“Slouching” Semi-Erratum: What Was the Logic of the “Prussian Way of War”? First Edition p. 158.

A place where a complicated argument hides invisibly under the word “logic"

The passage is:

Once German dreams of a swift victory were dashed, and everyone went to their trenches, the logic of the Prussian way of war—if you fail to win quickly, sue for peace—fell out of favor. The German officer corps’ adherence to Totenritt—a willingness to undertake a “death ride”—held sway, so that carrying out senseless orders to the best of one’s ability substituted for logic…

This is much too compressed, to put it politely, as has pointed out to me by Mossy Character, who snarked “news to Frederick II, among others” <http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_18157.html>. The “logic” was supposed to be: 1. Prussia has no natural defenses and a poor population. 2. Hence if it is going to win, it must win quickly. 3. Hence the Prussian Way of War—strike first, strike hard, strike by surprise, strike from an unexpected direction. 4. The logic of the Prussian Way of War is that you are going to lose a long war. 5. Therefore if you fail to win quickly, logic says sue for peace. 6. But that is not how the German army worked. And then the next sentence should begin with an “Instead…”

But none of that comes through in the first edition text.