Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
Okay. So first, the Schlieffen Maneuver. And here you see that they have these five armies here. The idea is to pivot on Metz, get in behind the allied armies and end the war. [unintelligible] basic idea. And of course you all know that didn’t work out. I’m not going to get into that kind of thing, why it didn’t work out. But what I’m really trying to bring out here, it’s not any more than a huge, what?
Audience: Single envelopment.
Boyd: Single envelopment. In other words, you can think of it as a gigantic Leuthen. Flanking operation. In other words, you’re trying to swing in a back door, grab the guys, cut them off from their supplies and support, force the surrender and end the war. That was the basic idea behind it.
As we well know, there’s all kind of reasons why it didn’t work. I don’t want to get into that right now. But that’s what happened.