HIST 3900 Exam 2

Prussian Great General Staff

The central command, planning, and operational body of the Prussian Army, and later the core of the German General Staff after unification in 1871.

• A permanent, highly professionalized body of elite staff officers selected by merit, rigorous training, and intellectual ability, rather than by patronage or social status

  • Staff officers were put through an exhaustive course at the War Academy (Kriegsakademie)

  • Staff continuously created, refined, and tested detailed mobilization and campaign plans for every conceivable enemy and political scenario

• Managed the mobilization, movement, supply, and overall direction of large-scale, mass armies

  • Acted as the “brain” of the military, separate from the War Ministry (which handled administration and logistics) and the field commanders

  • Pioneered the use of railways for rapid, massive troop mobilization and the telegraph for swift command and control across vast fronts

Helmuth von Moltke (the elder)

Prussian Field Marshal and Chief of the Prussian Great General Staff for over 30 years.

• Born in 1800 in Denmark, and served in the Danish army

• Regarded as the creator of the modern military general staff

  • Professionalized the General Staff into a dedicated, highly trained body of experts responsible for intelligence, planning, mobilization, and training

  • One of the first to recognize and exploit the military potential of new technology, especially railways and telegraphs, using them to achieve rapid, massive troop mobilization

• Considered the architect of Prussia’s (later Germany’s) rise to military dominance

• Planned and directed the campaigns that led to the successful German Wars of Unification (Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War)

Battle of Sedan

• When: September 1870

• Where: French fortress town of Sedan in northeastern France

• Who: Prussia vs. France (Franco-Prussian War)

• What: Saw two German armies, led by General Helmuth von Moltke (the elder), encircle and trap the French Army commanded by Marshal Patrice de MacMahon and accompanied by Emperor Napoleon III

• Result: Ended in the total annihilation of the French army, with over 100,000 soldiers captured and Emperor Napoleon III was taken prisoner

  • Led to the end of the Second French Empire and the creation of the Third French Republic

  • Provided the final political and nationalistic momentum for the unification of Germany in 1871

  • Moltke used railroads for rapid troop deployment and breech-loading artillery to overpower the French

The Influence of Sea Power Upon History

A foundational text of naval strategy and geopolitics, published in 1890 by American naval officer and historian Alfred Thayer Mahan.

• Argued that national prosperity, power, and security depend on control of the sea and that the period between 1660 and 1783 proves that the rise and fall of great nations were directly tied to their command of the world’s oceans

  • The sea is an essential highway for commerce, and a strong nation must be able to keep its trade routes open in peacetime and secure in war

  • A navy’s primary purpose is to destroy or neutralize the enemy's main battle fleet in a decisive engagement, thereby gaining “command of the sea.”

  • To project power, a nation must build a large, concentrated fleet of capital ships (like battleships) and acquire a global network of strategic naval bases (coaling stations and ports) for refueling and resupply

• Considered the single most influential work in modern naval strategy, and had a profound, immediate impact on international politics and military doctrine

  • The world’s major powers, including Germany, Japan, and the United States, quickly adopted Mahan’s theories

  • Provided a theoretical framework for the era's new wave of colonialism and territorial acquisition

Alfred Thayer Mahan

A United States Navy officer, historian, and naval strategist, and is widely considered the most important American strategist of the 19th century.

• Wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History

  • Argued that national greatness and prosperity were inextricably linked to a nation's ability to use and control the sea

The Jeune École

A naval strategic concept developed primarily by French naval theorists in the late 19th century, emerging as a response to the dominance of the British Royal Navy and the high cost of building traditional, large battleship fleets.

