US Army Historical Division ETHINT Document MS # C-044
GERMAN MILITARY TERMS
A. Strategisch, operativ, taktisch.
Question: An explicit definition of the three conceptions, STRATEGISCH, OPERATIV and TAKTISCH is requested. Difficulties continually arise in translating these terms – particularly OPERATIV – as US military terminology recognizes only the two categories, strategic and tactical.
Please give the official definitions as contained in service manuals, etc. A connotation of the two terms as they were used in practice is also desired.
Reply:
1. Definition of the conceptions STRATEGIE, OPERATION, TAKTIK. In his MILITAERISCHE WERKE, VOL II, TAKTISCHE und STRATEGISCH AUFSAETZE, 1857-1871, Pages 291 etc, Fieldmarshal Moltke in writing about the problem of conduct of war and politics, defines the conceptions STRATEGIE, OPERATION and TAKTIK. The treatise in question was written shortly after the 1870/71 war, while he was still under the impression of his controversy with Bismark. The definition given there can be considered official, even though it has not been laid down in service manuals. The passage in Moltke’s works referred to reads as follows:
“The politician* employs war as an instrument to gain his ends, politics decisively influencing war from beginning to end, namely because the politician reserves to himself the right to modify his aims during the armed conflict, either increasing or reducing his demands.
In view of this element of uncertainty, the strategist** has only one possible course: to aim at the highest objective attainable with the means available to him. In this way strategy serves the politician best, working for his ends though entirely independent in its functioning.
The function of strategy next in order of importance is the assembly of means of combat, the initial concentration of the army. Here allowance must be made for the many diverse considerations of a political or geographic nature or relating to affairs of state. If a mistake be made in the initial concentration of the armies, it will hardly be possible to correct that mistake during the entire campaign. However, the directives and orders necessary in this respect can be considered well in advance and, assuming the forces to be ready for combat and the transportation system to be properly organized, must bring about the intended results without fail.
It is different with the next function of strategy, namely the employment in combat of the assembled means, that is, their use in operations.
Here our will (our intentions) very soon come up against the independent will enemy. Admittedly it is possible to curb that will (or those intentions, of the enemy) provided we are ready to take the intiative and determined to do so, but we are not able to break it except by means of tactics, i.e., in battle”
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* Translator Note: To give a lucid translation it is necessary at time to interchange the terms politics and politician for the German term POLITIK.
** Translator Note: To give a lucid rendering it is necessary at times to interchange strategy and strategist for the German term STRATEGIE.
Explanation of some German Military Terms
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Re: Explanation of some German Military Terms
In 1882 Moltke qualified the first two paragraphs as follows:
“The course of the war will be determined primarily by military considerations; on the other hand it remains for the politician to exploit the successes gained or the reverses (sic) suffered in such war.”
Hence, according to Moltke strategy has three functions to perform:
1. To determine the highest military objective that can possibly be attained in order to serve political purposes.
2. The assembly and initial distribution of all forces. This latter function is defined as the execution of operations. Therefore OPERATIONEN are one phase of STRATEGIE, namely the combat employment of the assembled forces.
TAKTIK, on the other hand forms one phase of OPERATIONEN, being namely the control of units in action.
In Moltke’s time it was not necessary to determine the meaning of the terms STRATEGIE, and OPERATION more clearly than his definition does. As a result of the growing scope of warfare, the beginnings of which can be discerned in World War I, a certain change in the definition of the conceptions STRATEGIE and OPERATION can be observed.
The sphere covered by STRATEGISCHE deliberations has become extended owing to the growing part economics and psychological warfare play, (besides political considerations) in influencing decisions and measures taken in the military field in the conduct of war. As a result, deliberations and measures of a purely OPERATIVE nature are in growing measure being shifted from the sphere of STRATEGIE and are now more clearly defined as the field covered by the military execution of STRATEGISCHE missions.
Simultaneously, the field covered by OPERATIVE deliberations and measures is in process of expanding, owing to the mechanizing of the armed forces and the part technics play in the Wehrmacht. The sphere of OPERATIONEN is not on expanding, but it is becoming vastly more diversified than it was in Moltke’s time. Therefore the OPERATION as such is developing in growing measure into an independent sphere, which admittedly takes its directives from the sphere of STRATEGIE, but which represents a much more clearly defined and much wider field of responsibility than it did in Moltke’s time. There is an additional factor in Germany: the division of military control between OKW (High Command of the Armed Forces) and OKH (High Command of the Army) etc.
During Moltke’s lifetime, STRATEGISCH and OPERATIVE control were unified while under Hitler they were separate. Hitler, the Supreme commander, was simultaneously State Chief Executive. All authority in political, economic, psychological and military control centered in him. It was he who made all important decisions and who gave his STRATEGISCHE directives to several branches of the Wehrmacht.
