TACTICS

in warfare, the art and science of fighting battles on land, on sea, and in the air. It is concerned with the approach to combat; the disposition of troops and other personalities; the use made of various arms, ships, or aircraft; and the execution of movements for attack or defense. This article discusses the tactics of land warfare. For treatment of tactics on sea, see naval warfare, and for tactics in air combat, see air warfare. in warfare, the art and science of fighting battles on land, on sea, and in the air. It is concerned with the approach to combat; the disposition of troops and other personnel; the use made of various arms, ships, or aircraft; and the execution of movements for attack or defense. The great military leaders of history have been supreme tacticians who followed fluid and flexible courses on the battlefield. Their performances have been judged on the basis of how they have respected the material advantages and disadvantages of the time as applied to particular principles of war, such as security, mobility, surprise, and concentration of force, which singularly or collectively were necessary for victory. Throughout history various commanders have practiced orthodox, unorthodox, offensive, defensive, aggressive, and delaying tactics. Tactics can be generally understood as the problems encountered in actual fighting. Tactical thinking attempts to coordinate personnel with the existing weapons technology and apply both to the terrain and enemy forces in such a way that the weapons available to a fighting force are used to best advantage. In the pre-gunpowder era, infantry equipped with spears, pikes, or swords would be massed close together. Fighting would be conducted as close to the enemy as possible in order to get the greatest and most accurate use of the various types of blades. Reserves would be stacked many ranks deep to ensure immediate replacement of fallen combatants. Since the development of hand-held firearms, methods of grouping have evolved steadily away from close formations. Dispersing firearm-equipped soldiers serves to provide a more difficult target for enemy weapons and at the same time spreads the offensive threat over a far wider area by taking advantage of the range of gunfire. Deployment is an important part of the tactical operation. Deployment refers to the placing of each type of weapon (or a unit of personnel using similar weapons) where it can do the most damage to the enemy or provide the most protection to one's own forces. For instance, a tactician seeking to turn the enemy's flank might position the strongest, most mobile units opposite that flank, while defensive and ponderous weapons would be positioned to protect the remaining units and the supplies. Timing and direction of attack are also important tactical considerations. At sea, direction has traditionally been crucial, especially in the era of wind-powered warships. In recent wars, timing has been a crucial factor in mounting airborne strikes so as to take advantage of the element of surprise. Methods of disengagement can also be crucial in combat, as when a deception is to be carried out or a defeated army preserved. The success of a given set of tactics not only depends on the reliability and power of the weapons involved; it also depends on the thoroughness with which troops and operators are trained in those tactics. Additional reading For a general introduction to tactics, see Martin van Creveld, Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present (1989). John Keegan, The Illustrated Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, rev. ed. (1989), is excellent on the tactics of three critical, widely separated battles; see also Arther Ferrill, The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great (1985), which covers the period indicated while arguing that tactics underwent no basic change from the earliest time to Waterloo. The best book on tribal warfare remains Harry Holbert Turney-High, Primitive War: Its Practice and Concepts, 2nd ed. (1971). Biblical warfare is covered in Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands: In the Light of Archaeological Study, 2 vol. (1963; originally published in Hebrew, 1963). On ancient warfare in general, see Peter Connolly, Greece and Rome at War (1981); and Victor Davis Hanson, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece (1989). Of several excellent books on medieval warfare, J.F. Verbruggen, The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340 (1977; originally published in Dutch, 1954), is perhaps the strongest on tactics. The most expert contemporary work on early modern warfare is undoubtedly Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 15001800 (1988). The early 18th century is covered in David Chandler, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough (1976), excellently researched and well written. For subsequent developments in the same century, see Christopher Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason (1988); as well as Robert S. Quimby, The Background of Napoleonic Warfare: The Theory of Military Tactics in Eighteenth-Century France (1957, reprinted 1968), a meticulous inquiry into tactics before and during the French Revolution.Larry H. Addington, The Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century (1984); and Hew Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War (1983), are good general accounts. Two older works that can still be read with profit are Theodore Ropp, War in the Modern World (1959, reprinted 1981); and J.F.C. Fuller, The Conduct of War, 17891961: A Study of the Impact of the French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions on War and Its Conduct (1961, reprinted 1981). William McElwee, The Art of War: Waterloo to Mons (1974), is probably the best of many works on 19th-century warfare. For the tactics of World War I in general, see Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 19141918: The Live and Let Live System (1980); on the offensive tactics developed by the Germans, Timothy T. Lupfer, The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War (1981), is excellent. For World War II, B.H. Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War (1971, reissued 1982), though flawed on some counts, remains the single most comprehensive operational history. On armoured warfare, see F.W. von Mellenthin, Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War, trans. from German (1956, reissued 1982); and Charles Messenger, The Blitzkrieg Story (1976); for the ways of countering it, see John Weeks, Men Against Tanks: A History of Anti-Tank Warfare (1975). The story of the Korean War is ably told in Callum A. MacDonald, Korea, the War Before Vietnam (1987); that of the Arab-Israeli Wars, in Trevor N. Dupuy, Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 19471974 (1978, reissued 1984). For the Vietnam War, see Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., The Army and Vietnam (1986). Michael Carver, War Since 1945 (1980, reissued 1990), provides an excellent general overview. Martin van Creveld