• Proposed building and relying on a large number of small, fast, and relatively inexpensive vessels, primarily torpedoes and torpedo boats, to attack and sink much larger enemy warships

• Shifted the strategic focus away from seeking decisive battle between fleets toward economic warfare

• Forced all major naval powers, especially Britain, to develop countermeasures, resulting in the creation of the torpedo-boat destroyer

Battle of Isandlwana

• When: January 1879

• Where: Zulu Kingdom in present-day South Africa

• Who: Britain vs. the Zulu Kingdom (Anglo-Zulu War)

• What: Occurred when the main British invasion column, led by Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford, entered Zululand and left a poorly defended camp at the base of Isandlwana hill

• Result: Zulu successfully outmaneuvered the British, launching a swift and well-coordinated attack using their traditional “chest and horns of the buffalo” formation to encircle the camp, completely overwhelming and annihilating the British camp

  • 1,300 British and colonial troops were killed (the most devastating defeat suffered by the modern British Army against an indigenous, technologically inferior force)

  • British commanders underestimated the discipline, mobility, and tactical skill of the Zulu army

Cetshawayo kaMpande

The king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1884 and the Commander-in-Chief of the Zulu army during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, and was the last king of an independent Zulu nation.

• Served as a major foe to the British colonial endeavors in South Africa

• Led Zulu forces to their most famous and shocking victory over the British at the Battle of Isandlwana

• Despite the major victory at Isandlwana, the Zulu army was ultimately defeated in subsequent battles, leading to the capture and burning of Ulundi, where Cetshwayo was captured and exiled

Boer

The interior areas of modern-day South Africa that once the location of the independent Boer Republics in the 19th century.

• Independent states established by Dutch-speaking settlers, but were sparsely populated rural territories

• The existence of independent, self-governing Boer states was seen as a major obstacle to the British goal of uniting all of South Africa under colonial rule

  • Led to the Anglo-Boer Wars (1880–1881 and 1899–1902)

  • The discovery of immense gold and diamond deposits in the territories heightened British imperial interest

• Had commandos which lacked official military training but were adequately armed with guns and understood the terrain

Battle of Adua (Adwa)

• When: March 1896

• Where: Ethiopia

• Who: Italy vs. Ethiopia (First Italo-Ethiopian War)

• What: Stemmed from Italy's attempt to impose a protectorate over Ethiopia, based on their interpretation of the 1889 Treaty of Wuchale, which Emperor Menelik II disputed as compromising Ethiopian sovereignty

• Result: a comprehensive Ethiopian victory, annihilating a significant portion of the Italian colonial force

  • Forced Italy to sign the Treaty of Addis Ababa (October 1896), which formally recognized Ethiopia's absolute independence

  • Crushing defeat of a modern European army by an African force

Menelik II

The Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 until his death in 1913.

• His most celebrated achievement was the decisive victory over the invading Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896

  • Secured Ethiopia’s sovereignty, making it the only African nation to successfully defeat a major European colonial power

• Expanded the Ethiopian Empire to nearly its present-day borders, incorporating southern, eastern, and western territories

Port Arthur

A strategically vital deep-water, ice-free naval base and fortress located at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, that Russia had leased it from China in 1898 and heavily fortified it as the forward base for its Pacific Fleet in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

• Japan enacted a surprise night attack on the Russian ships anchored at the port

  • Damaged key Russian battleships and effectively neutralized the Russian Pacific Fleet by bottling it up in the harbor for months

• Siege of Port Arthur by the Japanese was a turning point as Japan successfully captured the fortress after months of fighting

  • The Japanese flank used their heavy artillery to shell and sink the surviving Russian warships within the harbor

• The loss of its entire Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur forced Russia to send its Baltic Fleet on an 8,000-mile journey halfway around the world to reinforce the Far East

  • Culminated in the decisive Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, which effectively ended the war

Battle of Tsushima

• When: May 1905

• Where: Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea (on the ocean)

• Who: Russia vs. Japan (Russo-Japanese War)

• What: The Russian goal was to reach the remaining Russian port of Vladivostok, but they were intercepted by the Japanese fleet in the narrow Tsushima Strait

• Result: Overwhelming defeat for the Russian Navy with 21 ships sunk, 7 captured, and over 5,000 men killed, and a majority of the Baltic Fleet was destroyed or captured

  • Destruction of the Baltic Fleet shattered the entire Russian naval presence in the Far East

  • The only decisive battle ever fought between modern steel battleship fleets

  • Cemented Japan’s status as the first non-Western, Asian nation in the modern era to defeat a major European power

  • Contributed directly to the Russian Revolution of 1905, which forced the Tsar to make political concessions

HMS Dreadnought

A revolutionary British battleship launched in 1906, which completely redefined naval power and warfare.