OKH and the other top agencies were restricted to the execution of these directives, i.e., to OPERATIONEN. Thus, in the terminology of the German Army, the terms STRATEGIE and OPERATION for all practical purposes became the symbols for the two separated spheres of authority of the OKW on the one hand and the OKH on the other.
3. At what level in the military were STRATEGIE, OPERATION and TAKTIK carried out?
STRATEGIE is the domain of generalship, of the supreme military leader, the solution of whose high mission can only be reached by his closely coordinated leadership of his nation or of a coalition of nations in politics, economics and in the psychological field.
Control of OPERATIONEN as one phase of STRATEGIE rests with the higher level military commanders from the supreme commander down to the respective army commanders in chief, at times even down to corps commanders.
TAKTIK (command in combat) as an instrument of OPERATION is the function of the several military commanders from division level down. Higher level military commands (corps, army) rarely interfere in TAKTIK.
It is in the nature of things that an exact definition of the use of terms STRATEGIE, OPERATION and TAKTIK does not exist.
3. Common usage.
The definition of the terms as given above is not always adhered to in common usage and this is particularly the case in the use of the adjectives STRATEGISCH OPERATIV and TAKTISCH. The cause for the difficulty in making a proper choice in the use of these terms is to be found in the foregoing definition, according to which everything that is TAKTISCH (of a tactical nature) in its effects can also be OPERATIV (operational), whereas everything that is OPERATIV (operational), being but the practical execution of STRATEGISCHER (strategic) ideas, must necessarily also have its effect on the STRATEGISCHE (strategic) level.
Broadly speaking the German term OPERATIV is no doubt contained in the conception expressed by strategic, the American term for STRATEGISCH. The German conception of TAKTIK is identical with the American conception expressed by the same term (tactic).
4. Example.
If the government of a state consider that an existing conflict can only be solved by the application of military force, the following factors belong in the sphere of STRATEGIE:
- the weighing of what considerations are due to non-belligerent powers and to allied powers (in the case of Germany’s campaign against Russia, considerations due to the Balkan states, to Turkey, to Finland, etc.);
- economic deliberations as to whether one’s own country requires special protection against enemy attack, and which enemy region is vital to his war effort (for instance protection for Germany’s Upper Silesia; in 1940 protection for Germany’s Ruhr region; in 1941, Hitler’s intention in the battle of Kiev to deprive the Russians of their industrial regions in Eastern Ukrainia; 1942 Hitler’s attempt to gain possession of the oil wells in the Caucasus);
- propaganda considerations as to whether such measures as may seem advisable from the military point of view can be plausibly represented to the nation and to the world in general as the morally justifiable outcome of the clearly stated objectives aimed at in the war (thus, for instance the use of German forces in Romania and Finland in 1941);
“The course of the war will be determined primarily by military considerations; on the other hand it remains for the politician to exploit the successes gained or the reverses (sic) suffered in such war.”
Hence, according to Moltke strategy has three functions to perform:
1. To determine the highest military objective that can possibly be attained in order to serve political purposes.
2. The assembly and initial distribution of all forces. This latter function is defined as the execution of operations. Therefore OPERATIONEN are one phase of STRATEGIE, namely the combat employment of the assembled forces.
TAKTIK, on the other hand forms one phase of OPERATIONEN, being namely the control of units in action.
In Moltke’s time it was not necessary to determine the meaning of the terms STRATEGIE, and OPERATION more clearly than his definition does. As a result of the growing scope of warfare, the beginnings of which can be discerned in World War I, a certain change in the definition of the conceptions STRATEGIE and OPERATION can be observed.
The sphere covered by STRATEGISCHE deliberations has become extended owing to the growing part economics and psychological warfare play, (besides political considerations) in influencing decisions and measures taken in the military field in the conduct of war. As a result, deliberations and measures of a purely OPERATIVE nature are in growing measure being shifted from the sphere of STRATEGIE and are now more clearly defined as the field covered by the military execution of STRATEGISCHE missions.
Simultaneously, the field covered by OPERATIVE deliberations and measures is in process of expanding, owing to the mechanizing of the armed forces and the part technics play in the Wehrmacht. The sphere of OPERATIONEN is not on expanding, but it is becoming vastly more diversified than it was in Moltke’s time. Therefore the OPERATION as such is developing in growing measure into an independent sphere, which admittedly takes its directives from the sphere of STRATEGIE, but which represents a much more clearly defined and much wider field of responsibility than it did in Moltke’s time. There is an additional factor in Germany: the division of military control between OKW (High Command of the Armed Forces) and OKH (High Command of the Army) etc.
During Moltke’s lifetime, STRATEGISCH and OPERATIVE control were unified while under Hitler they were separate. Hitler, the Supreme commander, was simultaneously State Chief Executive. All authority in political, economic, psychological and military control centered in him. It was he who made all important decisions and who gave his STRATEGISCHE directives to several branches of the Wehrmacht.
