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Infiltration fire and movement schemes can be viewed as Napoleon’s multi-thrust strategic penetration maneuvers being transformed into multi-thrust tactical penetration maneuvers down to the lowest operational/organizational level—the squad.
Until the rise of the infiltration tactics (and the use of tanks by the allies) in the latter part of WWI, neither the 19th century nor the 20th century commanders were able to evolve effective tactical penetration maneuvers that could offset the massive increase in weapons lethality developed during this same period.
The aristocratic tradition, the top-down command and control system, the slavish addiction to the “Principle of Concentration”, and the drill regulation mind-set, all taken together, reveal an “obsession for control” by high-level superiors over low-level subordinates that restrict any imagination, initiative, and adaptability needed by a system to evolve the indistinct-irregular-mobile tactics that could counter the increase in weapons lethality.
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