What You Can Learn From Military Principles

By Virender Kapoor

San Tzu's classic The Art of War written circa 500 B.C. discusses broad eternal truths concerning military and political philosophy. These were well adapted by military and business strategists. While Sun Tzu looks at fundamentals, this book examines the principles which define military methods to accomplish an operational task or attain a strategic intent. There is much more one can learn from these hands on military practices which are at the heart of any military campaign.

Almost all modern management principles therefore are a derivative of such military operational practices, tried and tested in different cultures, locations and circumstances. These evolved and have undergone change over the years according to the changing environment. The author explores each of these principles and examines their 'core value' that can be applied across a broad spectrum of situations in our daily lives and in business methods. The content is a blend of contemporary history, Science and Technology, Management, Psychology, IT, Leadership, Motivation, HRM, Economics, Military History, Strategy and Geopolitics, International Relations, Diplomacy and Political Science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Feb 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9789386349569

Book preview

Bibliography

Chapter 1

Improvisation

Being resourceful

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

— General George S. Patton

What is improvisation?

Improvisation is doing something without pre planning. It can be an impromptu speech at the spur of the moment or joining two single beds to make a double bed if the occasion so demands.

Improvisation is possible in almost all facets of our personal and professional life. It is intended to solve an unexpected problem at hand which needs to be fixed immediately. It is unexpected but needs to be considered as priority. It is an effort to fix the problem temporarily and may be as a stop gap arrangement. For instance, if someone meets with an accident on the road and breaks a bone where no medical help is available, one could tie up the injured part of the body with wooden splinters to immobilize the limb till the patient is taken to a hospital where a proper plaster can be cast after medical examination. This temporary arrangement is sufficient to prevent further damage and provide adequate comfort to the injured person as well help ease out the pain. This instant arrangement can be termed as ‘improvisation.’

Military Improvisations

Armed forces were probably the first ones to adopt improvisation as a part of their ethos. At different levels, every military operation throws up several unexpected situations and challenges and this is the primary reason for military to adopt improvisation as a part of their ethos. However, despite impeccable planning by the military commander, there are several parameters that are neither in his control nor can they ever be predicted.

Conduct of military operations is subject to the same imperfections as any other field but has an additional burden of saving or destroying several human lives. Therefore, in the context of military operations, Improvisation can become a savior of sorts. In war, blunders are made from the lowest to the highest level. Therefore, improvisations are resorted to fix these all the time, from the simplest to the most elaborate activities, from temporary to some which last for a long time.

Second World War was possibly the longest and the bloodiest war of the last century where around forty countries got into a conflict. Many military lessons were learnt at a heavy cost. Such was the speed, expanse and the unpredictability of military operations that field commanders were often left with no choice but to resort to improvisation.

Tactical Improvisation

In the Second World War, the German army had to resort to improvisation very frequently during the Russain campaign. In this theatre of war, German military potential declined continually and towards the end the German army equipment and soldiers were almost insignificant in comparison to the Russians. Therefore, improvisations in combat were rampant. At the end, the entire conduct of war on the eastern front was one great improvisation. Improvisation across the war zone was used for tactical, technical and even logistical management.

Initially the German Tank’s organized as Panzer divisions created havoc by unleashing a lightining warfare popularly known as Blitzkrieg. They were advancing hundreds of miles in a week into the Russian territory until winter arrived and unexpected rains and snow bogged them down. By the end of December 1941, the sixth Panzer division for instance, which had more than 200 tanks and artillery support was bogged down in the slush and mud. They had to withdraw and they lost every tank, every gun and many soldiers died because of cold and hunger. In January 1942 once they reassembled, all that remained was around 60 men and only 3 guns.

As a desperate measure, all non-combatants, road building battalions and supply units from army rear areas were mustered to make ad hoc alert units. Men and officers from the same unit were clubbed together to maintain a sense of camaraderie. Therefore, such ad hoc units had varied strengths but possesed a sense of uniformity within. The food supplies were minimal and soldiers were dying of cold and hunger. Orders were passed for people to wrap themselves with paper even toilet paper to save them from the biting cold.

