History of Military Logistics - Legacies and Operational Perspectives

Logistics is an indispensable part of military operations. Many commanders have underscored its vital character, without which no armed action is possible. "Nothing compensates for deficiency in supply," declared General Rommel. "If logistics says no, then logistics is right — the operational plan must be changed, it is a bad one," retorted General Eisenhower.

Yet this operational function remained for many years in the shadow of studies on the conduct of war. If today logistics' contributions to operations are regularly recognised, there was no work dealing with its history from its origins to the present day. It seemed as though logistics was destined to remain only a minor part of military history and that its story, fragmented by theme or confined to a specific period, could not be connected to a common destiny. Nevertheless, logistics has always worked to sustain the collective war effort. It was through the gathering of resources necessary for their movements, the maintenance of their weapons and their troops that the conquerors of old triumphed.

Despite this, logistics seems absent from our most symbolic military representations. Thus, among the battle paintings in the Galerie des Glaces at the Louvre, it is very difficult to find. Yet it is indeed present, behind the scenes, hidden beneath the gilding of the frames. This work sets out to search for it and to lift the veil on this little-known dimension of our military history. Across nine chapters, from Antiquity to the recent conflicts of French forces in Africa and the Middle East, the aim is to understand how the successes (and failures) of the greatest military operations in History were materially achieved before, during and after battle.