The Eighth's fighter pilots forced Luftwaffe commanders to transfer desperately needed day fighter units from the Eastern and Mediterranean fronts. This had a detrimental effect, especially on the Eastern Front, where Luftwaffe fighter pilots were out numbered two to one at the Battle of Kursk in early July 1943. History records the engagement at Kursk as the largest tank battle of the Second World War, but fails to mention it marked the decline of the Luftwaffe fighter strength on the Eastern Front. Eighth fighter pilots were not deterred by the increased strength of Luftwaffe day figher units in Germany and the Western Front in 1943. In stead, they threw themselves at the enemy, and not only won air superiority, but achieved air supremacy.
This conforms to the theory of "Keeping Pressure on Schwab" from the great movie, "O.C. & Stiggs," a National Lampoon creation.
Everything we do in life in some small way changes the world. Cumulatively, these changes add up to massive interaction, conflict, and change. This is why regulated economies don't work, for when behavior is channeled into similar patterns there is less pressure on contradictory paths, and thus less creativity. In Stiggs’ terminology, less pressure on Schwab. Schwab no longer has to worry about someone stealing his lobsters or skinny dipping in his pool. He can focus better on running his insurance company which can thereby get away with canceling the policy on O.C.’s grandfather, and O.C. will then have to move to Arkansas and live with an uncle who has twelve cars in the front yard. By keeping pressure on Schwab, Schwab is less able to operate as he wants. When the world is predictable our behavior becomes less dynamic. Regularity limits action and negates counteraction and diversion. Stagnation results, and Schwab gets away with it.
The War on Terrorism is case in point. We are attacking from every angle, warfare, diplomacy, surveillance, finance... we're going at them from above, below, and behind their backs. Previously, the pressure on the terrorists was channeled. Now it is unleashed.
When Grant took over as Major General in the Civil War, he was able to fully employ Gen. Scott's "Anaconda" strategy, the stranglehold on the South. This was keeping pressure on Schwab on a massive scale, from every possible direction, in every possible place. Grant was the first Northern general to pull it off with the armies (Lincoln’s Navy did a fine job on their end). Grant was magnificent at keeping pressure on Schwab. Vicksburg is a great example: he waged not a battle, he waged a campaign. A battle is retail. A campaign is wholesale. To get to Vicksburg, Grant tried nine different ways, and he failed in them all. The tenth worked. It only worked because of the other nine failures. Another example is the infamous "Crater" attack at Petersburg, the underground bomb that was to blow a hole through the Confederate lines. Unto itself, it was a fiasco. As part of the general campaign it kept the pressure on the enemy -- they could never know what to expect from the maniacs across the lines.
Keeping Pressure on Schwab is applied chaos. The European theater WWII air war, wonderfully described in this article, was exactly that. Every allied raid, whether successful or not, meant a slight, even the slightest, German weakening somewhere else. Commutatively, and over several years, it broke the Germans. We waged a total war, Grant's innovation.
Other cultures tend to seek massive, concentrated organization. They prefer to focus their energy rather than disperse it. We'll have to go back to Alexis de Tocqueville for this, but suffice it to say this is because those cultures do not empower the individual. They do not believe in the individual. American culture seeks the individual. It upholds him. That's why the fighter pilots compelled the factories to change the gun sights, as described. While the engineers wanted manufacturing and design uniformity, the pilots wanted to live. Their interest prevailed. It probably would not have prevailed in other cultures that do not perceive the individual.
Keeping Pressure on Schwab means unleashing everything at one's disposal. It means experiment and failure. It has no limits. It brings innovation. It brings failure. By doing so, it brings success. It is only possible with a democracy.
Thanks, Sam, for this article. I really enjoyed it.