Riding the Red Horse

by Christopher Nuttall

  The fact that no state military has recently succeeded in defeating a nonstate enemy reminds us that Clio, the patron goddess of history, has a sense of humor; she teaches us that not all problems have solutions.

  For those wishing to learn more about the intellectual framework I call the Four Generations of Modern War, some useful resources are available, chief of which is the 4GW Canon, a list of seven books which, if read in the given order, will take the reader from the First Generation into the Fourth.

  The 4GW Canon

  1) The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militaerische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805 by Charles E. White, (Praeger, Westpower, CT, 1989)

  Scharnhorst was the key figure in the Prussian military reform movement that rebuilt the Prussian Army after the disastrous defeat of 1806. Without Scharnhorst’s reforms, the German Army would probably not have been able to develop Third Generation war in World War I, more than 100 years later. This is a history not only of adaptation and innovation in the First Generation, but of the importance of ideas in war as well. When I taught a course on the canon for Marine captains at Quantico, one of them said to me, “This book explains why we are reading all the other books.”

  2) The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 by Robert A Doughty (Archon Books, Hamden, CT, 1986)

  This somewhat dry book is essential to understanding the US military today, because what we think of as “the American way of war” was copied wholesale from the French during and after World War I. Every American officer to whom I lent my copy said on returning it, “This is us.” The reader can skip much of the material on French Army organization; it is the Second Generation doctrine that remains alive today.

  3) Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918 by Bruce Gudmundsson (Praeger, Westport, CT, 1989)

  This is the definitive book in English on the development of Third Generation war by the German Army in World War I. By 1918, Blitzkrieg was conceptually complete, lacking only the means to overcome the defenders’ mobility advantage at the operational level, which is what the Panzer divisions provided in World War II. When I asked General Hermann Balck whether Blitzkrieg was developed mostly 1914-1918 or 1918-1939, he replied, “It was all 1914-1918.” Bruce Gudmundsson co-hosted the Modern War television show with me for several years; all his work is superb and you can probably still find his excellent “Tactical Notebook” series somewhere on the internet.

  4) Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies, 1888-1918, by Martin Samuels (Frank Cass Publishers, London, 1995)

  This comparison of the Second Generation British Army with the Kaiserheer illustrates the differences between the Second and Third Generations.

  5) The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940, by Robert Doughty (Archon Books, Hamden, CT, 1982)

  In the 1940 campaign, the Second and Third Generations clashed head-on, and the Second went down to defeat in six weeks although the French had more and better tanks than the Germans. The crossing of the Meuse at Sedan by Guderian’s XIXth Panzer Corps and its subsequent turn toward the Channel was the decisive point, and this gripping book is the best on the subject. Several years ago I joined the US Army’s Quarterhorse Cav for a staff ride of XIXth Panzer Corps’ campaign through the Ardennes, and only when you see the terrain do you realize how great a risk the Germans took. You also note how, at one critical juncture after another, German junior leaders took the initiative while the French waited for orders.

  6) Fighting Power: German and US Army Performance, 1939-1945, by Martin van Creveld (The Free Press, NY, 1991)

  Martin and I are friends, and as I have told him more than once, this is his second-most important book. It compares the Second Generation US Army and the Third Generation Wehrmacht as institutions, showing the vast differences in institutional culture between the two generations. The Second Generation is inward-focused on procedures, processes, orders and techniques; it is highly centralized; it wants obedience, not initiative, and it depends on imposed discipline. The Third Generation is focused outward, on the situation, the enemy and the result the situation requires; it is decentralized in its decision making; it prefers initiative to obedience and it depends on self-discipline. The US military’s greatest shame is that it today remains a Second Generation force, despite the ready availability of books like Fighting Power that clearly show the superiority of the Third Generation. Why is it so out of date? Mostly out of sheer intellectual laziness.

  7) The Transformation of War by Martin van Creveld (The Free Press, NY, 1991)

  Though now more than twenty years old, this remains the best book on Fourth Generation war. As van Creveld says, what changes in the Fourth Generation is not how war is fought, but who fights and what they fight for. It works best to read this book after reading van Creveld’s The Rise and Decline of the State, which gives the history on which Transformation is based. Transformation is not only van Creveld’s most important book, it is also the most important book any serving officer can read. Any country whose officers have not read it is doomed to defeat, which may help explain why we are 0-4 against 4GW opponents.

  For those interested in navies, I would add an eighth book: The Rules of the Game by Andrew Gordon. The Royal Navy developed and institutionalized Third Generation war in the second half of the 18th century. The Rules of the Game is the story of how and why it lost it again in the 19th century.

  Editor's Introduction to:

  THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

  by Chris Kennedy

  Chris Kennedy, Commander (Ret.) United States Navy, spent twenty years as a Naval Flight Officer with almost thirty-three hundred hours of flight time between serving as a Bombardier/Navigator in the A-6E Intruder bomber and leading recon in the EP-3E Aries reconnaissance aircraft. He has something over 300 arrested carrier landings in the former. I don’t know about you, but that impresses the hell out of me. He served in the first Gulf War, in Intruders flying off the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), and flew recon during the Kosovo War. He’s supported special operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Chris retired in June, 2007.