OKH and the other top agencies were restricted to the execution of these directives, i.e., to OPERATIONEN. Thus, in the terminology of the German Army, the terms STRATEGIE and OPERATION for all practical purposes became the symbols for the two separated spheres of authority of the OKW on the one hand and the OKH on the other.
3. At what level in the military were STRATEGIE, OPERATION and TAKTIK carried out?
STRATEGIE is the domain of generalship, of the supreme military leader, the solution of whose high mission can only be reached by his closely coordinated leadership of his nation or of a coalition of nations in politics, economics and in the psychological field.
Control of OPERATIONEN as one phase of STRATEGIE rests with the higher level military commanders from the supreme commander down to the respective army commanders in chief, at times even down to corps commanders.
TAKTIK (command in combat) as an instrument of OPERATION is the function of the several military commanders from division level down. Higher level military commands (corps, army) rarely interfere in TAKTIK.
It is in the nature of things that an exact definition of the use of terms STRATEGIE, OPERATION and TAKTIK does not exist.
3. Common usage.
The definition of the terms as given above is not always adhered to in common usage and this is particularly the case in the use of the adjectives STRATEGISCH OPERATIV and TAKTISCH. The cause for the difficulty in making a proper choice in the use of these terms is to be found in the foregoing definition, according to which everything that is TAKTISCH (of a tactical nature) in its effects can also be OPERATIV (operational), whereas everything that is OPERATIV (operational), being but the practical execution of STRATEGISCHER (strategic) ideas, must necessarily also have its effect on the STRATEGISCHE (strategic) level.
Broadly speaking the German term OPERATIV is no doubt contained in the conception expressed by strategic, the American term for STRATEGISCH. The German conception of TAKTIK is identical with the American conception expressed by the same term (tactic).
4. Example.
If the government of a state consider that an existing conflict can only be solved by the application of military force, the following factors belong in the sphere of STRATEGIE:
- the weighing of what considerations are due to non-belligerent powers and to allied powers (in the case of Germany’s campaign against Russia, considerations due to the Balkan states, to Turkey, to Finland, etc.);
- economic deliberations as to whether one’s own country requires special protection against enemy attack, and which enemy region is vital to his war effort (for instance protection for Germany’s Upper Silesia; in 1940 protection for Germany’s Ruhr region; in 1941, Hitler’s intention in the battle of Kiev to deprive the Russians of their industrial regions in Eastern Ukrainia; 1942 Hitler’s attempt to gain possession of the oil wells in the Caucasus);
- propaganda considerations as to whether such measures as may seem advisable from the military point of view can be plausibly represented to the nation and to the world in general as the morally justifiable outcome of the clearly stated objectives aimed at in the war (thus, for instance the use of German forces in Romania and Finland in 1941);
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Re: Explanation of some German Military Terms
The following would belong in the sphere of OPERATIONEN: plans for the assembly and movement of forces made available to fulfillment of the STRATEGISCHE mission, in such manner as to bring about a decision in battle (for instance: concentration by rail transport; operation plans etc.);
Whereas the following would belong in the sphere of TAKTIK: planning by lower level commands for the use in combat of the forces assembled for that purpose, in such manner as to destroy the combat power of the enemy (tactics of the individual arms, tactics for combined arms action).
B. Truppendienstliche Unterstellung
Einsatzmässige Unterstellung
Question: Please explain these two terms and any other common forms of Unterstellung.
Answer: The peculiar circumstances ruling during the war had given rise to new and varied terms for the conception of UNTERSTELLUNG. It therefore became necessary for OKW to set a fixed definition of the term UNTERSTELLUNG and to make it known to Wehrmacht units. The necessary order was issued under OKW No. 161/43g AWA/W Allg (IIc) – WFSt/Org dated 9 Mar 43. This order determined as follows:
The UNTERSTELLUNG of a unit, a command staff, or an agency, can be either total or can be restricted to certain functions. Following differences must be observed:
1. UNTERSTELLUNG in all respects.
2. Partial or restricted UNTERSTELLUNG. Here again a difference will be observed between
a. TRUPPENDIENSTLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG
b. TAKTISCHER or EINSATZMÄSSIGER UNTERSTELLUNG
c. FACHLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG
d. TERRITORIALER UNTERSTELLUNG
TRUPPENDIENSTLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG includes routine duty, training, education (together with disciplinary and court matters and efficiency rating), welfare (welfare for soldiers, awarding of decorations, promotion, transfers, personnel matters of personnel).
TAKTISCHE or EINSATZMÄSSIGE UNTERSTELLUNG includes operational and tactical use of a unit, together with current supply service to such unit unless some other arrangement is ordered.
FACHLICHE UNTERSTELLUNG comprises subordination for the execution of special duties (administrative or medical duties, defense, military mapping and surveying duties, special weapons, etc).
