Final Essay
L29413186, HIUS380,
D-02
Connor Alden
Southwell
The American way of fighting has always been an evolutionary and
always changing form of fighting, but at the least it has always been the
most dominant form at the time. Starting all the way from the Spanish War
till the very most recent wars on ground and cyber warfare, the ways of
fighting have always been changing. There are many different reasons as to
why American forces has had to change their way of fighting. The most
occurring reason as to why American forces has had to change their way of
fighting is due to geography, cultures, weaponry, and tactics. These factors
are key components to the ever-changing wars that America will always be
able to stand up against. Throughout this essay, it will illustrate the different
ways of fighting from the Spanish War all the way through Vietnam War and
into today’s war in Afghanistan and the cyber warfare.
The Spanish War started out the modern military ways of fighting. In
the Spanish War, the American Military was just starting to figure out their
primary means of war fighting. The most advanced small arms weaponry
they had at the time was just a Krag- Jorgenson, which was only just a small
five shot rifle. Granted, at the time, this was a huge advancement in
technology from the previous musket. At Santiago, was one of the first
planning’s at an amphibious assault, which are very complex operations. The
Americans were also able to see an enfilade coming at them, so they were
able to retreat and be able to defeat that enfilade. Them Americans then
realized that they made a mistake by trying to advance troops forward
without using all of there possible armory. After that lessons learned
moment, the American commanders then decided to take a frontal assault,
followed by a defilade that had artillery fire at the enemies. The Spanish
American War was also one of the first wars that the American forces
recognized African American as their own cavalry, and it went all the way to
the point that they gained the eyes of many military leaders. Another great
lesson that is taken out of this war is the concept of the chain of command.
The American military is so great because of the fact that the superiors can
listen to the subordinates, but also that the subordinates can listen to the
superiors. That is what has made this military so powerful and versatile.
During the Philippines, the innovation of a superior small arms was made.
The Colt .45 caliber pistol was a game changer, that kept itself in buisness
for wars to come.
The next war that the Americans jumped in to was World War I. The
Americans did not per say jump into the war but felt that they had no other
choice after the actions that had happened. Prior to the war, Americans felt
that it was necessary that they had a trained and ready fighting force to go
to war at any time. After the Spanish War, one of the lessons learned was
that America needed to have a trained force ready to fight. In 1903, the Dick
Act was passed stating that they had to funding and the backing for a
stronger National Guard. Along with the Dick Act in 1903, the General Staff
saw it necessary that there was going to be more of professional training.
This was that America was going to win their wars on the practice field. They
stated that training was going to win the wars. Once the Americans threw
themselves in the war, after the Zimmerman telegraph and the sinking of
the Lusitania, there was major differences between the previous fighting
techniques. The Americans were able to use phase lines which helped them
better control their firing measures. One issue that the Americans faced was
the fact that the Germans could use the railroad system to resupply their
troops. Once the Americans started in the war, the German offensive was at
full blast
and the Americans decided to use a light infantry technique. This meant that
the American force is much lighter and can move at a faster, which means
they could move in closer on the Germans than they would with the machine
guns. This was called the “shock troop tactic”, where they were able to
throw the enemy off guard. In World War I, was the first time that air power
became a vital asset. The Air support was divided into two categories:
reconnaissance and close-air support.