  He’s also the author of five novels, including the Amazon bestselling series, The Theogony.

  Time for a little digression; indulge me. Whenever I begin to wonder if ICOTESCAS, the International Community Of The Ever So Caring And Sensitive, aren’t really just self-centered sociopaths, I find I can bring my mind back to reality by contemplating the issue of modern day African slavery. There are groups—Christian Solidarity International, for example—who raise money to “redeem,” which is to say, free, which is to say, pay ransom for, slaves held in Africa. The people in these groups seem to feel very good about themselves when they ransom a slave. And, as long as it makes them feel good to do so, I suppose they don’t feel the need to think about what they’re doing, or to realize that every time they do it, they make slave raiding more profitable, and increase the numbers of slaves taken.

  Oh, well, at least they’re not holding up idiot signs saying, “Free our girls” and posting them on Twitter. That’s something, I suppose.

  Commander Kennedy, on the other hand, being neither a self-centered, feel-good sociopath pretending to moral virtue, nor a posturing, well-connected, feminist fool holding up idiot ideograms, has a much better idea on how to address such situations. You might think of it as: “Anything worth doing is worth doing really well.”

  Enjoy “Thieves in the Night”.

  THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

  by Chris Kennedy

  February 25, 2017

  Boko Haram Kidnaps at Least 450, Kills 1,000 in Raid

  ABUJA, Nigeria—The Islamist terror group Boko Haram kidnapped at least 450 women and girls and killed over 1,000 people yesterday in an assault on the village of Wabumba, a local leader said Friday. The village is located northwest of the city of Gamawa in the state of Bauchi in northeast Nigeria, which has been the sce
ne of numerous Boko Haram attacks in recent months.

  Only 37 citizens, many of them in critical condition, survived the attack by Boko Haram gunmen in which the entire village was burned to the ground, the source said. Although the raid and kidnappings occurred on Thursday, the details of the attack were slow to emerge, because previous Boko Haram attacks destroyed all of the area’s cell phone towers.

  The attack is the largest for the terror group since the abduction of an estimated 276 girls in an April, 2014 attack on a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens of the abductees later escaped, but more than 200 are still missing to this day and are believed to have been sold into slavery.

  Attacks in the state have grown in frequency and severity recently. A Boko Haram spokesman said the attack Thursday was to protest the Bauchi government’s failure to provide its monthly protection payment to the group.

  February 27, 2017

  A cloud passed in front of the moon, and 50 shadows slithered out of the Jamaari River, 200 meters west of the village of Jibugi, Nigeria. The figures moved like wraiths, silent and deadly, flowing forward to a copse of trees before the moon came out again. Master Chief John Rowntree was the first to make it to the cover of the trees. He checked his watch. 0200. Right on schedule.

  While the rest of the troops readied their weapons, Rowntree watched the tree line to the south. An infrared strobe flashed. Although he could see it with his goggles, it would have been invisible to the naked eye. After a pause, it flashed again, and he flashed his own strobe once in reply. Rowntree turned to the two soldiers standing on guard nearby. “Stevens, Cochran, go bring him in,” he ordered.

  The soldiers disappeared into the undergrowth. Members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or SEAL Team Six as it was still known, the men had been chosen for their ability to move silently. A couple of minutes later, they reappeared with a man wearing camouflage in tow. They arrived at Rowntree’s position at the same time as his troop commander, Lieutenant Commander Bob Bringle.

  “Mr. Jones,” the newcomer introduced himself. But Rowntree knew the man’s name wasn’t Jones, or at least that wasn’t the name his parents had given him. Jones was a member of the CIA’s Special Operations Group (SOG). Responsible for covert operations that the U.S. government didn’t want to be associated with, SOG members had been awarded more Distinguished Intelligence Crosses than any other unit. If there was a more elite force than SEAL Team Six, it was the SOG, who got their pick of the best SEAL Team Six and Delta Force operators available. “Good to see you guys,” he added. “The village is only about 80 meters from here through the forest.”

  “Are the women still being held there?” asked LCDR Bringle.

  “Yeah, they’re in pens on the north end of town, although it looks like the terrorists are getting ready to move them,” Jones replied. “My teammate, Mr. Smith, is meeting up with the other two troops of your squadron to recover them.”

  “Good,” said Rowntree. “We don't have any signs from the First Lady telling the terrorists to bring back the girls, so perhaps a lead-jacketed message will prove more persuasive.”

  “My sentiments exactly,” said Jones. “How many men do you have?”

  “I’ve got Charlie Troop and a couple of extra snipers,” said Bringle. “We’ve got 20 total, plus you and Ben, our CAD. The other 30 men of the Gold Knights squadron are with our commanding officer for the recovery effort.”