• Armed with a uniform main battery of ten 12-inch guns, which simplified fire control immensely, making it easier for spotters to correct their aim and score hits

• Powered by steam turbine engines, which gave an unprecedented top speed of 21 knots, faster than any existing battleship

• Reset the balance of global naval power as every major maritime nation, particularly the German Empire, was forced to start building its own class of battleships

  • Sparked a furious and expensive naval arms race between Britain and Germany in the years leading up to World War I, which greatly contributed to the rising tensions in Europe

• One of these ships were considered capable of defeating an entire squadron of older battleships

  • Confirmed that the decisive factor in future naval battles would be long-range hitting power and superior speed

Horatio Kitchener

A British Army officer and colonial administrator responsible for multiple decisive imperial campaigns in Africa, and his organizing the British war effort at the beginning of World War I. 

• Secured British control in Sudan in 1898-1899 using railroad systems and steamboats

• Part of the Anglo-Boer Wars, successfully adapting to the Boer guerrilla warfare, using controversial and harsh tactics that included concentration camps for Boer civilians

• Served as Chief of Staff and then Commander-in-Chief in South Africa from 1900-1902

• Died in 1916 after his armored cruiser was struck by a German mine on his way to Russia 

Alfred von Schlieffen

A German and Prussian Field Marshal and military strategist who served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906.

• Devised the Schlieffen Plan, which was a solution to the two-front war Germany faced in WWI (France to the West and Russia to the East)

  • Designed to achieve a rapid, decisive victory over one enemy before the other could fully mobilize with a massive, concentrated, and overwhelming attack on France

  • To bypass France's heavy border fortifications, the main German force would execute a sweeping maneuver (“right-hook”), invading neutral nations like Belgium and potentially the Netherlands, before encircling Paris and crushing the French army in a decisive campaign within about six weeks

  • A much smaller force would be placed on the Eastern Front to hold off the Russians, who took longer to mobilize

Plan XVII

The plan for the French Army’s mobilization, concentration, and deployment was to be executed at the beginning of a war with Germany in 1913.

• Offensive strategy deploying five forces heading toward Germany, using an additional force to sweep around the German forces

• Underestimated the size of the German forces and their firepower, and it was an overall failure

  • The French offensive was shattered by a more numerous and better-positioned German army, which inflicted over 300,000 casualties

  • Demonstrated that the French military offensive strategy

Erich von Falkenhayn

A German general who held the key position of Chief of the German General Staff during the first half of World War I and was the primary architect of German strategy from late 1914 to mid-1916.

• Focused German resources primarily on the Western Front, advocating for a defensive posture there while conducting limited, successful offensives in the East

  • Believed that Russia was too vast for a decisive operational victory and that the real war would be decided in the West

• At the Battle of Verdun in 1916, he planned a series of limited attacks that would force the French to commit all their available reserves to defend a position of national significance

  • Led to high German casualties, and the French army did not break, which led to his dismissal

Erich Ludendorff

A German general during World War I who effectively ran a de facto military dictatorship over Germany during the final and most critical phase of the war.

• Formed and partnership with Paul von Hindenburg, serving as his chief of staff in the decisive German victories against Russia, such as the Battle of Tannenberg

• Was appointed First Quartermaster General after Hindenburg was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1916

• Pushed for extreme measures, including the controversial decision to begin unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, knowing it would likely bring the United States into the war

• The primary planner behind the German Spring Offensive (Kaiserschlacht) in early 1918

  • Germany’s last massive attempt to win the war on the Western Front before the full force of the American military could arrive

First Battle of the Marne

• When: September 1914

• Where: Marne, River east of Paris, France

• Who: France and Britain vs. Germany

• What: The Schlieffen Plan relied on quickly defeating France by sweeping through neutral Belgium and circling west of Paris to envelop the French armies, and by early September, the German armies were within 30 miles of Paris, and the French government had evacuated

• Result: The French 6th Army struck the German flank, a 30-mile gap opened, and French and British forces rushed into it

