Plan 1919 - The Plan

The Plan

Fuller, in his Military History of the Western World states, "There are two ways of destroying an organization: 1. by wearing it down, 2. by rendering it inoperative. In war the first comprises the killing, wounding, capturing and disarming of the enemy's soldiers- body warfare. The second, the rendering inoperative of his power of command- brain warfare. To take a single man as an example: the first method may be compared to a succession of slight wounds which will eventually cause him to bleed to death; the second- a shot through the brain."

To accomplish this "shot through the brain" Fuller's plan required generals to penetrate the enemy’s defenses using tanks and targeting his chain of supply; so that in the ensuing confusion the enemy leadership could then be eliminated decisively. The goal of this was “the destruction of the enemy’s policy” (Reid). This would be accomplished by armored units penetrating the enemy lines and causing havoc in the rear areas, with the ultimate aim of eliminating the enemy leadership. The Plan emphasized the intended use of aircraft in the support role, along with motorized infantry to conduct operations in terrain unsuited to tanks. This mobile form of operations utilizing tanks and aircraft was a huge departure from the established infantry tactics of the day.

Detractors point out the flaws in Fuller’s plan. It is a strong point that the tank required by the plan had not been fielded yet, and that war torn Britain could not afford the manpower and materials needed to implement it (Palazzo), and as was demonstrated at Cambrai, the German artillery was deadly against the current British tanks without accompanying artillery support.

A new 40 ton tank design Mark VIII tank - based on the earlier British heavy tanks - was under construction in late 1918 with an ambitious production scheme of up to 4,500 tanks. Hundreds of these would be used in the spearhead and once these had broken through the German lines, the faster medium tanks would have "raced through" to disrupt the enemy rear. Aircraft would have been used to resupply the tanks and keep the breakthrough moving. (Ellis)

The British had a "trench fighter" design in production with orders for 1,400 aircraft. The Sopwith Salamander was armoured so that it could strafe and bomb the enemy trenches and artillery with less risk.