The Principles of War - Lessons from Military History on Strategy, Tactics, Doctrine and Leadership.

Malaya and Economy of Effort We look at the definition and how the Japanese and Allies applied this principle.  For the Allies there was too much economy and not enough effort.  There wasn't enough resources available to prepare the defences so Allied troops spent a lot of time digging in rather than training.  The Royal Navy, Air Force and Army all allocated insufficient resources to be able to a...

Malaya was a secondary effort of secondary effort for both the British and the Japanese - so how does Concentration of Force work for secondary efforts? Force Z was HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. A force too small to effect the outcome, but too large to lose. 1 Squadron RAAF conduct the first air strike against the Japanese in WW2. How did Admiral Tom Phillips plan to interdict the Japanese...

How did Security and Surprise impact operations in Malaya and Singapore? There was little security in the Malaya campaign for the Allies.  The Japanese had a strong expat community.  We look at the work of Patrick Heenan, a Kiwi born British and Indian Army Officer who became a spy for the Japanese, betraying the Air Force base at Alor Star. Not sure why he did, but he took a 6 month secondment to...

We look at the dithering that occurred in the British Malaya Command. We look at Operation Matador and how centralised control lead to delays and an inability to execute on an offensive defence that was planned. How do you think a Combat Team assault would go against a prepared Divisional defensive position?  We find out as we look at the Battle of Jitra. The application of manouevre requires: Com...

We look at how the British and Japanese came about to select their aims and how they got to them. What was the British mission and what did Churchill understand of the mission to be?  How did Brooke Popham understand his mission and how did that impact the troops on the ground (and pilots in the air).  We have a slight diversion to look at the Whole of Government approach to defence and how the Au...

Allied Doctrine had seen little development between the war with significant budget cuts.  The Army was relegated to an Imperial policing role.  It is very Command and Control way of We look at Sir John Dill and his visit to Tannenburg and his interpretation of 'Mission Command'.  Malaya was a very laissez-faire, with some units preferring not to train in the jungle. LT COL Ian Stewart from the Ar...

The British planned to use Artillery and Air Power to defend Malaya. Malaya is hot and humid and it has the 29th longest coastline (lots of areas for conducting amphibious operations).  There is a steep mountain range splitting the country between the East and West, and there are very few laterals over the ranges. The road infrastructure improved over time to support the rubber and tin industries...

The Centre of Gravity is that characteristic, capability or locality from which a force, nation or alliance derives its freedom of action, strength or will to fight.  For the British, the CoG was the Singapore Naval Base.  It was the fundamental part of the defence of the whole of South East Asia.  In times of need the Royal Navy would sail out to Singapore and defeat all comers and ensure that th...

Our first campaign that we will look at is from Malaya. We detail some of the key people in the Malaya Campaign: LT Gen Percival AVM Pulford LT Gen Heath MAJ Gen Gordon Heath LT Gen Yamashita We look at the numbers for both sides.  Yamashita was fighting significantly outnumbered, so how did he make up the numbers? Armoured warfare - who had the advantage with tanks? In late 1941 the war is going...

We look at how the Principles of War podcast is going to work, what we want to do and how we are going to do it. We discuss how terrain plays a part in the outcomes of battles and we will be looking at leadership. What role does leadership play in battle? What about Post H-Hour Execution and leadership?  We look at some examples from General Grant's experiences that lead him to be the Commander of...