  • Caused the German armies to retreat northward, and the threat to Paris was gone

  • The Schlieffen Plan failed and ensured Germany would be forced into a long, two-front war

  • Marked the “Race to the sea” as both sides tried to outflank the other, which led to the creation of an unbroken line of trenches from the Swiss border to the North Sea

  • The success of defensive positions over frontal attacks cemented the shift from maneuver warfare to the stalemate of static trench warfare

Battle of Tannenberg

• When: August 1914

• Where: East Prussia (now Poland)

• Who: Russia vs. Germany (Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff)

• What: Russia launched two armies into German East Prussia to relieve pressure on the French in the West, mobilizing faster than Germany expected

• Result: German forces encircled the Russian Second Army, nearly annihilating it (100,000 taken prisoner and 50,000 killed or wounded), resulting in a German victory

  • Expelled Russian forces from German soil for the rest of World War I

  • Turned the German commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff into national heroes

  • An enormous blow to the Russian military machine from which it never fully recovered during the war

  • Contributed to the deepening political unrest within Russia, fostering popular distrust of the Tsar and the military command, which was a contributing factor to the Russian Revolutions of 1917

Gallipoli Campaign

An unsuccessful military operation undertaken by the Allied Powers against the Ottoman Empire during World War I (February 1915 to January 1916).

• Took place on the Gallipoli Peninsula

• Aimed to seize the Dardanelles Strait, controlled by the Ottomans, and capture their capital Constantinople (now Istanbul)

  • Goal was to open a vital sea supply route to Russia through the Black Sea

• Land invasion from the sea in April 1915, helped by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)

  • Their performance is still celebrated to this day (ANZAC Day)

• Allied troops quickly faced fierce resistance from Ottoman defenders

  • Devolved into a bloody stalemate characterized by brutal trench warfare

• After eight months of fighting and heavy casualties on both sides, the Allies began a highly successful evacuation

• Costly failure for the Allies (250,000 casualties) and confirmed the difficulty of finding an easy, decisive war-winning strategy away from the Western Front

Battle of Verdun

• When: February to December 1916

• Where: Verdun, France (chosen for its strategic and symbolic value)

• Who: France vs. Germany

• What: A massive German offensive against the French lines on the Western Front

• Result: The French, under General Philippe Pétain, organized a relentless defensive effort, rotating hundreds of thousands of troops into and out of the front via a single supply road

  • Strategic victory for the French but resulted in over 700,000 casualties (both sides) for virtually no net gain in territory

  • War of attrition (gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of the enemy)

  • Encapsulated French national spirit and strengthened morale

  • Failure of the attrition strategy led to the dismissal of General von Falkenhayn

Philippe Pétain

A French military officer and general who became a national hero for his command during a critical phase of World War I.

• Was assigned command of the French forces at Verdun in February 1916

  • Adopted a defensive strategy based on inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans, using his artillery doctrine to its full effect, and prioritizing the preservation of his troops

  • Implemented a crucial system of rotating divisions in and out of the front lines

• Following the Nivelle Offensive in April 1917, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army

Douglas Haig

The Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war in 1918.

• Battle of the Somme (1916) was the first major campaign under his command, and was criticized for major losses and for continuing the offensive long after it became an attritional struggle for little territorial gain

• The BEF under his command played a crucial role in defeating the German spring offensives in 1918 and then led the Hundred Days Offensive (August-November 1918)

Battle of the Somme

• When: July to November 1916

• Where: Somme, France

• Who: Britain and France vs. Germany

• What: The Allies’ major planned offensive for 1916 on the Western Front to force the Germans to divert troops and resources away from Verdun to save the French from collapse

• Result: Forced the Germans to halt their offensive at Verdun and divert significant forces to the Somme

  • German forces lost experienced, trained soldiers and junior officers who were increasingly difficult to replace

  • The British did not achieve a breakthrough of the German line as previously hoped

  • The British suffered 57,470 casualties on the first day alone (resulting in 420,000 casualties total), 200,000 French, and 450,000 to over 600,000 German

  • Saw the first-ever use of the tank in warfare

Aleksei Brusilov

A Russian general who served as a commander on the Eastern Front during World War I.

