For my friend, One Man Gang

[ZippyMorocco]

BPBOTWHBSA

"No plan survives the first contact with the enemy."

Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Graf Bernard von Moltke.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Interestingly, what he actually said (that we've since simplified to the more pithy misquote you've given) was, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength.”

It was his way of explaining why plans need what we today call "branches and sequels." Options. If this, then that kinds of options.

Today, some folks interpret the shorter version as advice against planning at all. "Wing it," is what some conclude. But that's not what von Moltke meant at all.

Go Vols!

p.s. Will anyone other than OMG know what BPBOTWHBSA means? Will OMG?

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

 

[Orangeslice13]

I’m on the no plan plan

 

[Boca Vol]

View attachment 462058

This is what I thought of when I read the OP.

 

[ZippyMorocco]

Interestingly, what he actually said (that we've since simplified to the more pithy misquote you've given) was, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength.”

It was his way of explaining why plans need what we today call "branches and sequels." Options. If this, then that kinds of options.

Today, some folks interpret the shorter version as advice against planning at all. "Wing it," is what some conclude. But that's not what von Moltke meant at all.

Go Vols!

p.s. Will anyone other than OMG know what BPBOTWHBSA means? Will OMG?

Benevolent and Protective Brotherhood of Them What Has Been Shot At

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Benevolent and Protective Brotherhood of Them What Has Been Shot At

Ah, thanks.

 

[Juanita]

If this, then that kinds of options.

Kinda "cause and effect" with emphasis on having a plan B, depending on the effect??

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Kinda "cause and effect" with emphasis on having a plan B, depending on the effect??

Yeah, exactly. Like "if enemy main attack is on this axis of advance, then do this...if main attack is on the other axis, do that instead." Exactly.

That's a branch, by the way. A sequel is more like, "if we have greater than expected success, rather than consolidating on the objective we will push forward to a supplementary objective further along."

Branches deviate, sequels follow. Something like that.

A single plan, especially at the higher tiers of command, can have several, even dozens, of branches and sequels.