Military Plans and Military
Directives--Essentials of Military Directives--
Restatement of the Decision--Standard Forms for Plans
and Directives--The Order Form--Types of Naval
Directives.

IX The Supervision of the Planned Action (The Fourth Step) 197

Nature of the Discussion--Goal of Planning--Importance
of Execution--The Incentive--Conditions in War--
Recognition of New Problems--Nature of Readjustments
Required--Importance of the Will of the Commander--
Problems Involving Modification of the Basic Plan--
Problems Challenging Integrity of Basic Plan--Further
Procedure Applicable to such Problems of the Fourth
Step--The Running Estimate of the Situation--Journal
and Work Sheet--Special Remarks as to Entries--Summary.

*CONCLUSION 217

*APPENDIX

Outline Form of an Operation Plan 219
Tabular Form of the Estimate of the Situation 222

*INDEX 227

* Not included in the limited issue for use in Part I of the
Correspondence Course.

FOREWORD

From the earliest days of recorded history, the facts associated with
military operations of the past have been constantly studied. The
result has been the accumulation of a mass of information from which
conclusions have been drawn as to the causes of success and failure.
Although scattered through countless volumes, and nowhere completely
systematized and classified, this accepted body of knowledge
constitutes the basis for the science of war.

Scientific investigation--that is, the collection, verification, and
classification of facts--follows the recurrent procedure of successive
analysis, hypothesis, theory, and test. The application of this
process to the campaigns of history reveals fundamentals common to
all, irrespective of whether the sphere of action has been land, sea,
or air. In the ceaseless struggle for supremacy between the offense
and the defense, great technological changes have taken place. The
successful conduct of war, however, has always depended on effective
operations for the creation or maintenance of favorable military
situations, whose essential elements have remained unchanged
throughout the years (see page 46).

These fundamental considerations (see page 28), whatever the detailed
form of their presentati