Wargaming is literally as old as civilization. Most historians consider civilization to have begun with the establishment of cities. An abstract wargame was found in the runes of Ur, considered by many the first city. Wargames were independently developed by civilizations separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles. It appears they were used to assist the children of nobility to outthink their future opponents.
Prussia developed the first modern simulation wargame in 1811. For the first time a wargame simulated actual battle, with a Red side, a Blue side and an Umpire who used a thick set of rules and dice to determine the net outcome of both sides decisions. At first these wargames were used only in a traditionally, to develop the strategic thinking of Prussian princes. However, in the early 1800’s wargames were being used in the professional development of all officers and were part of the curriculum at the Prussian War College. By the late 1800’s Germany was using wargame to help develop specific war plans. Germany’s success in her wars of unification encouraged the spread of wargaming world wide.
During this time wargaming came to the United States. In 1883 Major Livemore, US Army translated the German Army’s wargame manual into English. He later adjusted the manuals casualty tables to reflect loss rates experienced during the Civil War. However, he was unsuccessful in getting the US Army to adopt wargaming. Fortunately for the US in 1887 Mr. William McCarthy Little succeeded in introducing wargaming at the Naval War College. (Wargaming has been part of their curriculum ever since.) Due to embarrassingly poor staff work during the Spanish American War the US Army decided to found a war college. When the Army War College opened in 1900 wargaming was part of their curriculum.
Back in Europe German success had prompted other nations to adopt German staff planning processes, including wargaming, reducing the competitive advantage wargaming had given them. So while the Germans used wargames to improve their plan to attack France, England used wargaming to anticipate German plans and develop a counter. The resulting stalemate was not broken until US forces were committed to battle in numbers.
During the 20s and 30s Germany again advanced the state of the art of wargaming, inventing political/military wargaming, Red Teaming (ensuring individuals playing opposing forces follow the doctrine of those forces) and improved live wargaming (field maneuvers). At least as importantly Germany integrated her wargaming with doctrine development and equipment requirements definition. Germany called the result “mobile operations.” The world would call it Blitzkrieg.
Fortunately the US Navy and US Marine Corps was also innovating their use of wargaming. Navy wargames both helped evolve requirements and procedures for aircraft carriers and anticipate the duration, infrastructure and logistical requirements of the war in the Pacific. The Marines used wargaming as part of the process they used to develop the very concept of amphibious operations as well as the characteristics of the equipment they would need. The US Army also did some innovative wargaming on the eve of WWII, including joint wargames with the Navy and german style live wargames, such as the Louisiana Maneuvers.
During World War II both the major Axis and major Allied powers used wargaming. Germany wargamed all their major operations before execution except the invasion of Poland. Their wargame prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union took so long additional time was scheduled twice and yet the wargame still only depicted the campaign to November of 1941. Hence the wargame could not help the Germans the difficulties they experienced that first winter. The Japanese conducted a political/military wargame of the war (that did NOT include an attack on Pearl Harbor) that indicated she would win. They went to war and the military decided to attack Pearl Harbor. The wargames they conducted helped to greatly increase the military effectiveness of the attack, but did not even consider the effect such an attack would have on American public opinion. Soviet wargaming was very different than that in the west (or Japan). They were one move wargames in which both sides planned the entire operation then umpired determined the outcome on large terrain tables. British wargames ran the gamut from very simple “walk throughs” by Montgomery’s staff to very sophisticated operations researcher lead efforts that anticipated German technical innovations. One US Marine Corps wargame forecast the casualties actually suffered so closely it was called “eerie.” After the war Admiral Nimitz praised the accuracy with which wargames had forecast the overall requirements of the war.
To be continued...
The history of wargaming is still being written, through the deeds of those in the field and literally by Matt Caffrey and makes time around his day job. If you were a part of making the history of wargaming please contact Matt using the “EMail Me” button at the bottom of this page. Remember history is NOT what happened, it is what got written down. Don’t let your part of the history of wargaming get omitted. If you know of a good source on the history of wargaming (book, article, web site, individual) please also contact Matt below.
CLick here for an outline of the book’s section on the of history of wargaming.
Chick here for a chronology of wargaming.
