Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf
I couldn't help but smile, because that one paragraph encapsulates a fundamental aspect of the Chinese/Japanese art of war. For the Chinese and the Japanese, warfare is all about deception. Both cultures are replete with legends of brilliant generals who outmanoeuvred opponents through trickery, and the very best commanders are those who achieve victory with minimal losses.
That's not to say Western commanders don't know the value of espionage and deception, as the likes of Erwin "Desert Fox" Rommel would amply show. But, doctrinally, it's true that Western tactics typically favour sheer firepower over feints and manoeuvres. Hence the emphasis on grenades and artillery.
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Not so sure, I'd say Japan at this time was much more heavily influenced by German and British military doctrine, then anything else, albeit archaic German doctrine. Same goes for China. The whole bayonet charge thing is very WW1esque, as is the lack of motorized vehicles. Part of it is that the terrain the Asian war was fought in was not amenable to the "Blitzkrieg" land tactics developed recently in Europe. The lack of infrastructure and prevalence of difficult terrain meant it was difficult for armour to maneuver and be supplied, likewise there wasn't enough airfields (in central china) for a sustained airwar.
Combine it with the fact that China was still backward at the time, and Japan had little reason to innovate. Likewise, at the start of the war, the Soviets weren't a whole lot better either, and the Japanese did have a dangerous superiority complex compounding it, due to the fact they were undefeated up until that point.
But on the whole for the Japanese officer corps, it was more Clauswitz then Sun Tzu. Same goes for the KMT National Revolutionary Army.
I'd also say that the British and French were also very different from the Americans. They both still used a WW1 approach to warfare, heavily based on infantry supported by armor and artillery, each precisely carrying out their component of a grander plan. The USA not so much.
Since WW2, however, their military doctrines have grown closer together, I'd say the modern US and UK armies work almost identically.