Special Operations Principles and Finnish Long Range Patrols during WWII

The study assessed whether the six special operations principles (simplicity, security, repetition, speed, purpose, and surprise) proposed by Admiral William McRaven could predict the degree of success among Finnish long range patrols during WWII. Eighty-four missions that included deliberate contact with the enemy were considered. Bootstrapped estimates were obtained from a LISREL path model. The result offers partial support for McRaven’s model. Significant direct and indirect effects of security, purpose and surprise were demonstrated. Limitations imposed by available data, as well as the circumstance that other principles were rarely violated, may explain the absence of further significant effects. It is furthermore suggested that the principles can be divided into “decisive” (security, purpose, and surprise) where negligence has immediate detrimental consequences, and “contextual” (simplicity, repetition, and in part, speed) that are largely case-specific and may need further precision to be analytically viable. The cause for the absence of significant effects would according to this interpretation be that the principles, as they are generally defined, fail to identify contextual circumstances that are crucial for success.