The next war that the America was apart of was World War II. This war
was split into two theaters: Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. Just like World
War I, America was not going to take part of this war, until they had to. In
December of 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which threw America
straight into the war. America had a “Germany First” strategy, making
Europe their first priority. Throughout Africa, General Patton was taking
charge of his troops. Though the Kassarine Pass was a disaster at first, it
showed that the American Army was a learning army and they bounced back
from that lost battle. In Sicily, the Navy warships played a huge role in filling
in the gunfire gaps. That was the range where American forces could not
reach, and this helped General Patton swing around the island and take what
was left of it. In Germany, the Americans thought that it would have been a
good play to carpet bomb all of the historical sites, so it would make
Germany think about surrendering. But instead it just played an advantage
to the Germans by using it for cover and concealment. Bombing played a
large role in this war because it let the Americans focus on bombing
factories, railroads, and other vital areas without ever target personnel. The
greatest American way of fighting took place on the beach of Normandy. Not
only was it the largest amphibious attack, but it was the turning point for the
war. D-Day was the first for a lot of
things. The “frogmen” were highly trained individual that went in and made
sure that the area was clear for the other to go through. Mulberry ramps
were used to bring troops from the “Mother Ship” back to land. These water
shuttles helped bring this amphibious attack together. In the Pacific theater,
the Americans had their first retaliation with the Doolittle Raid. This was the
first showing of force that the Americans made. The pacific theater showed
the power of the American Navy and how they were going to work to regain
control of all the port in the pacific theater. The first move by the Marines
was to take control of Guadalcanal, so that the Japanese could not take
control of the new airfield in Australia. That would have been disastrous for
the Americans because it would have isolated Australia for the Japanese. In
the pacific theater of the war, island hopping was the new form of war. This
meant that they were going from island to island gaining control of each
one. The air war in the pacific took a major change when the P- 51 Mustangs
got bigger fuels tanks, this meant that they could escort the B-29’s longer
and be able to defend them in the case of an attack. Out of all the different
tactics and maneuver that came out of World War II, nothing surpasses the
two atomic bombs. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
changed the war and the rest of life as Americans know it or not. To be able
to end a war and almost a civilization is a game changer and it was what had
to be done in this war.
Soon after the buzz of winning World War II, the Americans go straight
into a war with the North Koreans. This war was going to mean a lot to
Americans because they were on a high of the triumphant win over the Axis
powers. The Americans also had a mindset that they did not need troops
when they had the bombs. The North Koreans knew what they were fighting
for, but the Americans only merely knew what they were
fighting against. In Korea was the first time that the Americans had to realize
that they could not win the war by taking over North Korea and their
communist ideals. The styles of fighting in Korea was predominately by
amphibious styles. This was mainly due to President Truman calling the
Marine Corps just a policing unit and not an elite fighting force. Once the
Americans pushed far enough into North Korea, China entered the war and
disrupted what America had thought they could do. In the end of the war, it
settled at the 38th parallel where they got to separate the two countries and
their ideas.
The Vietnam War was nothing shy of what the American’s saw in
Korea. It was the Americans coming in to save the day against communism.
The South Vietnamese needed help from the spreading communism from
the North. The Americans came into this war with a whole new style of
tactics. The American’s thought it would be a better tactic to just go into the
war and stay on the defensive, instead of trying to gain ground in North
Vietnam. One major difference in the Vietnam War was that it was not
backed by the people or most of the strong military leaders. The famous
quote is “no more ground war in Asia”, this was that after Korea they did not
want to participate in a war that they were never meant to be in. Military
strategy was not very big in this war since the civilians seemed to be calling
the shots in this war. Operation Rolling Thunder was planned out by the
Presidents “advisors”, and they choose what air targets were going to be hit.
But of course, no one can think of the Vietnam war without the use of the
helicopter. The Helicopter was used as the “sky cavalry” that was helped in
transporting troops from one location to the another.
Next war after Vietnam was a totally different war, with a totally
different look at war. The first Iraq war came with a lot of new technology
that is still used in today’s
wars. Night Vision Goggles and Global Positioning Systems are a pivotal
point in technology for the military makes America further down the chain
than any other military. Not soon after there will be more wars in Iraq that
will still be taking place today. After 9/11, the search was now one for other
countries that were producing WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction). There
was now a new enemy that Americans had to look out for, and it was not a
person, they are improvised explosive devices. After the election of
President Obama, his administration saw that Afghanistan was a higher
priority target than Iraq was. Here General Petraeus used his Anaconda
Strategy, by using elite hunters, or special forces. This was the dawn of the
killing of Osama Bin Laden by the famous Seal Team Six. Soon after these
two wars, a more sinister group arose and made itself as ISIS. The
Americans are still fighting against ISIS stateside and overseas.
One aspect that people might not see about our military is the cyber
side. There are men and women day and night fighting hackers that are
trying to gather intel through computers. There have been numerous
attempts at the Chinese trying to hack into American systems. Just like there
is always a plan that will come up when the enemy throws something new at
the military, cyber warfare is just that.
Reference
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