Given that I generally try to concentrate on the German Wars of Unification when I do any serious research I thought I would toss this link out there. I ran across the following article about the Battle of Lundby in 1864 today. It is probably the best description of any single action from the Danish War of 1864 I have ever seen. What makes it so great for my purposes is that it is in English and I can direct my readers to it. The first of the German Wars of Unification, the Danish War of 1864, is practically ignored in English scholarship and thus finding something like this is a treasure as it sheds light on the development of Prussian tactical and operational methods that is not generally open to the English speaking world.
Victory, what is it?
This question came up for several reasons mainly because of the news out of Afghanistan and Iran plus the book I am currently reading about the Second World War . Victory is an elusive thing because in war defining victory is perhaps the major strategic goal of the belligerents. I suppose that one could take the Clausewitzean the ideal of destroying the enemy’s force or means to fight as victory but that really isn’t it. As we saw in Iraq the destruction of the enemy army does not necessarily mean that the war is over. Unless the population of The enemy country, nation, or tribe is convinced that they … More after the Jump…