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 Post subject: Paddy Griffith died
PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:21 am 
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Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2001 5:01 am
Posts: 564
Location: USA
Sad news in the wargaming world. His website is:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/paddygriffith/

"Paddy suffered a heart attack while recuperating at his Manchester home from a recent operation."

al



MG Al "Ambushed" Amos, Commanding Officer
1st Div, I Corps, AoP, USA

http://albert-amos.blogspot.com/


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:14 am 
I read one of his books....Did not think it was very objective when it came to the abilities of Euro soldiers vs American soldiers, and additionally it was a dry read, but I wouldn't wish death onn him for it.....I may be ignorant here, but did he do something in wargaming additional to his books?

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Corp Commanding


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:57 am 
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Posts: 1324
I have read "Battle Tactics of the Civil War." I thought it was very interesting. Although I didn't agree with all that he said, based on my own research, he did bother to bolster his conclusions with facts, figures and eyeness testimony. Of course, you can find all kinds of eyewitness testimony that is mutually contradictory, just like you can find "expert witnesses" who contradict each other. But I did find some of his arguments persuasive.

Paddy Griffith is described as a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. May he rest in peace.

MG Mike Mihalik
2/4/I/AoMiss/CSA


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:16 am 
Mike,

It was, of course the same book that I read. What I thought was questionble was how I got the feeling that he simply felt that Euro armies were so far superior....Other than that, I thought it was pretty good if a bit boring....

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Corp Commanding


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:05 pm 
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Hi, Hank,

I got that Griffith thought European theory, training and organization were superior, and I thought that was the weakest argument in the book. Also his criticism of field fortifications. It is interesting that when the French had an opportunity to fight the Union army in Mexico, they declined. Thus we will never know how the American armies of the Civil War would have stacked up against a European army of that period.



MG Mike Mihalik
2/4/I/AoMiss/CSA


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:10 pm 
For me, it really stretched his credibility....Had he not taken that attitude, I think the book would have come off a lot better.....

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Corp Commanding


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:10 am 
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Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:20 am
Posts: 55
Location: United Kingdom
I am very sad to hear of the death of Paddy Griffiths.

As an author I had only just discorvered him, but his writing on the American Civil War (Battle Tactics of the American Civil War, 2001), British tank tactics in the Western Desert (World War II Desert Tactics, Elite 2008) and his Magum Opus on Tactics since 1805 (Forward into Battle, 1992) All caught my imagination. I don't personally find his writing "dry", whatever that means; analytical, highly opinionated, and with a refreshing absence of sentiment is how I would describe it.

To be offended on nationalistic grounds by Paddy's criticisms of American Civil War tactics seems to me to be somewhat narrow minded. If you read his other books you will find that he is just as scathing about the performance of the British, the French and just about every other national army he analyses. Are we saying that the fighting of the American Civil War represents the apogee of military science in the 19th Century? Heck, if you were offended by the Civil War book, you should read what he wrote about the US army tactics in Vietnam!

Paddy thought that a lot of hot air had been expended about the American Civil War and that some objective analysis was called for. He argued that the rifled musket was not employed to it's full potential and that poor marksmanship and adherence to outdated tactical formations negated the technological advantage of rifling. He blamed this on the fact that the pre-war American army was small and ill equiped to deal with the transition to a mass citizen volunteer army, especially in a democracy, (the same criticism is made of the British army in WWI btw).

He further felt that lip service was paid to the French "chasseur" skirmishing concept, with "Zouave" units being uniformed as light infantry but not receiving meaningful light infantry training and then simply being employed as line infantry.

He argued that American military thought and tradition has an underlying defensive and "Engineer" bias which does not lend itself to the offensive.

Paddy came to the conclusion that far from representing a step onwards from Napoleonic tactics, the Civil War showed that Americans had not even yet absorbed and applied the tactics of Napoleon, let alone moved on from them. He argued that skirmishing, individual marksmanship and Close Artillery support that both French and allied Forces had developed to an art during the Napoleonic era were not adopted by the american forces in the Civil War.

Paddy cites instances of massed cavalry assaults being successful in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and even to some extent in 1914-18 and argues that Civil War commanders simply didn't understand the potential of cavalry because of the engineering bias at West Point and the myth that american terrain limited possiblities for the cavalry.

All in all I would prefer to read Paddy's book, with it's lively style and criticism to any 4 american written sentimental "weepies" (which I have read) about the civil war as the analysis actually means something to me and makes me think about my wargaming.

As a Brit I feel proud that we have (or had) guys like Paddy out there, telling it as they see it. If some of you yanks prefer to sit and weep into your beer, all misty eyed about the Civil War then so be it. Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. ;-)

Col. James Broadhead
2nd Brigade
1st Infantry Division "The Fianna"
II Corps "The Light Fighters"
Army of Alabama
CSA


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:52 am 
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Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:09 pm
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Col. Broadhead: Thank you for your impassioned defense of Paddy Griffths. I had not read any of his books before but your articulate reviews persuaded me to order his Battle Tactics of the Civil War (Amazon has some sweet used book prices).


Maj.Gen. Drex Ringbloom,
AotS Chief-of -Staff,
2nd Division Cmdr, "Corcoran's Legion", VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:11 pm 
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<font color="beige"><b>Sad to see him go.

I have several books near my desk that I use for quick reference, a dog eared copy of Paddy Griffith's "Battle in the Civil War" is one. His thoughts on command and control as well as tactics are insightful and Peter Dennis's illustrations are impressive.</b></font id="beige">

<center> <font color="beige"><b>General R.A.'Bob'Weir
Image
Image
</b></font id="beige"><font color="green"><b><font size="4">CSA Eastern Theater Commander</b></font id="size4"></font id="green">
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Image</center>


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