• Launched a massive attack against the Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia (southeastern Poland and western Ukraine)

  • Had troops attack along a vast front to prevent the enemy from shifting reserves to a single point of crisis

  • Inflicted great losses to the Austro-Hungarian Army (around 1 million), ending their ability to act as a major offensive power without German support for the rest of the war

  • Forced Germany to divert significant divisions from the Western Front to the Eastern Front

  • The Russians also suffered heavy casualties (around 500,000 to 1 million) and lacked the resources to fully exploit the victory

Nivelle Offensive

a major Franco-British military operation on the Western Front of World War I, launched in April 1917, named after the French Commander-in-Chief, General Robert Nivelle.

• Planned to use a massive, concentrated artillery barrage followed by an overwhelming infantry assault to rupture the German lines completely within 48 hours, with an expected casualty rate of only 10,000 men

• The plan was compromised by numerous delays and information leaks

• Resulted in a tactical success in some sectors by the British troops, but the main French offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough

  • Was quickly bogged down, resulting in massive casualties for the French (around 187,000) for minimal territorial gains

• Was a disastrous failure and led to French mutinies, refusing to participate in further suicidal offensive attacks

  • General Nivelle was dismissed, and General Philippe Pétain was brought in as the new Commander-in-Chief

• With the French Army severely crippled and in a state of convalescence, the primary offensive burden on the Western Front for the remainder of 1917 shifted almost entirely to the British forces

Battle of Cambrai

• When: November to December 1917

• Where: Cambrai, France

• Who: Britain vs. Germany

• What: Began as a surprise attack by the British Third Army against the formidable German Hindenburg Line defenses, successfully employing coordinated force of tanks, infantry, artillery, and aircraft

• Result: After initial British success, a massive German counter-attack used innovative infiltration tactics (Stormtroopers) and eventually pushed the British back, regaining most of the lost ground

  • The first large-scale, effective use of tanks in warfare

  • Showed that mobility and surprise were possible again on the Western Front

  • The British demonstrated he power of combined arms and predicted artillery fire for surprise

  • The Germans’ successful counter-attack validated their new infiltration tactics

Stormtrooper

An elite, highly trained German soldier who specialized in new offensive tactics designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare during World War I.

• The key component of the revolutionary infiltration tactics that the German Army developed in the final years of the war (Battle of Cambrai)

• Their goal was to bypass strong points and to penetrate deep to cause chaos in the rear

• Utilized small mobile, self-sufficient teams, also using hand grenades, flamethrowers, and light machine guns

• Offered the first truly effective tactical solution for overcoming trench warfare without suffering immediate, crippling casualties

Siegfried Line

A massive system of trenches and fortifications built in France in 1916-1917 (also know as the Siegfriedstellung or Hindenburg Line).

• Deep, wide trenches and dugouts, with barbed wire, concrete machine gun positions and tunnels linking shelters to the trenches

• Germany built the line during the winter of 1916-1917 to shorten their front line and enable a strategic withdrawal

• Was Germany’s strongest and last major defense system on the Western Front

• The line held for over a year, but its eventual collapse was a major turning point that signaled the end of the war, after finally being breached in late 1918

Convoy System

A crucial naval strategy employed during World War I to protect Allied merchant ships from German U-boat (submarine) attacks.

• In late 1916 and early 1917, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare campaign was devastating Allied shipping

  • The U-boat campaign was Germany’s final strategic gamble to knock Britain out of the war

• The solution involved grouping multiple merchant or troop ships together to travel under the protection of a dedicated military escort of warships

  • By protecting the vital Atlantic shipping lanes, the convoy system ensured the flow of troops, food, raw materials, and military supplies from the United States

  • Over one million American troops were safely transported across the Atlantic to the Western Front in convoys with minimal loss

Operation MICHAEL

A massive German military offensive launched in March 1918, on the Western Front, and was the first and most significant phase of the German Spring Offensive (Kaiserschlacht).

