Accession Number:

ADA243343

Title:

Coup d'Oeil: Military Geography and the Operational Level of War

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLL FORT LEAVENWORTH KS SCHOOL OF ADVANCED MILITARY STUDIES

Personal Author(s):

• O'Brien, John

Report Date:

1991-05-16

Pagination or Media Count:

64.0

Abstract:

This monograph focuses on the geographic component of the contemporary intelligence process at the operational level of war. The concept of coup doeil, the intellectual capacity of military commanders to evaluate geography and apply that evaluation to the successful prosecution of war, serves as the unifying theme throughout the monograph. The research question is to examine how to better the coup doeil of the commander at the operational level. The theoretical nature of coup doeil is examined to establish the basis of the relationship between geography and warfare. Missing at the operational level is a methodology to analyze quickly, accurately and appropriately, the key elements of terrain in the theater of operations. The monograph suggests that access, mobility, visibility, communicability, availability, and vulnerability are the appropriate elements of operational terrain analysis. Operation Neptune and the subsequent break out from the Normandy beachhead is used as a historical case study to examine these elements in support of a campaign design.

Descriptors:

• *THEATER LEVEL OPERATIONS
• INTELLIGENCE
• CAPACITY(QUANTITY)
• VULNERABILITY
• TERRAIN
• VISIBILITY
• OPERATION
• MILITARY COMMANDERS
• GEOGRAPHY
• NEPTUNE(PLANET)
• MILITARY GEOGRAPHY

Subject Categories:

• Geography
• Military Intelligence
• Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE