<P> Moltke also realized that the expansion in the size of armies since the 1820s made it essentially impossible to exercise detailed control over the entire force as Napoleon or Wellington had done in battle . Subordinates would have to use initiative and independent judgment for the forces to be effective in battle . Therefore, overall campaign and battle plans should encourage and take advantage of the decentralization that would be necessary in any case . In this new concept, commanders of distant detachments were required to exercise initiative in their decision making and von Moltke emphasized the benefits of developing officers who could do this within the limits of the senior commander's intent . </P> <P> He accomplished this by means of directives stating his intentions, rather than detailed orders, and he was willing to accept deviations from a directive provided that it was within the general framework of the mission . Von Moltke held this view firmly and it later became a fundamental of all German military theory, especially for the field manual Truppenführung . </P> <P> Moltke's main thesis was that military strategy had to be understood as a system of options since it was only possible to plan the beginning of a military operation . As a result, he considered the main task of military leaders to consist in the extensive preparation of all possible outcomes . His thesis can be summed up by two statements, one famous and one less so, translated into English as "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" (or "no plan survives contact with the enemy") and "Strategy is a system of expedients". </P> <P> Moltke planned and led the successful military operations during the Austro - Prussian War of 1866 . </P>

Who said no plan survives first contact with the enemy
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