Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

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The Ibis
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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#46

Post by The Ibis » 03 Jan 2016, 01:00

The Russian Army and Foreign Wars 1859-1871, a PhD thesis by Gudrun Persson at LSE: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2793/1/U615742.pdf

Abstract:
The thesis examines how the Russian army interpreted and what lessons it learned from the wars in Europe between 1859 and 1871 and the American Civil War. This was a time marked by rapid change - political, social, economic and technological. By raising the question of learning from foreign wars the thesis attempts to fill a gap in the historiography of the Russian army. The army was one of the pillars on which the Russian regime built its power, and it was crucial for the survival of the regime both in domestic and foreign affairs. The reactions and thinking of the military at a time of rapid social, political, economic, and technological change, therefore, tell a lot about the regime's ability to adjust, develop, and ultimately survive. Furthermore, the influence of foreign wars on Russian strategic war planning is analysed with the use of the first Russian war plan of 1873 and the proceedings from the strategic conference, chaired by Alexander II, in 1873. The influence of foreign wars on the General Staff officer education is also investigated. The thesis is largely based on extensive research in Russian archives. Special attention is given to the military attaches and, thus, the thesis fills a gap in the historiography of the Russian army. It uncovers the development of the military attache institution with the use of new archival material. The Russian military attache reports from the European Great Powers 1859-71 and the observer reports from the different war scenes are also examined. In addition, extensive use has been made of the military press and contemporary military literature with regard to the wars.
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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#47

Post by Boby » 27 Jan 2016, 17:23

H.-D. Giro
Frankreich und die Remilitarisierung des Rheinlandes 1936
http://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servl ... 6/1286.pdf
http://www.amazon.de/Remilitarisierung- ... 389861557X

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#48

Post by Attrition » 04 Feb 2016, 01:59

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/ ... thesis.pdf

The men who planned the war: A study of the Staff of the British Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 Harris, Paul Martin

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#49

Post by Andy H » 29 Feb 2016, 18:43

Courting a Reluctant Ally: An Evaluation of US/UK Naval Intelligence Cooperation 1935-1941

http://ni-u.edu/ni_press/pdf/Courting_A ... t_Ally.pdf

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#50

Post by Andy H » 02 Apr 2016, 16:26

UNITED STATES NAVY FLEET PROBLEMS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CARRIER AVIATION, 1929-1933 by R.D.Wadle

Abstract
The U.S. Navy first took official notice of aviation in 1910, but its development
of carrier aviation lagged behind Great Britain’s until the 1920s. The first American
aircraft carrier, the Langley, commissioned in 1919, provided the Navy with a valuable
platform to explore the potential uses of carrier aviation, but was usually limited to
scouting and fleet air defense in the U.S. Navy’s annual interwar exercises called fleet
problems.
This began to change in 1929 with the introduction of the carriers Lexington and
Saratoga in Fleet Problem IX. After this exercise, which included a raid by aircraft from
the Saratoga that “destroyed” the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, the carriers were
assigned a wider variety of roles over the next five years of exercises. During this time,
the carriers gained their independence from the battle line, which the smaller and slower
Langley had been unable to do. Reflecting the advanced capabilities of the new carriers,
the fleet problems conducted during Admiral William Veazie Pratt’s tenure as Chief of
Naval Operations, 1930-1933, began to test the employment of the new carriers as the
centerpiece of one of the opposing fleets within the exercises. The Lexington and
Saratoga were used offensively during these exercises, employing their aircraft to sink
iv
surface ships, though not battleships, and successfully strike targets ashore. The carriers
became successful in spite of the unreliability of early 1930s carrier aircraft, particularly
the torpedo bombers, that could carry heavy payloads.
Lessons learned from the Lexington and Saratoga Fleet Problems IX through XIV
influenced the design of the next generation of American aircraft carriers, the Yorktownclass,
which were authorized in 1933. These new carriers were faster and much larger
than the carrier Ranger, commissioned in 1934 and designed before the Lexington and
Saratoga began participating in the exercises. Features incorporated into the Yorktownclass
based on operational experience included the reduced need for large surface
batteries because of the use of escort vessels, the emphasis of armoring against shellfire
over aerial bombs and torpedoes, and the capability to launch large numbers of aircraft quickly
https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitst ... sAllowed=y

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#51

Post by Stephen_Rynerson » 02 Apr 2016, 20:49

Hopefully this isn't too far outside the scope of the thread (it's within the timeframe and subject matter of the "China at War" forum):

