by John Cook
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First, command and control was not exercised 'horizontally' by ranks, but 'vertically' throughout the depth of the unit by divisions, platoons, sections and sub-sections. Second, and most important, is the omission of junior NCOs. These were, and are, a vital component part of the command element of any unit and I don't quite understand why Jeff chose to ignore them. If you take these into consideration, Britain remains high with a ratio of 15:100 throughout the period. The French exhibit a decline from 15:100 prior to 1804, through 14:100 between 1804 and 1808, to 13:100 after 1808. The Prussians remained fairly constant at 11:100 up to 1788, 12:100 between 1788 and 1806, reverting to 11:100 thereafter. The Austrian raised their leadership ratio from 9/7:100 in German/Hungarian regiments prior to 1806, to 11/10:100 afterwards. The Russians bring up the rear at 8:100 throughout the period. It seems, therefore, that the Prussians had it about right all the time and that from 1807 the French, Austrians and Prussians achieved approximate parity in leader to soldier ratio. The British and Russians are somewhat anomalous. What do the figures tell us? Principally, I think, that it's back to the drawing board on this one! Subsequent to his letter in Dispatches (FE34) Dave Hollin's sent the following to ADC, which further questions the policy of publishers, against the background of recent, apparent, enthusiasm in the pages of FE for foreign material on campaigns other than the Peninsula and Waterloozzzzzzzzz. It provides a sample of the kind of thing that might be available, if the publishers really believed it was a marketable proposition. If it is, I suggest you get off your collective bottoms, and tell them so. More ADC Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #37 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
Jeff Lewis' attempt to explain the differences in combat performance by doing some sums and arriving at the ration of officers and senior NCOs to soldiers is a nice idea but, I suspect, fundamentally flawed.