When the troops of the 9th armored division reached the bridge at Remaagen on
March 7th they stopped undecided what to do. General William Hoge saw the
bridge standing aand ordered it to be taken with the East end of the bridge
secured. Lt. Karl Timmermann led the charge takig the bridge and setting up a
perimeter line of skernishers on the Eastern side.

When ordered to take the bridge troops obeyed the commands of their officers
instantly and obediently. No debates. No second opinions. Just immediate
action. It is how wars are won.

But I will have to chime in on this, with some agreements and disagreements.

Warfare has evolved past the stage, at least with Western countries, where it
was all about just generating maximum numbers of planes, people, etc to a
target and that meant the difference. In much of the history of warfare,
whether it was the Roman conquest of Europe, or B-26s over a bridge, it was
about putting maximum numbers of your side on or over a target for the best
chance of success. The tactics were not usually too specialized typically, nor
were the weapons. One person who questioned or disagreed could mean one less
warrior, or one less plane over the target whose bombs could have made the
difference.

However, warfare today is less numbers oriented, and more about having the
right plan and the right tactics when you go in, because often now we do
undertake operations in which our force, while being at a numerical
disadvantage, will have a huge techological advantage over the enemy, and the
right plans and tactics are going to make maximum use of that.

One B-52, equipped with JDAMs, utilizing highly training soldiers for targeting
and directing, and with the right tactics, can achieve things undreamed not
long ago.

And a special forces team, be it SFOD-D, SEAL, PJs, etc, doesnt just get a
command from the team leader and the rest just go do it without any thinking.
They are going to work out the plan beforehand, and probably each contributing
or adding to it. When fighter and bomber aircraft are doing CAS work, or
interdiction, the technology is best utilized when you properly employ the
weapons, instead of just generating large numerical sorties and hoping for the
best.
Special forces might have been a novelty during WW2, but now they and their
tactics are an integral part of modern warfighting.

But ironically, it is 3rd world armies that still rely on "just do as your
told", "no questions asked", and still fight with massed numbers, not much
technology, and do not coordinate or train solders much, lest they become a
domestic threat, especially Arab and Middle Eastern Armies. Against an
educated well trained army, who uses proper planning and tactics, those 3rd
world armies come up quite short.









Ron
Tanker 65, C-54E (DC-4)