Wilkinson Bird
Published: 2017-10-11
Total Pages: 26
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SOME PRINCIPLES OF FRONTIER MOUNTAIN WARFARE.The saying that there is no new thing under the sun, is as applicable to military affairs as to those of everyday life, for it is fully admitted that the principles underlying all strategy and tactics, whether of mountain or other warfare, are immutable.But though the principles of strategy and tactics are unchanging, organisation, formations, and minor items of procedure, must be continually amended to meet ever varying circumstances, and, in addition, each campaign possesses special characteristics demanding further modifications.There are, in fact, no invariable rules in the conduct of war, and whilst formalism is harmful in all matters, in military operations it is disastrous.An army relying on an established code of rules will often defeat itself in their application, and even if this disaster is avoided, the enemy will soon become aware of the methods in vogue, and will so frame his tactics as most advantageously to counteract them.Each problem, great and small, each set of circumstances, must, therefore, be considered on its merits, principles must be applied in the solution, not rules, and strategy, tactics, organisation, equipment, and other matters, arranged accordingly.It is in this spirit that the problems of Indian Frontier warfare should be approached.