2017 Chief of Army History Conference

The Skill of Adaptability:

The learning curve in combat
Day 1 19th October
8.50 am Welcome
9.00 am Keynote address
What lessons do wars of the 20th century offer armies in the 21st?
Professor Peter R. Mansoor (General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Chair in Military History,
The Ohio State University, USA)

9.50 am Book launch

10.00 am Morning tea
10.30 am Session 1 — (Re)learning to fight
Imperial policing to guerrilla war: the British in South Africa 1899-1902
Professor Ian Beckett (University of Kent, UK)

Gallipoli to the Western Front: adaptation and learning across theatres

Dr Aimee Fox-Godden (King’s College, London, UK)

12.00 pm Lunch
1.00 pm Session 2 — The Western Front and industrial war
The French Army on the Western Front
Dr Elizabeth Greenhalgh (University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia)

The crucible of war: The adaptation and development of the British Army
on the Western Front, 1915
Dr Spencer Jones (University of Wolverhampton, UK)

2.30 pm Afternoon tea

3.00 pm Session 3 — Environmental adaptability
The Australian Imperial Force in 1942: desert to the jungle
Dr Adrian Threlfall (Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia)

Sadder - but wiser (Ubitok - umu pribitok): Learning from experiences in the Red Army, 1928-45
Dr Alexander Hill (University of Calgary, Canada)

4.30 pm Function — Meet the speakers

Enquiries: ahu.enquiries@defence.gov.au

Serving our Nation

2017 Chief of Army History Conference

The Skill of Adaptability:

The learning curve in combat
Day 2 20th October
9.00 am Session 4 — Asia and the Pacific
Rise of the phoenix: the XIV Army in Burma
Professor Dan Marston (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)

The road to Okinawa: creating the joint force in the Central Pacific
Dr Sharon Tosi Lacey (Chief Historian, USA Census Bureau, USA)

0.30 am
1 Book launch
10.40 am Morning tea
11.00 am Session 5 — Australia and the region
The Phouc Tuy classroom: 1st Australian Task Force and Australian adaptability
Mr Ashley Ekins (Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia)

INTERFET and reinventing the expeditionary Australian Army

Dr Craig Stockings (Official Historian of Australian operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor)

12.40 pm Lunch
1.30 pm Session 6 — Irregular war, regular responses?
Case studies of British Army adaptation: Northern Ireland and Iraq
COL Richard Iron (Ret’d) (British Army, UK)

The Canadians in Afghanistan: relearning the art of irregular warfare

Dr Ian Hope (NATO Defence College, Italy)

3.00 pm Afternoon tea
3.30 pm Concluding address
What is the future: military adaptability in the 21st century
Dr Jeffrey Record (Air War College, Alabama, USA)

4.10pm Closing remarks

Serving our Nation