German views of irregular warfare
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Authors
Hindert, Johann
Subjects
Irregular Warfare
German Irregular Warfare
Unconventional Warfare
Resistance
Partisan Warfare
Guerrilla Warfare
Strategic Commando Operations
Insurgency
Counter-Insurgency
German Military History
Pseudo Operations
Terrorism
Counter-Terrorism
Hessian Jägers
The American Revolution
World War I
World War II
German East Africa
Schutztruppe
Battle of Crete
Cold War
Carl von Clausewitz
Johann Ewald
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Otto Skorzeny
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte
Otto Heilbrunn
Operation Oak
Operation Panzerfaust
German Irregular Warfare
Unconventional Warfare
Resistance
Partisan Warfare
Guerrilla Warfare
Strategic Commando Operations
Insurgency
Counter-Insurgency
German Military History
Pseudo Operations
Terrorism
Counter-Terrorism
Hessian Jägers
The American Revolution
World War I
World War II
German East Africa
Schutztruppe
Battle of Crete
Cold War
Carl von Clausewitz
Johann Ewald
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Otto Skorzeny
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte
Otto Heilbrunn
Operation Oak
Operation Panzerfaust
Advisors
Arquilla, John
Sepp, Kalev
Date of Issue
2015-06
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
Increasingly, so-called weak actors employ irregular warfare to successfully challenge the strong. The British, French, and Americans are recognized for their irregular warfare experience, but the comparatively rich German tradition remains overlooked. German contributions to irregular warfare, in fact, rival their reputed expertise in modern maneuver warfare. This thesis surveys German irregular warfare cases from the eighteenth century forward. Beginning in the American Revolution, Hessian officer Johann Ewald revealed important counter-insurgency principles. In the early nineteenth century, Carl von Clausewitz spoke to the larger idea of people’s war and noted its efficacy. In a peripheral theater of World War I, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck mastered the art of irregular adaptation and survival. In the Second World War, Otto Skorzeny perfected the strategic commando raid. After serving in the same war, Friedrich A.F. von der Heydte published a theory of modern irregular warfare, unique for its views on terrorism and the combined employment of irregular and other forms of warfare. Otto Heilbrunn studied partisan warfare and endorsed pseudo operations to counter asymmetric threats such as those faced by the United States today. German irregular warfare offers strategic answers to contemporary security challenges.
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Thesis
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Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.