Numerous examples can be quoted when improvisation was adopted for logistics and supply. During summers, when German armored columns swept across Russian planes they looked down upon Russian peasant horses pulling heavy peasant wagons. They were dismissed by Germans as A hundred years behind time thing. But as winter set in, both armies had to bank on horses to move their essential equipment, transporting the wounded and essential food supplies as no other mechanical transport could move in the thick mud. Some German Panzer Divisions were employing more than 2000 horses. However, this was a case of adhocism, but gradually responding to this need, regular mule transport or animal transport battalions were created in almost all the armies to operate in mountains and snow bound areas.

Corduroy road was again a contraption built to survive bad weather. It is a typical log road made by placing thin wooden logs perpendicular to the direction of the road in swampy areas. War could not have continued in swampy regions of Russia had these roads not been built. This was the most important improvisation for the Eastern Theatre of war. In the middle of 1941, during the offensive on Leningrad an entire Panzer corps with more than 500 tanks and integral artillery got stuck for many days because of swampy forests. Corduroy roads were quickly built and the tanks started rolling out for offensive.

Crossing mine fields by foot soldiers is a major problem in the battlefield. Usually safe lanes are created by Engineer detachments in advance. During the first couple of years of the Second World War, Germans were advancing rapidly on all the fronts and therefore, this procedure became a major reason for the delay in their scheme of things. German infantry commanders came up with innovative improvisational options to overcome this. Since enemy was also laying mines in a hurry, most of the mines left some tell tale marks, which could be visible to the naked eye. It was decided to quickly train infantry soldiers to locate mines by visual inspection. In many places dry grass, a little depression or difference in color of the soil facilitated the spotting. Once spotted, a small marker was placed next to individual mines creating a safe way for the troops to avoid being blown up while crossing. The soldiers were taken to already captured enemy mine fields, used as training ground, for better results.

Improvising weapons

Some of the most bizarre weapons have been created by improvisation. When German army was attacking Russia, Red army was thinking of innovative methods of killing the Nazis. One such contraption was created by mounting a telescope of a rifle on a giant 14.5 mm anti tank rifle to kill Germans hiding in bunkers. It fired a huge explosive shell (meant to destroy a tank) into a bunker through the viewing slits of the bunker. It blew the bunker inside out. This technique was improvised as the Pill Boxes or bunkers are very strong and their outer shell cannot be destroyed easily.

During a withdrawal operation, the withdrawing army suffers heavy causalities because the enemy gets an opportunity to inflict the maximum damage on the withdrawing troops. During the first world war in the Gallipoli campaign, the Allied forces decided to withdraw from a not so lucrative holding position. They knew that the enemy would come down heavily on them as thousands of their soldiers moved back.

Two of their soldiers built a contraption using old ration tins, allowing water to drip from one to another to trigger a rifle to fire a gun that fired all by itself. Several such guns were positioned and they fired one by one as troops withdrew. Instead of experiencing large casualties, the Allied forces managed to escape with only a few dead. Improvisation is an attitude which implies make the best of whatever is available.

Improvised military vehicles for combat role are ad hoc combat vehicles created by modifying civilian vehicles. They are strengthened by adding armor plating and are armed by mounting weapon systems. These are not only used by Guerrilla forces but also by regular armies. Earlier versions were the armored cars or Armored Personnel Carriers (APC). During Second World War, Russians created an ad hoc or improvised Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) by mounting a gun on an STZ-5 Agriculture tractor. This was fabricated to create fear in the enemy. During Second World War, the British created Gun trucks by using commercial Bed ford trucks and mounting antitank guns and machine guns. They also created mobile pill boxes by mounting concrete fighting compartment on commercial trucks. During Iraq war, American logistics convoys came under heavy attack., They created a Gun truck based on a M939 five ton truck to prevent casualty and organize convey protection.

If I were to sum up what I’ve learned in 35 years of service, it’s improvise, improvise, improvise.

