Dissertations/Thesis/Academic works Online Index

[Attrition]

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up;seq=1

Not quite a dissertation but Military Operations Togoland and Cameroon 1914-1916, F J Moberly (1931) is online at the Hathi Trust

[Attrition]

https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/war-office-archive

War Office Maps online: British East Africa 1890-1940 (another crib from the GWF)

[The Ibis]

"REFORM, FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY, AND LEADERSHIP IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL AND SOVIET NAVIES, 1881–1941," a PhD dissertation by Tony Demchak. krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handl ... ak2016.pdf

Abstract:

This dissertation examines the shifting patterns of naval reform and the implementation of foreign technology in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union from Alexander III’s ascension to the Imperial throne in 1881 up to the outset of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. During this period, neither the Russian Imperial Fleet nor the Red Navy had a coherent, overall strategic plan. Instead, the expansion and modernization of the fleet was left largely to the whims of the ruler or his chosen representative. The Russian Imperial period, prior to the Russo-Japanese War, was characterized by the overbearing influence of General Admiral Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, who haphazardly directed acquisition efforts and systematically opposed efforts to deal with the potential threat that Japan posed. The Russo-Japanese War and subsequent downfall of the Grand Duke forced Emperor Nicholas II to assert his own opinions, which vacillated between a coastal defense navy and a powerful battleship-centered navy superior to the one at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. In the Soviet era, the dominant trend was benign neglect, as the Red Navy enjoyed relative autonomy for most of the 1920s, even as the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 ended the Red Navy’s independence from the Red Army. M. V. Frunze, the People’s Commissar of the Army of Navy for eighteen months in 1925 and 1926, shifted the navy from the vaguely Mahanian theoretical traditions of the past to a modern, proletarian vision of a navy devoted to joint actions with the army and a fleet composed mainly of submarines and light surface vessels. As in the Imperial period, these were general guidelines rather than an all-encompassing policy. The pattern of benign neglect was shattered only in 1935, when Stalin unilaterally imposed his own designs for a mighty offensive fleet on the Soviet military, a plan that was only interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

[The Ibis]

"THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916: A PYRRHIC VICTORY," a PhD thesis by Thomas Bradbeer. https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/7879

Abstract:

The Battle of the Somme was Britain’s first major offensive of the First World War. Just about every facet of the campaign has been analyzed and reexamined. However, one area of the battle that has been little explored is the second battle which took place simultaneously to the one on the ground. This second battle occurred in the skies above the Somme, where for the first time in the history of warfare a deliberate air campaign was planned and executed to support ground operations. The British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was tasked with achieving air superiority over the Somme sector before the British Fourth Army attacked to start the ground offensive.

This study focuses on the Royal Flying Corps, its organization and leaders, as well as the strategy and doctrine it employed in its attempt to regain air superiority from the German Army Air Service (GAAS) in the spring of 1916. Prior to the start of the ground battle, the commander of the RFC, General Hugh Trenchard, directed his squadrons accomplish six tactical tasks in order for the RFC to achieve aerial superiority over the Somme. These tasks were: 1) aerial reconnaissance, 2) aerial photography, 3) observation and direction of artillery, 4) tactical bombing, 5) ‘contact’ patrols in support of the infantry and 6) air combat against the GAAS to enable achievement of the other five tasks. Critical to answering the question of whether or not the RFC accomplished its assigned tasks this study also examines the development of air power strategy by the RFC before and during the battle. Five factors are used to frame the analysis: strategy, organization, leadership, selection and training of aircrew.

Although the RFC suffered high losses because it rigidly adhered to an offensive strategy throughout the air campaign, when the battle ended, the RFC still controlled the skies above the Somme. While the ground campaign failed to accomplish most of its stated objectives, historians have argued that the air campaign was a victory for the RFC. This paper contends that because of the heavy aircrew casualties it in fact proved to be a Pyrrhic victory. The consequences of maintaining a continuous air offensive over the Somme led to nearly disastrous results for the RFC in its subsequent air campaign over Arras in April, 1917.

[Attrition]

Where are the French?

[The Ibis]

Where are the French?

Do you want dissertations in French? Or dissertations about the French?

[The Ibis]

Here is a great website reviewing dissertations on a wide variety of subjects.
http://dissertationreviews.org

[Gorque]

Thanks!