TERRITORIALE UNTERSTELLUNG includes station matters, press radio, film, army propaganda matters, replacements, military fatigue duties, road traffic control service, emergency services, combat against enemy airborne landings within the respective territorial zone, etc.
In addition to the basic definitions as set forth above, it was laid down that individual spheres included in any of the above types of UNTERSTELLUNG could be excepted and, contrary to these basic definitions, could be determined specifically. Finally the several types of UNTERSTELLUNG could be subject to some fixed time limit or could be limited to definite missions of functions.
In the navy, all functions pertaining to current supply services came under the heading TRUPPENDIENSTLICHE UNTERSTELLUNG (see above) and not under TAKTISCHE or EINSATZMÄSSIGE UNTERSTELLUNG.
Examples:
1. A Waffen-SS division is assigned to Army Headquarters (of the normal army as different from the SS) and passes under command of that Headquarter’s EINSATZMÄSSIG (TAKTISCH), but, so far as the current supply services are concerned, Headquarters will only control its ammunition and fuel supply. This means that the CiC of the Army in question will only give to the Division and its use in combat as well as its supply with ammunition and fuel, but that TRUPPENDIENSTLICH (see above) it will not be commanded by him, and this refers chiefly to court matters, training, awards of decorations and so forth.
2. A division is held in the rear zone as OKH reserve. For this purpose Division is under command of OKH EINSATZMÄSSIG, but not in respect of its current supply services; in all other respects it will be under command of the Army in whose zone it is located.
Whereas the following would belong in the sphere of TAKTIK: planning by lower level commands for the use in combat of the forces assembled for that purpose, in such manner as to destroy the combat power of the enemy (tactics of the individual arms, tactics for combined arms action).
B. Truppendienstliche Unterstellung
Einsatzmässige Unterstellung
Question: Please explain these two terms and any other common forms of Unterstellung.
Answer: The peculiar circumstances ruling during the war had given rise to new and varied terms for the conception of UNTERSTELLUNG. It therefore became necessary for OKW to set a fixed definition of the term UNTERSTELLUNG and to make it known to Wehrmacht units. The necessary order was issued under OKW No. 161/43g AWA/W Allg (IIc) – WFSt/Org dated 9 Mar 43. This order determined as follows:
The UNTERSTELLUNG of a unit, a command staff, or an agency, can be either total or can be restricted to certain functions. Following differences must be observed:
1. UNTERSTELLUNG in all respects.
2. Partial or restricted UNTERSTELLUNG. Here again a difference will be observed between
a. TRUPPENDIENSTLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG
b. TAKTISCHER or EINSATZMÄSSIGER UNTERSTELLUNG
c. FACHLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG
d. TERRITORIALER UNTERSTELLUNG
TRUPPENDIENSTLICHER UNTERSTELLUNG includes routine duty, training, education (together with disciplinary and court matters and efficiency rating), welfare (welfare for soldiers, awarding of decorations, promotion, transfers, personnel matters of personnel).
TAKTISCHE or EINSATZMÄSSIGE UNTERSTELLUNG includes operational and tactical use of a unit, together with current supply service to such unit unless some other arrangement is ordered.
FACHLICHE UNTERSTELLUNG comprises subordination for the execution of special duties (administrative or medical duties, defense, military mapping and surveying duties, special weapons, etc).
TERRITORIALE UNTERSTELLUNG includes station matters, press radio, film, army propaganda matters, replacements, military fatigue duties, road traffic control service, emergency services, combat against enemy airborne landings within the respective territorial zone, etc.
In addition to the basic definitions as set forth above, it was laid down that individual spheres included in any of the above types of UNTERSTELLUNG could be excepted and, contrary to these basic definitions, could be determined specifically. Finally the several types of UNTERSTELLUNG could be subject to some fixed time limit or could be limited to definite missions of functions.
In the navy, all functions pertaining to current supply services came under the heading TRUPPENDIENSTLICHE UNTERSTELLUNG (see above) and not under TAKTISCHE or EINSATZMÄSSIGE UNTERSTELLUNG.
Examples:
1. A Waffen-SS division is assigned to Army Headquarters (of the normal army as different from the SS) and passes under command of that Headquarter’s EINSATZMÄSSIG (TAKTISCH), but, so far as the current supply services are concerned, Headquarters will only control its ammunition and fuel supply. This means that the CiC of the Army in question will only give to the Division and its use in combat as well as its supply with ammunition and fuel, but that TRUPPENDIENSTLICH (see above) it will not be commanded by him, and this refers chiefly to court matters, training, awards of decorations and so forth.
2. A division is held in the rear zone as OKH reserve. For this purpose Division is under command of OKH EINSATZMÄSSIG, but not in respect of its current supply services; in all other respects it will be under command of the Army in whose zone it is located.