The Kingdom of Anvegad
January 1836
Anvegad Military Academy
Classroom C
"What is the backbone of a army? Fighting spirit? Courage? Honor? Infantry? Artillery? Cavalry?" Questioned Professor Captain Palver Lynx to his audience in the spacious classroom. Rows upon rows of young officer cadets in front, veteran officers of the army in the upper seats alongside visitors from foreign lands and armies. How many generations of young officers sat in this hall, sat in these chairs?
"No. The basis of all warfare is logistics. Whether at war or at peace, in garrison or in the field of battle, logistics is the most essential factor in warfare that must be kept in mind from the lowest soldier to the highest general. I quote the words of Brigader Roland Tayber 'There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war', for he realized firsthand the difficulties of maintaining an army across distant lands and battlefields, and all too frequently won or lost battles solely on the basis of whether he had enough supplies to not only wage battle but follow up on his victories. A realization on the need to match war with the industry and support needed to run it.
This has become all the more important as gunpowder weapons are now the centerpiece of battle. Gunpowder is rarely available to be stolen, muskets and artillery cannot be made on the move, and the number of troops within a given area precludes any attempt to live off the land by foraging or pillage, thus placing high emphasis on having a stable and safe means of transport and supply of all necessities needed for soldiers on the march as well as replacement soldiers who too cannot be acquired off the land or on the march.
Let us refresh our memories on just how much goes into just a single battalion of fighting men with an attached artillery battery. Using Captain Talver's equation on approximating a standard thirty-day supply for a on-paper battalion, with the caveats-"
Glancing across his audience as his lecture ran from his mouth with practiced ease, Palver didn't have to read uniforms to know who was really taking these lessons to heart. The soldiers of Anvegad regardless of branch understood the weight of his words, for the necessities of supply, transport, and logistics had been hammered into the artillery-centric army since its conception as a formal military force. Soldiers and officers from foreign lands were of a more mixed opinion, and many did not disguise their disinterest or disbelief. Likely new transfers or invitees from cavalry troops that cared little about anything that couldn't be shot, ridden, or stabbed; or were so highborn they considered such "bean-counting" to be beneath them.
Yet this was how Anvegad fought war. Not just with great cannon and disciplined soldiers in grand bombardments, but with an ingrained and institutional understanding of what it took to maintain war centered around artillery and firearms. Math and figures alongside discipline and firepower. Industrial as well as military strength.
Some would learn today. More would have to learn in harder ways. Many would have to discover their own way of learning the importance of military logistics. "Finish the equation where you are, and complete it for homework due tomorrow. As you can see, even basic approximation calculations for thirty-day supply of a single battalion are a significant task, to the point where we have standing army units dedicated to nothing but matters of provisioning and supply. Therefore we strive to turn operational conditions into logistical advantages to reduce the weight of the shackle of logistics, such as ensuring artillery from a particular forge remain close together to ensure shared supply, and concentration of arms into Grand Batteries to reduce total amount of wagons and transit time of supply. Thus force concentration of heavy ordinance is not only martially ideal, it is far more preferable and sustainable logistically than parceling out troops along a broad front..."
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A petition to the Military Board of Provisioning
Subject: New Model Canning
Summation:
Honorable gentlemen of the Board of Provisioning, I would like to submit my product as a potential solution to the challenge proposed in the year 1832 on the matter of enhancing the nation's capabilities for preserving military rations for extended periods of time whilst remaining portable and edible.
Through various personal experiments, I have devised a improved means of preserving food within tin cans in place of standard jars and bottles which are more fragile and lengthy to manufacture and cook in. With the concepts and plans for industrial machinery I have devised, it would be possible to mass-produce canned food (primarily beef and bread with my current facilities and resources) for transit and safe consumption at later dates rather than the labor-intensive methods currently in existence to seal bottles, jars, and wax-sealed cans.
A factory built to specifications of my design and implementation would hold immense benefit towards feeding our troops or stockpiling reserves for future harsh winters. To prove my word, I am willing to submit several samples of canned food for testing and review to both military and research board at a time and date of your specification.
Attached to this letter is a more detailed summation of my methods and process I apply to patent and with the board's approval implement on as large a scale as possible for the satisfaction of soldiers and citizens alike.
Your most humble servant,
- Toran Halver
Summary:
Anvegad War Tactics: ARTILLERY ASSAULT
Anvegad is considering methods of modernization, such as advanced canning.