War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien by Janet B. Croft

Author:Janet B. Croft
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6 “The Dull Backwaters of the Art of Killing”: Training, Tactics, Strategy, and Battlefield Communication

These grey days, wasted in wearily going over, over and over again, the dreary topics, the dull backwaters of the art of killing, are not enjoyable.

—Carpenter, Tolkien 78

What did Tolkien’s war experiences and reading teach him about tactics and strategy? How did his military training affect his depiction of warfare? In this chapter, I will look at several of the major battles in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and analyze the strategies and tactics used by both sides. Just as with Tolkien’s depictions of modern heroism in an archaic world, the anachronisms point out Tolkien’s criticisms of both ancient and modern ways of making war; as Alex Lewis has pointed out, “Tolkien’s battles owe more to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries than to the Middle Ages and Medievalism” (“Arma” 10). I will pay particular attention to the roles of battlefield communication and intelligence in each battle because of Tolkien’s background as a signaling officer.

Before the war, Tolkien might have gained some casual familiarity with the basics of classical tactics and strategy through his reading. As a student of Greek and Latin at King Edwards School, he is likely to have read Xenophon, Tacitus, Polybius, Caesar, Arrian, and so on before learning Anglo-Saxon and discovering sources in the literature of northern Europe, such as those concerning the Battle of Maldon. But it is difficult to acquire skill in strategy and tactics through reading and study of historical examples alone (especially if one is not reading with that purpose in mind); formal training, frequently updated, and experience are better teachers.

Ongoing training is essential to a country’s military readiness. During World War I, “The western front ate up young front-line officers partly because of the lack of training and education of senior officers and their staffs” (Higham 49). Younger officers who had started their training after 1902 had the advantage of a modernized, post-Boer War education at Sandhurst and other military academies and through the Officer Training Corps attached to the public schools, but their elders and commanders were still most familiar with the now-outdated tactics developed during the Peninsular War and proven in colonial actions (Higham 48-49). The early years of the war decimated this well-trained core of younger officers and left men hurried through their training to take their place. One soldiers’ manual written in 1916 states that recruits normally trained for three months to a year before the war, but now “the time is very considerably shortened” (“The Major” 45). A book on the British army system for the American soldier describes the course of training Tolkien would have gone through. The officer candidates are first trained in small cadet camps. “After the new officers are qualified to take command they are moved to other small camps and watched and guided while they drill the recruits. Then the unit is moved to France where the last intensive touches are given” (Camps, Billets, Cooking preface).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.