• The goal was to achieve a decisive breakthrough against the British Expeditionary Force and separate them from the French Army

• Used Stormtroopers that used infiltration tactics

• The attack began with the heaviest artillery bombardment of the war up to that point, concentrated on Allied artillery, command posts, and communication centers, rather than the front-line trenches

• Resulted in panic among the Allies but convinced them to establish a unified command structure

  • Marshal Ferdinand Foch was appointed the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies

• Despite the territorial gains, the offensive was a strategic failure for the Germans

  • German casualties were estimated at around 240,000 men

Ferdinand Foch

A French general and Marshal of France who is considered the leader most responsible for the Allied victory in World War I.

• In April 1918, during the powerful German Spring Offensive, he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander

  • Successfully coordinated the defense that halted the all-out German offensive

• Subsequently led the Allies to final victory by planning and coordinating a series of counter-offensives, referred to as the Hundred Days Offensive

• Signed the armistice on November 11, 1918, marking the end of hostilities in World War I

Third Battle of the Aisne

• When: May to June 1918

• Where: Aisne River in France, near Paris

• Who: French and British vs. Germany

• What: Was the third in a series of attacks known as the German Spring Offensive (Kaiserschlacht), orchestrated by General Erich Ludendorff, with the goal of destroying the British Army in the north, intending the attack to be a large-scale diversion to draw Allied reserves away from Flanders

• Result: Was a tactical success for the Germans but stretched their supply lines, exhausted their best troops, and failed to achieve the strategic goal of drawing all the reserves away from the main target in Flanders

  • Led to the greater centralization of Allied command under Ferdinand Foch, who was given control over the strategic direction of all Allied armies

  • The failure of this offensive to break the Allied armies, despite its initial success and proximity to Paris, proved to be the last large-scale offensive the German Army would launch in World War I

  • Heavy casualties and overextension of their lines dramatically weakened the German Army, allowing for the successful coordinated Allied counter-offensives (The Hundred Days Offensive)

Battle of Amiens

• When: August 1918

• Where: Amiens, France

• Who: France and Britain vs. Germany

• What: The opening phase of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive

• Result: Was a triumph of the combined arms approach which featured Mark V Tanks, infantry, artillery, and airpower

  • “Black Day” for the German Army as entire German units surrendered en masse and German defense lines collapsed rapidly

  • Demonstrated that the new combined arms tactics could effectively tear a gap in the German line and restore the war of movement

  • The decisive opening move of the Hundred Days Offensive which were a series of continuous, coordinated Allied offensives that applied relentless pressure along the entire front, allowing the Germans no time to rest, forcing Germany to seek an armistice

Washington Naval Conference

A high-level diplomatic meeting called by the United States and held in Washington, D.C., from November to February 1922.

• Involved the five major naval powers: the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy

• The primary objectives were to prevent a naval arms race among the world's great powers (specifically the U.S., Britain, and Japan)

• Established a strict ratio of capital ship tonnage for each power

• Replaced the previous Anglo-Japanese Alliance and obligated the signatories to consult one another in the event of a crisis in the Pacific

• Affirmed the Open Door Policy in China, guaranteeing China's territorial integrity and promising all nations equal opportunity for trade and business in the country

League of Nations

The first worldwide intergovernmental organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

• Officially founded on January 10, 1920, at the initiative of the victorious Allied Powers following World War I

  • Its formation was part of the Treaty of Versailles

• The idea originated primarily with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson with the core concept that an attack against one member state was considered an attack against all, binding members to act together against an aggressor

Hans von Seeckt

A German military leader and strategist who is considered the “father” of the Reichswehr (the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic), serving as the Chief of the Army Command from 1920 to 1926.

• Created the “Troop” Office modeled after the Great General Staff was abolished

• Rejected the static trench warfare of WWI, instead emphasizing a doctrine of mobility, combined arms, and decisive attack

Giulio Douhet

An Italian general and aviation pioneer who played a significant role in the development of military aviation.

• Believed that victory was achieved by airpower, and no land or naval battles will need to be fought, as a war could be fought in a day or two

• advocated for the use of a fleet of independent bombers to strike the enemy’s “vital centers” deep behind the front lines, including industrial centers, transportation infrastructure, and communications