[Andy H]

Hi

Running a bit behind on adding these.
Just added 8, will add the rest over the coming day.

Thanks to all who've contributed

Regards

Andy H

[ArchibaldTuttle]

Thank you for a good supply of literature on this topic! I read here http://degreeway.com/blog/how-to-write- ... conclusion that the bibliography is the most important, because it indicates the degree of the author's involvement in the modern scientific paradigm. The article addressed to graduate students, but I believe that it is important for students too.

[Attrition]

Thank you for a good supply of literature on this topic! I read here http://degreeway.com/blog/how-to-write- ... conclusion that the bibliography is the most important, because it indicates the degree of the author's involvement in the modern scientific paradigm. The article addressed to graduate students, but I believe that it is important for students too.

Have you got a 27b/6?

[The Ibis]

Just found this one. Kelly Ann Grieco's PhD thesis "War by Coalition: The Effects of Coalition Military Institutionalization on Coalition Battlefield Effectiveness": https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/104572

ABSTRACT
What accounts for variation in the military performance of coalitions and alliances on the battlefield? This dissertation presents and tests a realist-institutionalist theory of coalition military effectiveness, which accounts for both the process of capability aggregation within military coalitions and its implications for coalition fighting effectiveness. It posits that variation in the design of coalition institutions for political-military planning, command relationships and information exchanges significantly affects the ability of member nations to fight alongside each other on the battlefield. According to the theory, coalition military institutions provide the key mechanisms through which coalition members manage intra-alliance uncertainties and fears, thereby allowing for closer coordination of their war effort. The most effective military coalitions adopt joint political-military coalition planning, unity of command with an integrated command staff, and the fluid exchange of information among coalition nations.

The study tests this theory through a mixed-methods approach, complimenting a medium-n statistical analysis with two detailed case studies of coalition wars fought under conditions chosen to provide maximum theoretical leverage. The medium-n statistical analysis examines all interstate coalition wars waged between 1816 and 2007 using the Correlates of War Inter-state War Data (version 4). Using primary documents, memoirs and battle histories, the study tests realist-institutionalist theory in two empirical cases: France and Britain in the First World War (1914-1918) and France and Britain in the Battle of France (May-June 1940). The main finding is that variation in the design of coalition military institutions accounts for differences in coalition battlefield effectiveness both across and within coalitions over time.

The study makes three principal contributions. First, it offers the first serious treatment of coalition military effectiveness in the academic literature. Unlike other research, it expands beyond national military effectiveness to consider the coalition dimension. Second, the study contributes to a growing body of research suggesting the importance of non-material variables to explanations of military effectiveness, drawing attention to the critical importance of coalition military institutions for combat power. Finally, the study informs the public policy debate, suggesting whether the US and other allies could achieve battlefield success more quickly, with fewer casualties and at lower costs if it acted through ad-hoc military coalitions or institutionalized alliances.

[Andy H]

Worthy of better Memory: The Royal Navy and the defence of the Eastern Empire 1935 - 1942
http://bear.buckingham.ac.uk/109/2/A%20 ... lished.pdf

Destroying the Panthers: The Effect of Allied Combat Action on I./SS Panzer Regiment 12 in Normandy, 1944
http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol25/iss2/13/

The development of Anglo-American Naval strategy in the period of the second world war,1938-1941
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin= ... hos.558406

Regards

Andy H

[Eugen Pinak]

Andy H - thank you very much for sharing.

Worthy of better Memory: The Royal Navy and the defence of the Eastern Empire 1935 - 1942
http://bear.buckingham.ac.uk/109/2/A%20 ... lished.pdf

You've provided link only to volume 2, link to volume 1 is here: http://bear.buckingham.ac.uk/109/1/A%20 ... lished.pdf

[Eugen Pinak]

Sorry it those were already posted here.

“The Bomber Will Always Get Through”: The Evolution of British Air Policy and Doctrine, 1914–1940
Author: Brown, Katie Lynn -
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_ ... 1308260254

No Path to Victory: MACV in Vietnam 1964-1968
Mills, Jeffrey P. - http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_ ... 1447944820

Journey to the East: The German Military Mission in China, 1927-1938
Rodriguez, Robyn L.

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_ ... 1319222757