The Hard Work of Combat

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March 15, 2011 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 11:41am | 17 Comments

Someone once said -- I think it was Bernard Fall -- that the French were not so much outfought at Dien Bien Phu as they were out-engineered. I thought of that while reading this line from a Jon Lee Anderson dispatch from Libya:

The rebels have lost ground because they have not learned how to hold it. At the front lines at Ras Lanuf and Brega, they didn’t dig trenches, and so when jets came to bomb them they panicked and ran.

Defending is hard work. No one likes digging fighting positions, and it usually takes disciplined officers and non-commissioned officers to force soldiers to do it. But in the defense, the things you do to prepare yourself when the enemy is not shooting at you -- when you would rather be smoking cigarettes and drinking tea -- are the things that keep you from being killed when the enemy is shooting at you.

UPDATE: An especially learned reader pointed me to Steve Biddle's article "Victory Misunderstood" (.pdf, p. 158) about the First Persian Gulf War in which Steve faults the amazingly bad Iraqi fighting positions as one cause of the poor Iraqi combat performance. I don't think we can draw conclusions about all Arab fighting organizations not liking to dig proper foxholes -- after all, Hizballah's defensive positions during the 2006 War were fantastic -- but we can draw such a conclusion about poorly disciplined fighting organizations not liking to dig proper foxholes.

I'll end with a word of advice for the rebels in Benghazi: START DIGGING NOW.

In Benghazi itself, though, there were no signs of preparations for a vigorous defense, and Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the leader of the rebels’ ruling council, said on Al Arabiya that his forces were still in control of Ajdabiya and the port town of Brega to the west.

Dig in.

Libya

17 comments

Comment by Dog Bites Man Story on March 15, 2011 - 12:30pm

Arabs are incompetent cowards

Arabs are incompetent cowards -- film at 11!

Comment by elf on March 15, 2011 - 12:35pm

Yah it sucks digging in, in

Yah it sucks digging in, in particular when you have meetings to go to, in most particular when it's clay underneath the few inches of sand. peeps war is very hard work, why I got out of it.

This is sentimental BS, step away and recognize to truly Democratize the ME we have to level it first, as we did Germany and Japan, for that matter most of Latin America. And if the soil is shallow, it does not take root.

Comment by Visitor on March 15, 2011 - 1:57pm

Bernard Fall argued that the

Bernard Fall argued that the French were losing the insurgency (not necessarily Dien Bien Phu) because they were out-governed, not because they were outfought. While your general point is well taken, I don't think that Fall had defensive positions in mind when he wrote that.

Comment by Visitor on March 15, 2011 - 2:17pm

Re: Visitor@1:57PM While Fall

Re: Visitor@1:57PM

While Fall argued that the French lost the *war* because they were out-governed in Hell in a Very Small Place he argues that a key reason the French lost DBP was their inability to build 105mm proof combat positions, due to a lack of proper lumber. The local bamboo would not provide the overhead protection necessary. The French engineers stripped the local village of solid lumber (which went far to win friends and influence the locals) and were able to protect exactly two positions to the necessary level: the hospital bunker and de Castries CP. The French did not have the necessary logistical support to fly in the lumber needed to build bomb-proof dug-outs for 10,000 men, and so the fighting positions used by the French lacked the necessary overhead cover to protect them from the artillery storm that was to fall on them.

Comment by Abu Muqawama on March 15, 2011 - 3:46pm

Thank you, Visitor 2:17, that

Thank you, Visitor 2:17, that was indeed what I was thinking of.

Comment by Visitor on March 15, 2011 - 4:58pm

Elf - Chickens with automated

Elf - Chickens with automated weapons have your dreams staked out; pre-steak cattle have scattered IED's throughout your subconscious. There is no escaping them, no matter how wide a swath of desolation you wreak in your fantasies, because 'they' are 'you'.

Comment by pc on March 15, 2011 - 6:12pm

I just finished a recently

I just finished a recently published book about DBP by French-American Ted Morgan (birth name was Sanche deGramont). Ted Morgan is an anogram of his last name.

This book includes alot of info from an American point of view. Lots of info about Gen. Matthew Ridgway's determined fight to stay out of it, Eisenhower's feelings, etc.... Morgan also has a great book about his experiences as a French soldier during the Battle of Algiers. This book describes him growing up in America as the son of a French diplomat, his father's subsequent death as a fighter pilot during WW2, and spending the rest of the war living in America with relatives (John Negroponte's parents who were his aunt and uncle).

Comment by Soap MacTavish on March 15, 2011 - 8:10pm

EA DEV....love it, live it.

EA DEV....love it, live it. better get some overwatch on those obstacles.

Comment by diablotakahe on March 16, 2011 - 4:15am

quote of the day 'who are the

quote of the day 'who are the cheese eating surrender monkeys now eh?

Comment by Visitor on March 16, 2011 - 9:59am

And Good Luck: Notes on the

And Good Luck:

Notes on the Construction and Eequipment of Trenches -- US Army 1917

Comment by Visitor on March 16, 2011 - 12:33pm

Makes you realize that

Makes you realize that perhaps the reason why the U.S. and other nations have been so reluctant to help out the rebels because they need more than just weapons, ammo and food. They need military organization, which means trainers on the ground.

For the U.S., ours are all working in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Comment by Delizard on March 16, 2011 - 2:11pm

I think that the WAR is a

I think that the WAR is a very bed things! NO WAR please! The world need peace!
Internet can help in that purpose!

Comment by Delizard on March 16, 2011 - 2:13pm

NO WAR please! The world need

NO WAR please! The world need peace! And Internet can help human in this purpose!

Comment by Visitor on March 16, 2011 - 4:25pm

Just wondering when the U.S.

Just wondering when the U.S. "levelled" Latin America?

Also, since the U.S. never leveled Eastern Europe - does that mean they're not really democratic?

Comment by Bernard Guerrero on March 21, 2011 - 1:02pm

"since the U.S. never leveled

"since the U.S. never leveled Eastern Europe - does that mean they're not really democratic?"

Nah, 50 years of the Soviets took care of that part. It basically came "pre-levelled".

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Comment by congheng on June 29, 2011 - 4:12am