Master's thesis: "Ancient Fortifications, Modern Firepower, and Warlord Politics: A Study on the Siege of Xi’an and its Historical Significance" by Tsang, Kingsley (Zeng Qingzhang) (2000), https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/coll ... /1.0090496

Abstract:
The Warlord period (1916-28) is a much-neglected era in modern Chinese scholarship. Scholars tend to ignore it because the events were complicated and the warlords acted without an ideological commitment. They are seen as violent but unsophisticated thugs with minimum affects on the history of Chinese military. The Siege of Xi'an (April to November 1926) demonstrated the fallacy of this assumption and the uniqueness of the warlord military system. The warlords managed to fuse the Chinese and Western military experience in a hybrid warring style. This ad hoc system was utilized with great effectiveness under the circumstances of the time. One cannot transplant general military assumptions to this period since they fail to take into account the characteristics of the warlords. This study will ascertain the historical significance of the Siege of Xi'an during the Warlord period. The siege was the climax of the 1926 anti-Guominjun campaign between the Northern warlords Feng Yuxiang and the alliance of Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu. This was the last major campaign of the Warlord period with the three main players engaged in ferocious battles all over North China. The Guominjun prevailed in the end because a small detachment of its soldiers managed to hold the strategic city of Xi'an in an eight months siege. It showed the hybrid nature of the warlord military system as well as relevant regional and local issues. This study is divided into three parts: Part One discusses the historical and geopolitical importance of Xi'an; Part Two briefly summarizes the anti- Guominjun campaign, the military dispositions of the warlords and their strength and weakness; Part Three details the eight months' siege. The siege and the circumstance that gave rise to it are reconstructed based on sources from Chinese and Western secondary analyses, newspapers, Shaanxi gazetteer, the biographies of Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan.

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#52

Post by The Ibis » 03 May 2016, 21:02

Invasions, insurgency and interventions: Sweden's wars in Poland, Prussia and Denmark 1654--1658 by C.A. Gennari
Abstract:

In 1655 Sweden was the premier military power in northern Europe. When Sweden invaded Poland, in June 1655, it went to war with an army which reflected not only the state’s military and cultural strengths but also its fiscal weaknesses. During 1655 the Swedes won great successes in Poland and captured most of the country. But a series of military decisions transformed the Swedish army from a concentrated, combined-arms force into a mobile but widely dispersed force. Fiscal necessities also drove acts of violence which quickly angered the Polish populace. This sparked a religiously fueled partisan insurgency against Swedish occupation. This insurgency created a stalemate in the war. This stalemate allowed foreign powers, including Austria, Muscovy and Denmark, to intervene in the Swedish-Polish war to advance their own interests. This dissertation examines the dangers of a strong military power trying to occupy a culturally diverse and exotic state without adequate resources to obtain all of the military and political goals of the war.
https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/bit ... sequence=1
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#53

Post by Boby » 04 May 2016, 12:19

Prisoners of War - Cold War Allies: The Anglo-American Relationship with Wehrmacht Generals
Derek R. Mallett
http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstr ... sequence=3

This dissertation was published as "Hitler's Generals in America".
https://books.google.es/books?id=OQI-AA ... navlinks_s

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#54

Post by Boby » 04 May 2016, 12:24

ASHCAN: Nazis, Generals and Bureaucrats as Guests at the Palace Hotel, Mondorf les Bains, Luxembourg, May-August 1945
Steven David Schrag
http://gradworks.umi.com/10/02/10029023.html

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Last edited by Boby on 04 May 2016, 12:33, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#55

Post by Boby » 04 May 2016, 12:28

"Holding down the Fort?" The War Historical Cooperation of the U.S. Army and Former German Wehrmacht Officers, 1945-1961
Esther-Julia Krug
M.A. Theses
https://etd.library.emory.edu/view/reco ... mory:1dpfq

His Ph.D. was published as "Von den Besiegten lernen?"
https://books.google.es/books?id=TY9lCw ... navlinks_s

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#56

Post by Boby » 04 May 2016, 16:45

Creating killers: The Nazification of the Black Sea Germans and the holocaust in southern Ukraine, 1941-1944
Eric Conrad Steinhart
http://gradworks.umi.com/34/28/3428405.html

Published as "The Holocaust and the Germanization of Ukraine"
https://books.google.es/books?id=IPYnBgAAQBAJ&dq=

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#57

Post by The Ibis » 11 Jun 2016, 22:02

British infantry battalion commanders in the First World War
Hodgkinson, Peter Eric (2014), Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham

http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/4754/1/Hodgkinson14PhD.pdf
Abstract

The evolution of infantry battalion commanders in the First World War progressed from a pre-war system based mainly on promotion by seniority to one largely based on merit. It remained a weighted process, however, favouring the professional officer, particularly during the first two years, and biased against the Territorial. The quality of the pre-war officer appears higher than has been estimated.

