PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS FOR RESISTANCE ELEMENTS, PART ONE
When guerrilla/resistance forces plan operations, they may often be forced to develop plans that would seem, to a conventional-force trained and experienced leader, to be fatally flawed from the inception. The lack of logistical support, indirect-fire support (I highly suggest doing some research into the concept of ?knee mortars? and the indigenous, expedient development of indirect-fire support weapons ?J.M.), and numbers is foreign to most conventional-force commanders. Yet, guerrillas have managed, throughout history, to use audacity and imaginative planning to overcome these short-comings. As LTC Blaber states, ?History has proven that it's not the quantity of men or the quality of weapons that make the ultimate difference; it's the ability to out-think and out-imagine the enemy that always has, and always will, determine the ultimate victor.? Being willing, and able, to think outside the box will provide resistance forces with many apparently outlandish opportunities for success, as long as they humor their imagination and develop those plans before automatically writing them off....
The purpose of leadership and planning in any combat element is to develop a course of action for the successful execution of unit goals. There is a common misconception among the inexperienced, that combat leadership is predicated on the concept of ?Do what I say, or I'll shoot you.? While this has, historically, been used as a ?leadership? method, it's not a highly recommended method, since it both fails to instill an effective level of motivation towards success, and it tends to backfire, since as soon as provided the opportunity, troops will either desert, or shoot the ?leader? in an effort to maximize their personal survivability. Good leadership, under the stresses of combat, is comprised of influencing a desired behavior in people by providing a sense of purpose, motivation, and direction to accomplish a stated task or mission....
Doctrinally speaking, mission-oriented leadership is comprised of four key factors: Commander's intent, individual initiative at all levels, down to the newest, least experienced member of the unit, clearly developed and expressed operational plans, and a judicious allocation of all available, necessary resources.
There is a lot more here:
http://mountainguerrilla.blogspot.com/2012/02/planning-considerations-for-resistance.htmlAnother great article from John Mosby. Let me know what ya'll think.
