Total war

Author: (German) Ludendorff / Dai Yaoxian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Ludendorff (1865-1937), a German general and military strategist, participated in two World Wars and achieved remarkable military victories. He held positions such as Chief of the Operations Department of the German General Staff, Commander of an Infantry Brigade, Chief of Staff of an Army Group, Chief of Staff of the Eastern Front German Army, and Chief Quartermaster of the German highest command. After World War I, he was dismissed from military service and engaged in politics and writing. He wrote extensively, with the most famous being his book "Total War." "Total War" consists of seven chapters: Chapter 1: The Nature of Total War, Chapter 2: "National Unity Spirit as the Foundation of Total War," Chapter 3: "Economy and Total War," Chapter 4: "The Strength and Connotation of the Army," Chapter 5: "The Composition and Use of the Army," Chapter 6: "The Implementation of Total War," and Chapter 7: "Commander." His main ideas and viewpoints are:
1. Modern war is a war of the entire nation. Not only has the war expanded to the entire territory of the belligerent countries, but the personnel involved in the war have also expanded from the army to the entire population. Under these circumstances, "war and politics should serve the survival of the nation, but war is the highest expression of the nation's will to survive. Therefore, politics should serve the war."
2. The foundation of total war is the spiritual unity of the nation. Special measures should be taken to control news and public opinion, suppress the disclosure of military secrets and dissidents, and mobilize all means for spiritual mobilization. Military education should be given a racial character to awaken the national spirit.
3. Implement the militarization of the national economy. In peacetime, the economy should be wartime-oriented. Important materials such as food, clothing, and fuel should be stockpiled in large quantities in peacetime, and the issuance of banks should be placed under central authority to strive for self-sufficiency in war materials, expand the military industry, and prepare for a long-term war.
4. Military operations must adhere to the principles of coordination, surprise, and rapidity. The three branches of the army—land, sea, and air—must coordinate, launch surprise attacks without declaration, and achieve strategic surprise. The most dangerous enemy should be selected as the main target, and the largest force should be deployed in decisive areas to deliver a heavy blow. The war should be won quickly, and a protracted war of attrition should be avoided.
5. A totalitarian war command system should be established, with an outstanding commander possessing exceptional talent, strong character, abundant energy, and keen observation skills. He should strengthen the national and military "racial" unity, examine policies and measures related to the war, guide the overall war situation, and lead the defense staff, composed of geniuses from various fields such as land, sea, and air, public opinion, military technology, economy, and politics, to implement his ideas and will. Ludendorff's theory of total war was proposed based on the lessons of two World Wars and the development level of industrial production, science and technology, and weapon equipment in the early 20th century, and it has significantly promoted the development of modern military thought. Hitler and his generals even applied this theory in the second World War, exerting a great impact on human history. Modern war is a comprehensive total war In Ludendorff's view, due to the increasingly prominent struggle for dominance between the Jewish nation and the Roman Catholic Church, political changes, and the implementation of universal conscription with the growing population, as well as the use of increasingly powerful weapons and equipment, modern war is a comprehensive total war. From the scope of the battlefield, "total war has extended to the entire operational area of the belligerent countries" (Total War, Chinese edition, page 5, People's Liberation Army Press, 1988. All references to this book will only note the page number). The entire territory of the belligerent countries will become a battlefield. From the personnel involved in the war, "total war is not just about the army; it directly involves the life and spirit of every person in the belligerent country" (page 4). Not only the army but also the people suffer varying degrees of direct war hardships and are indirectly affected by food embargoes and propaganda activities. Since total war is not only targeted at the army but also directly at the people, all means of warfare will serve this ruthless reality. While both sides are fighting on a broad