— General James Mattis, US Army

Training and man power development-Improvisational Attitude.

Training and talent acquisition in the Armed forces is a very specialized task. For the officers selection, Services Selection Board (SSB) conducts a rigorous and an elaborate interview process which is spread over several days. The instinct of improvisation is also an important parameter basis of which selection is done. Group task is conducted by a Group Task Officer (GTO) where a candidate is given a team and a few props like planks, ropes, wires, empty barrels and tyres etc. The candidate needs to apply his ingenuity to use all props carefully and intelligently to perform the given task. This forms a major part of the GTO’s assessment process and improvisation is at the centre of it.

During training of officers and cadets, improvisation may not be taught as a subject but it is always built into the training exercises and discussions wherever applicable. During the commando training, one learns to cook food without utensils using Banana leaves and mud as a substitute. During frequent operational moves, one manages to live with very little, trying to use whatever is available. In a way, this gets into a soldiers attitude and becomes a part of his life.

I remember going for training exercises in the winters at the Indian Military academy. Each of us was to carry our rations, blankets and clothing in our back packs and we were carrying just the most essentials. Months of December and January are very cold on the mountain tops of Mussoorie. The night halt used to be a nightmare as a couple of blankets and a ground sheet would not be sufficient at all for a person to stay warm. Therefore, Four of us would huddle together with couple of ground sheets and blankets on the ground and the balance six blankets and two ground sheets forming four layers on top. Boots were used as pillows. One always looked for a depression in the ground to put up this ‘warm hole’ to save us from the chilly winds. Every piece of equipment was used to cover ourselves for maximum affect.

Spies and agents-Improvisation in espionage

A military commander has men, equipment, weapons and resources in a war. As a contrast a spy largely operates alone. He or she has very little resources, operates in an alien, often unchartered and hostile geographical location. To make it worst, he has to mostly operate under cover. Therefore, for a spy, presence of mind and improvisation is an essential skill. He has a plan, which has a lot of fog around it, there is no certainty, no backups and he cannot take chances. His ingenuity and spur of the moment decisions based on how things unfold become life saving skills. Spies often operate for a very long time, many times remaining dormant for sizeable period of their allotted time. They have to use whatever little is available to them and all the props have to be often organized single handedly.

If one has to illustrate this, then James bond comes first to mind. Though a little exaggerated in films, he uses almost anything that he finds to defend himself and kill his opponent. One can easily recall scenes where Bond uses a cigarette lighter to light up the nozzle of a body cologne spray making it into a small flamethrower to kill a snake. In yet another case he throws highly inflammable alcohol on an opponent dressed up as a waiter, carrying a sizzling barbeque skewers; causing a major fire and killing his opponent. Similarly, during the cold war CIA and KGB spies had to come up with a considerable spontaneity and improvisation to get out of life threatening situations.

Non state actors-Terrorists, Gurillas and Insurgency

Nation states have fully equipped their armed forces with weapons and logistical support. In contrast, non-state actors who have emerged on the scene during the last fifty to sixty years have to mostly improvise their arsenal. They also aim to derive maximum bang for the buck-literally and hence come up with innovative and yet effective way of using whatever they can lay their hands on. They have to resort to ad hoc solutions and improvisation to balance the inherent asymmetry.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)are homemade bombs assembled and used in a non conventional way. They could be made partly by using military explosives, unexploded bombs along with a timer detonator. In Iraq war, IEDs were responsible for almost 63% causalities for US led coalition forces.

The term IED originated during the Irish movement in 1970s. The Irish Republic Army used bombs made of fertilizers which were used as booby traps against the British. Over a period of time radically different IED’s were manufactured by different groups.

While the war heads on these IED’s varied from explosives, chemicals, incendiary or even biological, the varied mechanisms could employ cars, boats, cycles, animals, two wheelers, rockets or even humans as human bombs. Usually cell phones, radio signals or wires were used as trigger mechanism.

