Charles Ardant du Picq

Charles Jean Jacques Joseph Ardant du Picq (born October 19, 1821 in Perigueux , † August 15, 1870 in the Battle of Colombey ) was a colonel in the French army and an important military theorist of the 19th century. His writings had an impact especially in France and the United States and influenced their military doctrines and military operational principles.

career

Ardant du Picq was after completing his military training in Saint-Cyr and was promoted to Sous-lieutenant on 1 October 1844 in the 67 ^e régiment d'infantry Lyon added. There he was promoted to Lieutenant on May 15, 1848 , and on August 15, 1852 to Capitaine , before he was transferred to the "9 ^e bataillon de chasseurs a pied" (9th battalion hunters on foot) on December 25, 1853 . In the following year he took part in the Crimean War on March 29, 1854 , where he fell ill early and had to return home. After his recovery he returned to his unit, which had meanwhile been transferred to the front near Sevastopol . During the storming of the central bastion ( Fort Malakow ) of the Sevastopol fortress in September 1855, he was taken prisoner, from which he was released in December and immediately resumed his service. On February 15, 1856 promoted to Commandant , he went with the "16 ^e bataillon de chasseurs a pied" (16th Jäger Battalion) as part of the French intervention forces from August 1860 to June 1861 to Syria to deal with the riots of the Maronites and Bringing Druze under control. Like most of his peers, Ardant du Picq also served in Algeria ( 1864-66 ) before he was promoted to colonel on February 27, 1869. With this promotion, he was also commander of the 10 ^e régiment d'infantry (10th line infantry regiment), with whom he also available in French German War drew (1870-71). At the beginning of this war he was killed on August 15, 1870, during the Battle of Colombey near Metz .

plant

Ardant du Picq's reputation is based much more on his writings than on his more average military career. During his lifetime he had already published a work on ancient battles, which, together with the manuscripts found in the estate, was reissued in 1880 under the title Études sur le Combat . These "studies of ancient and modern battles" quickly became classics. In it he embarked on a completely new path of military analysis and, among other things, moved morale and other psychological aspects of warfare into the focus of his considerations.

Among his most significant discoveries are his insights into the clash of opposing forces in battle and questions of fear or fear . He proved that only in the rarest of cases did the opposing forces actually collide. Usually one of the two sides breaks off the run-up before a collision occurs and awaits the opponent's further run-up while standing or taking flight. If it waits for the further approach, the same mechanism occurs on the other side; it breaks off and flees or waits for the rest of the way at a safe distance or calmly goes over to standing combat. From an intensive study of sources and extensive written surveys in the French army, he also demonstrated that the bulk of the casualties in battle arise when one side turns to flee . On the run, the soldiers are no longer able to effectively protect themselves against persecutors. In the age of firearms, a number of volleys can then be sent after the fleeing person without the person firing having to take care of his own cover. He attributes the interruption of the assault or the attack to a fear of the soldiers which gradually spreads in the formation and which ultimately becomes overwhelming. This makes Ardant du Picq the first military theorist who paid such attention to the phenomenon of fear in battle or even dared to publicize this feeling and to recommend it to the attention of military leaders.

effect

Naturally, Ardant du Picq's writings initially worked in France, where, however, mainly his statements on the importance of fire fighting and the necessity of fire superiority, even in the attack, were taken to heart until the last moment. In the United States, especially after the world wars and again during the Vietnam War, his studies on fear in combat gained great interest. Together with the evaluation of the survey of German prisoners of war, which demonstrated the importance of the small combat community , they led to a realignment in the training and organization of the US armed forces .

Largely unknown in Germany, he is still considered one of the most important classics of the art of war in the United States thanks to his book, which apparently has never been translated into German, and is associated with Xenophon , Thukydides , Sun Tzu , Carl von Clausewitz , Jomini , Alfred Thayer Mahan , Julian Corbett , Giulio Douhet , TE Lawrence , George C. Marshall and Mao Zedong put on a par.

literature

• Martin van Creveld, The Art of War: War and Military Thought. London: Cassell, 2000. ISBN 0-304-35264-0
• John Keegan, The Face of War , Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-593-34513-7
• Alf W. Johansson, Europe's kiggy (1989)
• Battle Studies , Ardant du Picq's book on the behavior of soldiers during the battle in Project Gutenberg (English text)

Web links

• Literature by and about Charles Ardant du Picq in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So z. B. at Air War College and Air University or the semi-official United States Military Strategists Association (see the respective websites)