battlefield and in the sea, they must also attack the enemy's spirit and body to achieve the goal of demoralizing and paralyzing them. Therefore, to win the war, the entire nation must be determined to engage in the battle, and each person must spare no effort and dedicate their entire body and mind. "The nature of total war requires the overall strength of the nation, because the goal of total war is the entire nation" (page 11). At the same time, Ludendorff also believed that Clausewitz, in his view of the relationship between war and politics, only saw the so-called foreign policy of handling relations between countries, declaration of war, and peace negotiations, and believed that war and war guidance were closely dependent on foreign policy. To maximize the power of a nation in total war, politics must propose a theory to maintain the survival of the nation, and overall politics must be fully prepared for the struggle for the survival of the nation in peacetime and strengthen the foundation of this struggle. However, he mistakenly proposed that total war had changed the nature of war and politics, and the relationship between politics and war must also change accordingly. Clausewitz's entire theory on war and politics should be overturned. War and politics are subordinate to the survival of the nation, but war is the highest expression of the nation's will to survive. Therefore, politics should serve the war. Based on this, he also believed that the stronger the racial consciousness of the people, the more their racial consciousness is stimulated, and the clearer and more comprehensive their understanding of their living conditions, the more likely they are to generate a political will from themselves to seek national survival and understand the needs of total war. This kind of politics will directly become racial politics and voluntarily serve the war, because both have the same goal—maintaining national survival. The spiritual unity of the nation is the foundation of total war Ludendorff learned from Germany's failure in two World Wars that the people are an essential element in implementing total war and emphasized that "the spiritual unity of a nation is now and will always be the foundation of leading total war" (page 25). He believed that in total war, the term "people" and its entity have been pushed to the front line. At the same time, the significance of national spirit in peacetime, especially in times of crisis, for maintaining national survival has been recognized by everyone. Although defending the country and national survival are closely linked in total war, after all, it is not the state but the people who are fighting in total war. Every member of the people should dedicate all their strength to the front or the rear. Since the army is rooted in the people and is a part of the people, the center of total war is the people. Therefore, the leadership of total war must consider this factor, and overall politics must provide the strength of the people for the leadership of total war and serve the survival of the nation. Ludendorff also believed that "the strength of the people lies in their physical, economic, and spiritual strength, and it determines the strength of the army in total war" (page 13). Among them, spiritual strength can unite the army and the people as one, share weal and woe, and is an essential element in the struggle to maintain national survival. Although all countries at that time attached great importance to the weapons, training, and equipment of the army, the final outcome of total war depended on the spiritual unity of the nation. Relying on this spiritual unity, the people could continuously supply new strength to the hard-fighting army, serve the army willingly, and even maintain the belief of defeating the enemy and being unyielding in the face of war hardships and enemy attacks. He also believed that the special measures the leadership of total war should take to promote the spiritual unity of the nation include:
1. Implementing strict press censorship, severely punishing those who disclose military secrets, blocking border traffic with neutral countries, prohibiting gatherings, arresting the key figures of "dissidents," and supervising railway transportation and broadcasting.
2. Controlling news, radio, and film, and using all publications and other means to carry out spiritual mobilization.
3. Timely and truthful disclosure of the war situation to the people to avoid providing opportunities for rumormongers. A mature nation requires its government to tell the truth, but the government cannot always publish real information to the public, because the enemy will obtain important intelligence from it. However, the final outcome of some battles and their impact should be truthfully made public to the people.