During Vietnam War, Vietcong (Soldiers from national Liberation front) used out of the box ideas to use grenades. They pulled out the pin of a grenade with the clip intact put it into a tin. Grenade was then attached to a string acting as a trip wire. Once there was a pressure on the string the grenade fell out releasing the clip to detonate the grenade. They also used rubber band grenade which was nothing but a grenade with safety pin removed and clip held by a rubber band. Such grenades were placed in huts, which were burnt regularly by the Americans. The moment a hut caught fire the rubber bands burnt, releasing the safety lever, blowing up the hut, the bamboo and metal fragments killing the American soldiers. Such rubber band bombs were also put into enemy vehicle petrol tanks, once the rubber band corroded due to chemical action of fuel the grenade exploded. They also used ‘Jar Grenades,’ where a primed grenade was put into a glass jar. As the jar hit a wall or the ground, it shattered and the grenade exploded. This was used in helicopter warfare extensively.

Most primitive timing device was where a tin was half filled with ‘Chana daal’ or (chick peas) and then topped up with water. The mouth of the tin was tightly covered by a lid which was then connected to a detonator mechanism. After a few hours the ‘chana daal’ fermented, bloated and pushed the lid upwards, making a contact with the trigger mechanism thus exploding the attached bomb.

Molotov Cocktails, homemade petrol bombs are used in Urban Guerrilla warfare. These bombs are made by using a breakable glass bottle, filled with petrol and diesel mixture and a cloth wick. It explodes on impact causing a fireball and plenty of damage.

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Medical Improvisation

Improvisation was not only used for warfare, spying and killing people but was often used to save lives during wars. During wars, doctors are always short of the right medicines and the right equipment.

During the Second World War, a number of Australian Prisoners of war were put up in camps and employed to construct the Thai Burma Railway track. Since medical equipment was scarce in these camps, the medical personnel had to often resort to improvisation. Many medical tools were created out of whatever was available. Bamboo was a major resource and was used to make water and food containers, brooms, needles, latrines and even bed pans for seriously injured. Cutlery was hammered and sharpened to make surgical instruments. Scrap metal was used to make forceps, curettes and scalpels.

Richard Rowley, an Australian doctor, Prisoner of war who later wrote a book, A Doctor’s war says ‘we made surgical instruments out of scrap stolen from railway stores. All the doctors in the camp became skilled at the art of improvisation. They used bamboos as stethoscopes and instead used the tubing of stethoscopes for drips and blood transfusion. They even made artificial limbs, pneumonia jackets, splints stretchers and scalpels as well as stitching needles from Bamboo.’

In a book Improvised Medicine, the authors Kenneth V Iserson and Howard J Donner says that at the heart of medicine in wilderness is improvisation which is a creative amalgam of formal medical science and common sense. Such skills are required for doctors forming part of rescue teams or accompanying adventurous expeditions. Such acts of improvisation are governed by a few absolute rights and wrongs which are limited only by imagination.

A lot of work has been done in this area which includes wound management, handling trauma, dressings and bandages, orthopedic injuries, blister management and even improvised transportation of patients.

Improvisation-Entertainment, art and craft

One may get surprised to see the level of improvisation that is used by people who are in the entertainment Industry.

When I sit down to write a song, it’s a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I’m about to do.

— Paul McCartney

Actors on stage are great improvisers. Having rehearsed an act for a play repeatedly does not guarantee a flawless performance. Any of the actors can forget a dialogue or certain prop may not work or a wardrobe malfunction may occur. A good actor quickly improvises and handles the situation flawlessly. After a flawless play performed by a veteran actor Naseerudin Shah and his wife Ratna Pathak Shah, we sat in the audience as both of them came on the stage and were ready to speak to us. One Lady from the audience got up and asked How do you manage to give such a flawless performance? He responded with a big grin on his face Do you know that in today’s performance we made close to fifty mistakes. But none of you could spot them because we managed to handle each such situation. Now this is nothing but improvising on the spot.

