Mission command -- as explained in 'Military Review' some 27 years ago

Military Review had a pretty good understanding of
mission command back in 1986, when it ran an article by Daniel J. Hughes titled
"." (The article itself starts on p. 66
of the linked issue.)

To understand how
the German military worked, Hughes writes, it is crucial to understand that "by
current standards, no ‘system' actually existed. Improvisation was the key to
the Prussian-German approach which regarded the conduct of war as an art -- a
free, creative activity with scientific foundations."

Something else I
didn't know: Use of the word auftragstaktik was
"exceedingly rare" in the Germany army of World War II and before.

Here's more.