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List of contents
I. The Relation in which War Stands to Society II. The Special Characteristics of War at the Present Time III. The Main Features of the Modern Method of Conducting War IV. The Main Forms of the Conduct of War V. The Offensive VI. The Defensive VII. Reciprocity Between Offensive and Defensive VIII. The Operations IX. Strategical Offensive Operations X. Offensive Tactical Operations XI. Strategical Defensive Operations XII. Tactical Defensive Operations XIII. Operations Under Special Conditions XIV. Influence of Operations by Sea on the Conduct of War
About the author
Freiherr Wilhelm Leopold Colmar von der Goltz (12 August 1843 – 19 April 1916), also known as Goltz Pasha, was a Prussian Field Marshal and military writer.
From the 1870s until World War I, Baron von der Goltz was more widely read by British and American military leaders than Clausewitz. In addition to many contributions to military periodicals, he wrote Kriegführung (1895), later titled Krieg und Heerführung, 1901 (The Conduct of War [lit. War and Army-Leadership]); Der Thessalische Krieg (The War in Greece, 1898); Ein Ausflug nach Macedonien (1894) (A Journey through Macedonia); Anatolische Ausflüge (1896) (Anatolian Travels); a map and description of the environs of Constantinople; Von Jena bis Pr. Eylau (1907) (From Jena to Eylau).
Goltz died on 19 April 1916, in Baghdad, just two weeks before the British in Kut surrendered. The official reason for his death was typhus, although apparently there were rumors that he had been poisoned. In accordance with his will, he was buried in the grounds of the German Consulate in Tarabya, Istanbul, overlooking the Bosporus. Coincidentally, nineteen months later, British General Frederick Stanley Maude died in the same house in which Goltz had died.
Summary
This book contains, in a brief form, author’s views a to the conduct of the principal strategical and tactical operations of war, and will be found to be a short and convenient introduction to a deeper study of the rules which should underlie the direction of the ever-varying incidents of modern fighting.
