POSITIONAL WARFARE IN ALEXANDER SVECHIN’S STRATEGY - WAR STUDIES OCCASIONAL PAPER SERIES

ORG APRIL 2024 the enemy and force the enemy to increase the force command may also withdraw forces from certain density across the front.22 areas of the front and create reserves from the with- 28 The local battles of positional warfare cannot indi- drawn units. [...] to focus on the geographical value of a certain area A combatant in a positional war must avoid falling because of its logistics or topographical features into the trap of overcentralizing their command to since the differences between different sectors the point that the combatant cannot appropriately are otherwise diminished compared to periods of respond to an enemy breaking through his defensi. [...] Svechin notes requirements and balance appropriately depend- how the English Channel became the most import- ing on the command’s objectives, the enemy’s ant sector of the positional objectives, and the current front between France and state of the battlefield. [...] Belgium in 1914 due to the The tendency to over- importance to Germany Svechin argues that a combatant centralize the military of the ability to conduct an can restore battlefield maneuver command during positional operational-strategic block- by breaking through the warfare and the fact that ade to prevent the United positional fronts require Kingdom from securing the positional front or by chang. [...] Svechin contends that the most amounts of the enemy’s forces using a smaller force, important characteristic of the German army’s allowing the combatant to use freed-up troops to methods at the end of the First World War was to achieve operational successes elsewhere.