Ideamonger

Sorin Adam Matei

Social scientist historian with social mapping expertise

History degree

Creator of multiple interdisciplinary initiatives

Historian

Robert Kirchubel

Retired US LtCol – Armored Forces

Author of Eastern Front and Blitzkrieg Atlases (WWII)

Dissertation “German Generals and Political Engineering”

Software Developer

Rajesh Kalyanam

Bring operational military mapping into the 21^st century, exploit current, massive computing and graphics power.

Overcome limitations of traditional static maps.

Trust the data, know where it comes from.

Supporting data is quarriable and searchable.

Works on any operation for which detailed data exists, does not need to be combat.

Proof-of-concept pilot project examines WWII Battle of Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941.

Gap between reality and potential; How to make sense out of difficult subject, with its own specialized symbology and vocabulary.

Often passed down along secondary literature, not sure of source, assumed to be legitimate.

Even good maps, including those on the internet (e.g. West Point Series) cannot be edited, student has no control over presentation.

Narrative drives maps, rather than vice versa.

Uses digital humanities data to support historical scholarship and advance our knowledge from representational to inferential.

Collaboration between experts in history, communication technology, and social sciences.

New historical method of collecting, visualizing, and interpreting operational military history.

Create a mapping database and visualization tools.

Use spatial-temporal statistical techniques.

YOU CAN BRING DATA BACK TO THE SPATIAL DECISION AND INTERPRETATION SPACE.

YOU FLATTEN THE ANALYTIC PROCESS: DATA, CODE, AND MAPS ARE TRANSPARENT AND OPEN

YOU CAN OVERCOME THE TEMPTATION TO VISUALIZE AT THE EXPENSE OF ANALYSIS.

YOU CAN CREATE MAPS THAT CAN GENERATE MORE MAPS AND NEW INTERPRETIVE MAPS

YOU CAN CHECK EXISTING NARRATIVES AGAINST PAST DATA

YOU CAN USE NEW WAYS TO ANALYZE DYNAMIC OPEARTIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

Essential milestone in Army Group Center’s drive on Moscow.

As scholars move Barbarossa’s culminating point ever earlier, Smolensk has replaced Kiev (mid-Sept) and Moscow (early Dec).

Goes through numerous stages, action-reaction-counterreaction by both sides.

Representative of operational and tactical levels of war.

Primary data – original staff / command maps – OKW – “Hitler’s Maps”

Digitize at division level:

Location

Frontage shape

Direction of movement

Fractional presence

Move raw digital data (time-space coordinates) to open source map (OWS)

Create fully visible, open source code to animate and analyze the movement of the troops

Unit: 7 Pz Div

Date

Strength

Lat-Long

Activity:

Moving,

Stationary

Type of

unit

Division

or non-

divisional

15 Aug

Inf Div

Mot Inf Div

Pz Div

All infantry divisions

All Panzer divisions

All infantry divisions

All Panzer divisions

Add corps and army level analysis

Analyze operational level

Add Soviet data – all levels of analysis

Collaboration with Russian / Soviet military experts (US or abroad)

Adding strength data – move from abstract / nominal to concrete data

Calculate fire envelope by

Lethality potential

• standardized effective destruction firepower
• average weapon range
• Mobility

Calculate “Schwerpunkt potential” at given locations

ratio of combatants’ local strength

ratio of movement momentum

Simulation scenarios

Changing direction of movement

Changing fire envelope parameters

Interdicting directions of movement

Historical work – mapping new spaces, ask new questions

Development work – what types of analytic tools would you like to use?

Visualization work – what methods of visualization would you like too see?

Applications: Can our tools be applied to current military operational tactical or strategic analysis?

Automation: How can we add AI and ML to operational analysis?