Standup comedy requires great sense of timing and improvisation. The actor often interacts with the audience and responds to questions, remarks and suggestions which are instantaneous. Spontaneous actors can be brilliant on stage as well as cinema. They react to their co-stars, the situation and to the director immediately. Director explains what he wants but the final delivery is by the actor himself. Meryl Strep, an American actress is a great actress because she makes her character look spontaneous and real. She is an acclaimed spontaneous actress. Amongst some of the better known Hollywood spontaneous actors would be Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Marlyn Brando, Harrison Ford, Sidney Poitier and even Johny Depp. In the Indian cinema one can count on Ajay Devgan, Kajol and Amitabh Bachchan for their spontaneity. Their brilliance lies in their spontaneity and improvisation.

Even directors improvise. Though today everything is scripted and rehearsed, the directors sometimes chose to exploit a situation, Many times the directors turn a negative situation into a positive one instantly. Director of Paranormal Activity, Oren Peli says that, the actors he casted were relatively new with little experience. He had explained to them their characters, they were not really memorizing their lines and it was always spontaneous. This improvisational technique made the whole film very authentic and convincing. He says he allows the actors make it happen more organically and he did this by avoiding too much of planning.

Street plays are often quickly put together and with minimum props. The audience could be sitting perched up on tress or standing on the road making a big circle. Street plays require great amount of ingenuity, thinking on the feet and a great mind for improvisation.

Some of the writers are very spontaneous, they move with the flow. If they get a new idea, they quickly integrate it into the narrative. The writing is racy, bubbly and throws up a different style for the reader. I feel as an author grows he becomes more creative due to spontaneity and improvisation.

Improvisational theatre is a new form of performing arts where content and script are created instantaneously. It is an extension of experimental theatre where the actors may engage with the audience in different ways. The act often progresses according to the audience response.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

— Oscar Wilde

Flash Mobs

Flash Mobs is an activity usually coordinated and executed at short notice through social media where people assemble suddenly and perform an act or make a symbolic protest for a short time and then disperse. These could be organized in response to an event or to gather attention of people to generate a favorable public opinion for a purpose. These are ad-hoc group of people who can make a considerable impact and achieve the desired result without much investment, planning or preparation. In that sense, flash mobs are ‘improvised events’.

Improvisation in Engineering

The most astonishing example of engineering improvisation was undertaken aboard Appollo 13, the seventh manned mission in the American Space Program. The mission was aborted after the mission had done just 54 hours into the space on the explosion of an oxygen tank. This crippled the service module of the space ship which supported the command module. The crew managed to splash down back despite shortage of water, limited power and difficulty in removing the carbon dioxide from the manned modules. The crew had to improvise a critical component-a carbon dioxide scrubber cartridge which had been manufactured differently for the command module and the Lunar module. Using whatever was available at hand, Astronaut J L Swigert rigged things in such a way that a square carbon dioxide scrubber cartridge was fitted into the Lunar module which accepted a round cartridge. This is akin to the old adage Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Improvisation and out of the box thinking has been displayed by many people in the manufacturing industry. In a company manufacturing soap, they were facing a problem of wrapping the soaps in wrapping paper and putting them into cartons automatically using a conveyer belt. At times it happened that the machine missed to pick the soap cake and the wrapping machine wrapped the paper without a soap. The plant manager was struggling to find a solution and asked for suggestions. Research and Development team suggested to install some lazer based sensors, while few suggested an even more expensive X-ray machine to detect such errors. A supervisor suggested that they install a simple table fan at the end of the conveyer belt and the empty wrappers without soaps would just be blown away preventing them to enter the carton.

Cannibalization is an important part of maintenance of equipment. Engineers in the large organizations resort to removing serviceable parts from damaged equipment which they use for repairing other similar kind of machinery. It becomes very important in Military context because a large number of guns, vehicles and aircraft get damaged during operations. A number of critical components can be taken out of these and used to repair the unserviceable equipment right in the field itself. This is a very cost effective method and can save resources, time as well as money.

I have seen large organizations shifting their offices from one place to the other, leaving behind a number of items, considering them as worth less. However, there are specialists who are great at making use of the ‘best