  Jones nodded. He had expected them to bring a Combat Assault Dog. “That should be enough, as long as we can get in and out of town quietly,” said Jones. “The Boko Haram headquarters is about 50 meters inside a village of about 1,000 people. The town is small; it’s only about six blocks long north to south and five blocks wide east to west. Getting there will be easy; we can use these trees to cover our approach.”

  “What can you tell us about their defenses?” asked Bringle.

  “There are at least three technicals that patrol around the outside of the village,” said Jones, referring to the modified jeep-like vehicles, “as well as 10 or 12 sentries. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the guards; they just come and go at random. The technicals all have two or three men in them and a machine gun mounted to the back.”

  “.50 cal?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about in town?” asked Rowntree.

  “It usually gets quiet by about 0200,” said Jones. “We haven’t seen a lot of movement after that, although it’s been a little busier since the last raid. Usually the Boko leaders take a girl from the corral and head to their houses sometime before then. The villagers don’t come out much after dark. They risk getting shot if they do. That actually works in our favor, as anyone that sticks their head out of a building is probably Boko Haram.”

  “So what’s the plan?” asked Bringle.

  “We’ve had stealth drones watching the town almost continuously since yesterday,” Jones said, “and it appears that Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is in town, along with his two chief lieutenants, Buhari Akintola and Olajide Balewa. I’m going to lead you to the building where they are. We are going to terminate all of the terrorists in the building, recover any of the women that they’ve got there and then withdraw to the north, where we will link up with your commanding officer. We’ll then exfiltrate to the north-east where we will meet up with my guys and the trucks. We’ll load up the women, and then we’ll get the hell out of here.”

  “So you know where the leaders are hiding?” asked Rowntree.

  “Yeah,” said Jones. “It’s the only building in town that isn’t a mud hut. You’ll be able to see it before we even enter the village.”

  The radio crackled to life in LCDR Bringle’s headset. Mounted just forward of his ears, it used bone conduction technology to allow him to hear without putting plugs in his ears. “Knight 01, this is Shadow,” called an aviator on the reconnaissance aircraft orbiting high overhead. “Standing by with a situation report.”

  “This is Knight 01,” Bringle’s CO replied, “go ahead with your sitrep.”

  “There are several hundred high value units in some sort of guarded pen system on the north end of the village. The rest of the town is quiet; we’ve only seen a few people moving around in the last hour. There are manned sentry positions on the north, south, east and west sides of the village. All positions have 2-3 hostiles and a vehicle with a mounted machine gun. Over.”

  “Knight 01 copies all. Do you have a location on the primary target?”

  “Shadow hasn’t seen the primary target, but there were a lot of people coming and going earlier from the headquarters building. It looked like they were coming to report to someone there.”

  “Knight copies. We’re on schedule. Assault begins in one hour. Keep an eye out for us. Knight 01 out.”

  “Wilco,” replied the aviator, to indicate he would comply. “Shadow out.”

  “Okay,” said Bringle to Mr. Jones. “Everything’s on track. It’s almost 0230 now; we’ve got time to brief the troops and get into position. The assault begins at 0330.”

  “Stand by,” said the CO’s voice in all of the Gold Knights’ headsets. “On my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark.” Ten suppressed McMillan TAC-338 sniper rifles coughed quietly.

  On the west side of the village, the two sentries crumpled to the ground as the .338 Lapua Magnum rounds hit them. Stars blossomed in the window of the technical, and the two terrorists sitting in it died. Ten meters away, their machine gunner died quietly where he had gone to relieve himself.

  The five terrorists on the north end of town also died silently, although one wasn’t a clean kill, and he flopped around on the ground for a few seconds. The terrorist had been reaching for a cigarette just as the trigger had been pulled and he was fatally wounded rather than killed outright. But one of the sniper rifles coughed again, and the man stopped moving.

  LCDR Bringle watched through his four-tube night-vision goggles as the terrorists on the west side
of town fell. “All right, Master Chief,” he said, “let’s go kill some bad guys.”

  Master Chief Rowntree gave the signal, and the assault force started forward, Ben in the lead. With a sense of smell 40 times greater than the humans, the Belgian Malinois could detect and identify explosives as well as hidden terrorists. Outfitted with his own night-vision goggles, Ben also had an infrared capability that let him see human heat forms through some walls.

  “Homey, Higgy, check the bodies,” Rowntree transmitted. Petty Officer Steve Holm and Petty Officer Michael Higuchi moved to comply.

  “Bad news,” transmitted Petty Officer Higuchi, looking inside the technical. “They have radios. We’ll have to hurry; at some point, they’ll be missed.”

  The assault force approached the village, all their senses on edge. Before they could reach the first mud hut, though, Ben alerted. Petty Officer Stevens, their explosive ordnance disposal expert, moved forward. “There’s some sort of IED in the middle of the road,” he said. “Stay to the sides and you’ll be all right.”