4. Creating a foundation for life shaped by national religious consciousness in peacetime. Total war is ruthless, and it requires men and women to dedicate themselves fully. A mentally and physically healthy nation can persevere, continue to fight, and destroy the enemy's will; it can endure the hardships brought by war on the front, in the rear, or even in occupied areas; and it can identify various dangers without the slightest hesitation due to the continuation of the war. Although Ludendorff recognized the important role of the people and the spiritual unity of the nation in implementing total war, he avoided discussing the contradiction between the purpose of war and the interests of the people, but instead vigorously promoted racism, anti-Semitism, and used religious consciousness as the basis for war mobilization, all of which are greatly different from the theory of people's war of the proletariat. The national economy has an important impact on total war Ludendorff believed that the economic factors of the nation are as important as the spiritual factors of the people and the nation in total war. Although they are in different fields, they are actually mutually influential and are indispensable for the leadership of total war to consider when considering winning strategies. He said, "Economy is not dead; it can produce strength and also consume strength" (page 56). On one hand, agriculture, industry, labor, and many other economic sectors are the pillars of war. They can meet the needs of the people and the army, maintain the economic order in the rear, and give millions of workers the opportunity to earn a living, thus reducing the economic burden on the country. On the other hand, because it occupies millions of workers, most of whom are combat-capable, it results in a significant loss of manpower for the army. In addition, maintaining domestic transportation and transportation to the front, as well as the plan to rely on railways for mobile large-scale forces, require a large number of workers. If these factors are considered, the number of Germans suitable for service but not in service would be even larger. The leadership of total war should pay great attention to these issues and pay close attention to them regularly. Based on the lesson of the German General Staff in two World Wars, which only focused on a short-term war and ignored the economic preparation for a long-term war, resulting in the suffering of the German people and army from economic shortages for four years, Ludendorff proposed basic principles that every country should follow in the field of economic repair, including finance: "The supply of the people and the army must be sufficient to ensure the continuation of the war" (page 36). He believed that in the field of the economy, the army and the people constitute a strong unity, and the leadership of total war should seriously examine the following major issues in peacetime: What can domestic strength provide for the living needs of the entire people (including the army, especially combatants)? What war materials need to be imported from abroad, and can they be maintained after the war breaks out? Is the country's coastline still open, and will it be blocked due to naval warfare or enemy blockades? In wartime, the major issues to be reviewed are the financial situation of the country and the financial measures the country will take for war mobilization and operations. Based on this, he proposed:
1. Choosing appropriate financial mobilization measures while also adopting other economic measures.
2. Striving for self-sufficiency in various material needs for the war.
3. Rebuilding and expanding Germany's armament industry. It can be expected that in the next war, the greater the need for personnel, the greater the demand for military equipment. To solve this problem, there must be raw materials and labor for manufacturing equipment, as well as cash or foreign exchange, so that raw materials can be imported from abroad or military equipment can be directly imported in peacetime and wartime to meet the various needs of the army for military equipment. In addition, he also denied centralized managed planned economy, advocated autonomy, and advocated mobilizing and giving full play to the work enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of everyone, thereby promoting economic development. Although Ludendorff's discussion on the economy and total war is mostly limited to some specific measures and examples, as a bourgeois military strategist, he is still rare in providing a concentrated and prominent explanation of this issue. A strong army is the pillar of total war Ludendorff believed that the leadership of total war must strive to end the war as soon as possible, prevent the disintegration of national unity, and prevent the economic difficulties that both the people and the military authorities find it difficult to endure in a long-term war from endangering the outcome of the war. Therefore, before the war, "a well-trained, well-equipped, and reasonably organized army composed of the strength of the entire people should be provided to the military authorities" (page 58). He also made specific explanations on how to establish this army. First, good training. "Good military training includes physical and willpower training, coupled with fine equipment, which can improve the combat effectiveness of the troops" (page 60). Although all countries have paid more attention to military training and high-quality equipment than in the past, the leadership of total war can still strive to surpass the enemy through superior training to gain a slight advantage. Especially for armies that are at a disadvantage in quantity, they need to pay more effort than the enemy. Second, fine equipment. In two World Wars, military technology was constantly being improved. In terms of combat equipment, from large-caliber artillery with a range of several kilometers to close-range hand grenades, there are various types. In terms of mobility, in addition to railway transportation, there is also automobile transportation. At sea, there are armored warships patrolling; underwater, there are submarines sailing; in the air, there are planes flying. The significance of military technology in war is increasingly recognized, and the longer the war, the clearer this recognition becomes. To eliminate the enemy with strong firepower on the battlefield while preserving oneself, the troops must continuously increase their new equipment. Thus, machine guns, rapid-fire rifles, mortars of different calibers, artillery, armored vehicles equipped with machine guns and light artillery, and various types of aircraft and their bombs, and have emerged. Especially noteworthy is that Ludendorff pointed out that although a technological equipment battle must be launched to make up for the shortcomings of the German army's equipment, "in the end, it depends on the person who holds the technical auxiliary equipment?" The chapter titles are:
1. The Nature of Total War
2. National Spiritual Unity as the Foundation of Total War
3. Economy and Total War
4. The Strength and Connotation of the National Defense Army
5. The Composition and Use of the National Defense Army
6. The Implementation of Total War
7. Commander