A principle or body of principles presented by a specific field, system, or organization for acceptance or belief. Applicable doctrine has not always been the case for the Army of the United States. The German forces were utilizing their new and contemporary doctrine of war with tanks, far reaching artillery, airborne operations, and command and control structure and methods. Our basic war fighting doctrine was still based in the past. FM 100-5, Operations, was still discussing the use of horse cavalry as our main piece of equipment.
Horse cavalry can operate over almost any terrain and under all conditions of weather.
As a rule, mounted maneuver is combined with dismounted action. In fact, all of Europe was caught off guard militarily through weapon systems, training and doctrine. Thus their mobility was badly impaired. Weightier than any technical advantage, however, was the superiority of the German panzer crews in training and doctrine. Doctrine is normally written on a five-year cycle.