Offensively, Fuller’s doctrine became known by its more dramatic German pseudonym- blitzkrieg-and the principle behind it was deceptively simple: armored units should be massed and autonomous, not just dissipated among and acting in support of infantry units like mobile artillery (the role they have mostly served thus far on both sides of the Ukrainian conflict, as was seen in the recent fight for the town of Vuhledar). Fuller-the great genius of British tank doctrine, and one of the authors, together with his countryman Basil Liddell-Hart and Germany’s Heinz Guderian, of what we still know today as modern armored doctrine-played an active command role.

Tanks had been used earlier by the British, during the Battle of the Somme, but far less successfully, in part because Cambrai was the first battle during which J.F.C. Doing so will be far more important than learning engine specs and firing modalities, if only because it will allow them to mount a far more efficient defense immediately (without waiting for Western tanks), and eventually go on the offensive, and do both in ways for which the Russians are unprepared.Īs is widely known, modern mechanized warfare began, albeit almost by accident, with the British use of their very first armored field model, the Mark IV (which looked to British soldiers as well as their German enemies so much like a device for transporting water that they immediately gained their permanent nom de guerre, “tanks”), in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Indeed, it has already been demonstrated by their use of captured Russian MBTs: they have not yet mastered the fundamentals of modern armored doctrine, either strategically or tactically. But their most glaring shortcoming when it comes to modern armored warfare is not unique to Western tanks. Granted, it will take the Ukrainians some time to master the operational technicalities of each of these models, as they have begun to do in Germany. And even most analysts who have reservations about the tanks’ actual utility base their reservations on the Ukrainian tankers lack of training in specific Western models, preeminently the American Abrams MIA2 Main Battle Tank (MBT), the German Leopard II, and the British Challenger II. The pledge on the part of various NATO countries to send advanced armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) to Ukraine to help that country in its struggle against the Russian invasion has been welcomed by those who support Kyiv’s cause as something of a deliverance.

Modern day battle with tanks