Average command lasted 8.5 months. Eleven per cent of COs were killed, ten per cent promoted, and 18 per cent invalided. The army practised quality control, removing 38 per cent from command, although reduction in removals as the war progressed indicates a refinement of quality. The army committed itself to professional development, teaching technical aspects of the CO role, as well as command and leadership.

Citizens of 1914 with no previous military experience rose to command, this progress taking on average three years. Despite the social opening-up of the officer corps, these men tended to be from the professional class. By The Hundred Days, infantry battalion commanders were a mix of professional soldiers, pre-war auxiliaries and citizens - younger, fitter and richly experienced; many being quick thinkers, self-assured, and endowed with great personal courage and well-developed tactical ability.
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#58

Post by Boby » 12 Jun 2016, 12:29

Making the worst of a bad situation: How the interpersonal conflict between Foreign Minister Jozef Beck and Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly affected Poland’s perception of the German threat in the run-up to the Second World War
Anna M. Kostus
Ph.D.
King's College London, 2015
https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/ ... thesis.pdf

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#59

Post by The Ibis » 18 Jun 2016, 21:57

THE HEROIC MANAGER: An Assessment of Sir Douglas Haig’s Role as a Military Manager on the Western Front, Ph.D. thesis (Kings College London) by Anthony John Vines

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/the ... dc8e).html
Sir Michael Howard has observed that Douglas Haig was a military manager in the mould of Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower rather than one of the “Great Captains” of military legend. Unfortunately, Howard did not elaborate. To date, this crucial aspect of Haig’s role on the Western Front has not been explored.

The contention of this thesis is that Haig was an exceptional military manager who pursued the organising principle of unity-of-effort within the BEF on the Western Front to facilitate the defeat of the German Army in concert with the Allies.

In 1909, Haig established unity-of-effort as the first principle of war organization in FSR-II.1 Haig did not define the precept possibly in the belief that it was a commonplace. However, a study to establish the contemporary understanding has revealed that unity-of-effort was, and is, the raison d’être of all forms of human organization including the military. It was regarded as a tangible and effective principle and not a mere rhetorical gesture or oratorical flourish. Its nature was immutable, and uniquely coordinative. Unity-of-effort found expression in its compound character, which had distinct mental, physical and moral components, specific to each organization. The principle was considered to be a normative ideal, and not an absolute standard.

Haig strove to optimise unity-of-effort by developing operational, organizational and administrative doctrine in pursuit of unity-of-mental-effort; by inculcating the teachings of doctrine through progressive training methods to achieve unity-of-physical-effort; and by promoting the will to fight through sustained morale and discipline to attain unity-of-moral-effort. Haig managed the process to attain unity-of-effort through the coordinative function of the General Staff.
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel

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Re: Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

#60

Post by The Ibis » 01 Jul 2016, 21:19

‘An army of brigadiers’ British brigade commanders at the Battle of Arras 1917 by Harvey, Trevor Gordon (2016), Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/6503/
Abstract

Infantry brigades have been described as the ‘building blocks’ of the British army. Despite this, their role and that of their commanding brigadier-generals have been labelled as being concerned primarily with the provision of ‘training and administration’. The conventional criteria used to evaluate the performance of brigades and their commanders, however, has been their battlefield performance. This study challenges these orthodoxies.

The Battle of Arras 1917 was the first offensive action which provided the British army with an opportunity to implement the lessons derived from its experience drawn from the Battle of the Somme. A cohort of one hundred and sixteen brigadier-generals commanded cavalry and infantry brigades involved in the battle. Collectively they are the subject of analysis. Five of these brigadier-generals, their battalion commanders and principal staff officers, are the subject of case studies over the period mid-October 1916 until mid-May 1917.

These studies reveal a number of threads, in addition to battlefield performance, that are argued to be essential elements in understanding the role and functions of brigadier-generals. Their most significant contribution was to ensure, despite the unglamorous treadmill of building and rebuilding their brigades, that they retained the capacity and capability of their brigades for battle.
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel

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