interestingly he doesn't say take out the communications because what he
actually wants to happen is those communications still to function
so that confusion is spread panic engendered so that would be another way
of how to defeat the enemy now that plan it's put to saddam kappa kappas got his
own ideas he's already in January of 18 he's already been writing about the
future use of Tanks the following year and after the battle in the summer at
Hamel where the new supreme Allied commander field marshal fought he seized
the utility of the tank there in a greater way he's a great tank enthusiast
now so the British the new British chief of the Imperial General Staff sorry
Wilson he ends up giving a copy of this new idea of plan 1919 to four and he's
saying look we should be starting to think about what we're going to do next
year and in that document he actually cites they are going to need ten
thousand five hundred tanks ready for the following year we don't actually
know forces response to that document but you can see that momentum is going
and you can also see that some of the ideas you can't help see being developed
anyway throughout 1918 and certainly things
like the back of a me on chimes very well with some of the things are being
proposed in plan 1919 now we have the benefit of hindsight we know that in
actual fact the Germans defeated in November of 1918 and plan 1919 very
quickly including some of the vehicles including the medium D we've already got
the medium C is starting to go into production all of this is suddenly put
on hold there's absolutely no need for these vehicles one or two are further
developed some go and actually take place a vehicle called the Hornet that
takes place takes part in the victory parade in 1919 but the actual ideas are
then stopped because there's no need for them but Fuller's plan is studied by
many different people it's looked on as being perhaps the start of this idea of
fully mechanized warfare again so many people look at it as
perhaps as a embryonic blitzkrieg the use of different type of motorized
transport armor all put together with airpower
in a large scale to get a strategic victory in other words a major victory
will come of the use of of these ideas Fuller's plan was actually translated in
1927 by the German military so it was circulated in Germany and it was also
his own autobiography that includes these plans were published in German
just before the Second World War in 1937 now fuller as a characters bit of an old
character he's very interested in Satanism all sorts of weird and
wonderful things and in the thirties he also then leans towards fascism and
Hitler invites fuller to his fiftieth birthday parade in April of 1939 and at
the end of this enormous march Pius goes on for about three hours lots and lots
of armored vehicles being used Hitler looks at fuller he's purported to
have said what do you think of your children and fuller says I just they've
grown up beyond recognition so there are accounts of how some of the
Germans including healing himself are looking at some of Fuller's ideas as
he's the guy that starts off this idea of that we know of in world war two
perhaps it's blitzkrieg but the use of all arms battle on a fundamentally much
larger scale to create a strategic victory that's going to actually lead to
something
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