The lessons of warfare

I have always been interested in history. The history of warfare in particular has held a deep fascination for me - especially the First and Second World Wars in which both my grandfathers and my father fought in respectively.

It is not a morbid interest but a recognition of the fact that we can learn so much from the past and so much about the human spirit. War is the most demanding of human endevours. Mistakes made do not mean a loss in business or reduced profits or the laying off of staff - it means that people are maimed and killed. There is no second chance.

If we are to learn from anything then surely it is wars: how to avoid them and if you do have to fight them then how to win them with the minimal loss of life and destruction. But also how to apply the expensive lessons learnt to our everyday personal and business lives.

With this in mind, I was delighted to find this article by Robert Paterson on the The Lessons of Vimy. Take a look and see what can be learnt from a battle fought by the Canadian Army over 80 years ago in the 1914-18 War.

Robert Patterson has some other good stories/articles on his weblog and his website is also well worth a visit.