This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. Hello and welcome to the World War II podcast I'm Angus Wallace. In this episode we will

discuss the different approaches to command and control of the British and German armies.

From a management point of view, both organisations developed different doctrines to deal with

the fog of war, or friction, which affected how commanders responded as a battle unfolded.

We'll be doing this by delving into the origins of each nation's different approaches

to doctrine and training, and most importantly importantly how these strategies played out during the pivotal battle of France in 1940.

Joining me today is Martin Samuels. Martin is the author of

piercing the fog of war the theory and practice of

command in the British and German armies 1918 to 1940 which builds upon his

earlier work command or control, command, training and tactics in the British

of Germany's 1888 to 1918.

Martin, welcome, I guess we need to start by discussing doctrine and how each country viewed command.

The German army produced in the 1930s Troopenfrung, which captured much of its philosophy

of command.

Can we sum this up?

Was this a new thinking, a break with the pass?

So three questions there.

So Drub and Fueering is probably the most famous manual of military doctrine that's ever been written.

You go through the modern literature and you can't help but trip over all sorts of references where people say this was

amazing this was incredible this was the clearest expression of military

...