“(28) “Doctrine draws on the lessons of history” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Doctrine Copy Share Image
“(21) Heavy signalling, like copious orders, is symptomatic of doctrinal deficiency,” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Doctrinal Deficiency Copy Share Image
“(20) There is an inverse law between robust doctrine and the need for signalling.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Robust Copy Share Image
“The volume of traffic expands to meet capacity, is” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Capacity Copy Share Image
“The promise of signalling fosters a neglect of doctrine.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Doctrine Copy Share Image
“(16) Incoming traffic can act as a brake on decision-making,” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Decision making Copy Share Image
“Signals’ prioritising mechanisms become dislocated in times of overload.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Overload Copy Share Image
“(19) Signalling promotes the centralisation of authority.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Power Copy Share Image
“(24) Properly disseminated doctrine offers both the cheapest and the most secure command-and-control method yet devised by man.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Copy Share Image
“(25) Every proven military incompetent has previously displayed attributes which his superiors rewarded. Almost every” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Military Incompetent Copy Share Image
“that (11) Purveyors of technical systems will seek to define performance criteria and trials conditions.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Criteria Copy Share Image
“(23) War-fighting commanders may find themselves bereft of communications faculties on which they have become reliant in peacetime training. Most forms of… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Communication Copy Share Image
“steam-tactics saga illustrates that (4) Rationalism, unlike empiricism, tends to assume an accretion of vested interests.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Irrational Copy Share Image
“Many of the more ghastly and idiotic aspects of the Great War were made possible by the coincidence of mass-production and the… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Great war Copy Share Image
“Fisher said, “to be a good admiral, a man does not need to be a good sailor. That’s a common mistake. He… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Admiral Copy Share Image
“Whether or not his remarks are fully warranted, they are a reminder that the “canker of a long peace” is a creeping… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Peace Copy Share Image
“The sudden disproof of the reassuring, structured assumptions about the formula for naval mastery, which had accumulated during the untesting age of… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Naval Copy Share Image
“(10) Innovations adopted in accordance with peacetime doctrine, may lock the Fleet into both systems and doctrine which will fail the empirical… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Technology Copy Share Image
“The one lesson to be learned is the necessity for every officer to cultivate belief in his own judgment, so as not… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Faith Copy Share Image
“Thus was obscured the fact that his most essential contribution to British naval mastery was as a trainer of Collingwoods, Blackwoods and… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Greatest gift Copy Share Image
“The way Jellicoe fought Jutland had to be consistent with the action-principles with which he had imbued his forces, and with the… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Copy Share Image
“Some of the most highly trained and successful military forces – Nelson’s fleet, Montgomery’s 8th Army, Wingate’s Chindits – were worked up… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Life Copy Share Image
“A service which neglects to foster a conceptual grasp of specialised subjects, will have too few warriors able to interrogate the specialists.… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Change Copy Share Image
“(26) Peacetime highlights basic ‘primary’ skills to the neglect of more advanced, more lateral ‘secondary’ abilities, the former being easier to teach,… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Basic Primary Copy Share Image
“Vice-Admiral Scheer’s own confidential report to Wilhelm II. Here he made the tendentious, and highly questionable, assertion that “even the most successful… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Life Copy Share Image
“can therefore attribute the many reporting failures at Jutland to a cocktail of factors, including: (a) lack of initiative, and ‘seniority knows… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Failure Copy Share Image
“Uniformity distinguishes men by rank rather than character; and “as ships became divided [in departure from central batteries] and gun positions more… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Individual responsibility Copy Share Image
“Many notorious military blunders have been set up by poor personal relationships (if not wilful taciturnity) between key participants, the need for… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Teamwork Copy Share Image
“Some of them are blinding glimpses of the obvious (BGOs), several overlap, and I make no claims of discovery. The fundamental proposition… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Peace Copy Share Image
“At a time of deep naval peace, when social connections were a means to the top, when royal yachts brought career advantage,… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Peace Copy Share Image
“Without a dedicated naval staff to define requirements and shape policy in technical matters, and, where appropriate, tap civilian expertise, the Navy… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Naval Copy Share Image
“(5) The training establishment may try to ignore short bouts of empirical experience to preserve its ‘rationalist’ authority.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Fitness Copy Share Image
“By the close of the Victorian age Britain’s officer classes were increasingly the inheritors, rather than the winners, of empire.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Victorian Copy Share Image
“In all aspects of shipboard life, “guides, tables, reports, logs, books, inspection provisions and other methods of supervision were developed, mostly in… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Books Copy Share Image
“The literal meaning of ‘doctrine’ is “what is taught within a group as its corporate beliefs, principles or faith”52 – although “what… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Doctrine Copy Share Image
“My comments are directed at the system which was responsible for their poor performance, not at the officers concerned. I do not… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Poor performance Copy Share Image
“Signals ‘capacity’ tends to be defined by how much the senior end can transmit, rather than by how much the junior end… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Capacity Copy Share Image
“(27) The key to efficiency lies in the correct balance between organisation and method.” — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Productivity Copy Share Image
“would have been venturing into what Tryon had tried to reintroduce as their ‘secondary-syllabus’ duties, whereas all too many of them owed… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Tryon Tried Copy Share Image
“that the shaky premiss on which British fleets had, for two generations, been practised and led – the assumption that tactical signals… — Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon Signals Relied Copy Share Image