Firefight redirects here: distinguish from firefighting. Distinguish from a Firefight, which means a battle with firearms

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, wherein each group will seek to defeat the others within the scope of a military campaign, and are well defined in duration, area and force commitment. The ComBat was an Aluminium Cricket bat and the subject of an incident that occurred at the WACA cricket ground in Perth in December 1979. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units For the military meaning see Armed forces. For the Soviet sports society see Armed Forces (sports society Armed Forces In the Military sciences a military campaign is a term applied to large scale, long duration significant Military strategy plan incorporating ^[1] Wars and military campaigns are guided by strategy, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as operational warfare. Military strategy is a National defence policy implemented by Military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals Derived from the Greek ^[2] German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles . Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz (ˈklaʊzəvɪts ( July 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831) was a Prussian soldier military historian . . to achieve the object of war"^[3] was the essence of strategy. A Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Characteristics of battle 3 Battlespace 4 The factors of battles 5 Types of battle 6 The differences among land battles throughout history 7 The difference of naval battles throughout history 8 Aerial battles throughout history 9 Battle naming 10 The effects of a battle 11 See also 12 References 13 Sources

Etymology

The definition of a battle can not be arrived only through the names of historical battles, many of which are a misnomer. In the Battle of Waterloo (Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo Belgium A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue
The word battle is a loanword in English from the Old French bataille first attested in 1297, and is itself a borowing from Late Latin battualia, meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing," from Latin battuere "beat", from which the English word battery is also derived via Middle English batri. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation ^[4] and comes from the staged battles in the Colloseum in Rome that may have numbered 10,000 individuals. The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre ( Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio

Characteristics of battle

War Military History

Eras Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Gunpowder Industrial Modern Battlespace Air Information Land Sea Space Weapons Armor Artillery Biological Cavalry Chemical Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Tactics Attrition Guerilla Maneuver Siege Total war Trench Strategy Economic Grand Operational Organization Formations Ranks Units Logistics Equipment Materiel Supply line Lists Battles Commanders Operations Sieges Theorists Wars War crimes Weapons Writers War Portal   v • d • e

The defining characteristics of the battle as a concept in the Theory of combat^[5] has been a dynamic one through the course of military history, changing with the changes in the organisation, employment and technology of military forces. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Prehistoric warfare is War conducted in the era before Writing, and before the establishments of large social entities like States Historical warfare sets Ancient warfare is War as conducted from the beginnings of recorded History to the end of the ancient period Medieval Warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe technological cultural and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of Gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive Industrial warfare is a period in the History of warfare ranging roughly from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the Information Age Modern warfare, although present in every Historical period of Military history, is generally used to refer to the concepts, methods and Battlespace is a unified strategy to integrate and combine Armed forces for the Military theatre of operations, including air, information Air power redirects here for electrical and mechanical energy supplied by air movement see Wind power Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent Land warfare, sometimes also called ground combat is the term used to describe military operations eventuating in Combat that take place predominantly on the land surface of Naval warfare is Combat in and on Seas Oceans or any other major bodies of water such as large Lakes and wide Rivers History Space warfare is combat that takes place in Outer space, ie outside the Atmosphere. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of Armoured fighting vehicles in Modern warfare. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine Biological warfare (BW — known as a germ warfare, biological weapons and bioweaponry — is the use of any Pathogen ( Bacterium The Cavalry (from French cavalerie) is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as Soldiers or Warriors who fought mounted on Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. Electronic warfare ( EW) is the use of the Electromagnetic spectrum to effectively deny the use of this medium by an adversary while optimizing its use by friendly The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The US Department of Defense defines psychological warfare ( PSYWAR) as" The planned use of Propaganda and other Psychological actions Military tactics ( Greek: Taktikē, the art of organizing an army are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating This article is about the military strategy For the Israeli-Egyptian conflict see War of Attrition, for the game theoretical model see War of attrition (game Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes raids etc Maneuver warfare, also spelled manoeuvre warfare, is the term used by military theorists for a concept of Warfare that advocates attempting to Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static Military strategy is a National defence policy implemented by Military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals Derived from the Greek Economic warfare is the term for economic policies followed as a part of Military operations during Wartime The purpose of economic warfare is to capture Grand strategy is military Strategy at the level of movement and use of an entire Nation state or Empire 's resources A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in Armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines A military organization is a way of structuring the armed forces of a State as a need to offer Military capability required by the National defence policy Military Logistics is the art and science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces This article lists military technology items devices and methods Materiel (from the French "matériel" for equipment or hardware related to the word Material) is a term used in English to refer to the Military supply chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services The broad This is an index to articles listing Battles. List of battles (alphabetical gives a global list See also Military History Antiquity Albania Agron ( 250 BC - 230 BC) The first king to unite the Illyrian This is a list of missions operations and projects Missions in support of other missions are not listed independently A Siege is a prolonged Military Assault and Blockade on a City or Fortress with the intent of conquering by force or Attrition See also List of military writers. Friedrich von Bernhardi Ivan Bloch John Boyd, inventor of the OODA Loop This is a listing of lists of Wars, sorted by country date region and type of conflict This article lists and summarizes War crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907. There is a bewildering array of Weapons far more than would be useful in list form This is a list of military writers, alphabetical by last name

While the British military historian Sir John Keegan suggested an ideal definition of battle as "something which happens between two armies leading to the moral then physical disintegration of one or the other of them"^[6] the origins and outcomes of battles can rarely be summarized so neatly. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE (born 15 May, 1934) is a British Military historian, lecturer and journalist An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces

In general a battle during the 20th century was, and continues to be defined by the combat between opposing forces representing major components of total forces committed to the military campaign, used to achieve a specific military objectives, within a time-frame of less than a month. In the Military sciences a military campaign is a term applied to large scale, long duration significant Military strategy plan incorporating ^[7] Where the duration of the battle is longer then a week, they are often for reasons of staff operational planning called operations. Battles can be planned, encountered, or forced by one force on the other when it is unable to withdraw from combat. For other meanings see Withdrawal (disambiguation. A withdrawal is a type of Military operation, generally meaning retreating

The a battle always has as its purpose the reaching of a mission goal by use of military force. ^[8] A victory in the battle is achieved when one of the opposing sides forces the other to abandon its mission, or is forced to surrender its forces, have its forces rout, forced to retreat or rendered militarily ineffective for further combat operations. Surrender is when Soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and become Prisoners of war, either as A rout is commonly defined as a chaotic and disorderly retreat or withdrawal of troops from a battlefield resulting in the victory of the opposing party or following However, a battle may end in a Pyrrhic victory which ultimately favors the defeated party. A Pyrrhic victory (ˈpɪrɪk is a victory with devastating cost to the victor If no decision is reached in battle, it can result is a stalemate. Stalemate is a situation in Chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves A conflict in which one side is unwilling to reach a decision by a direct battle using conventional military forces often becomes an insurgency. An insurgency is a violent internal uprising against a sovereign government that lacks the organization of a revolution

Up until the 19th century the majority of battles were of short duration, many lasting a part of a day or less, the Battle of Nations (1813) and the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) were exceptional for lasting three days. The Battle of the Nations (or Battle of Leipzig or Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig) on 16–19 October 1813 was one of the most decisive defeats suffered by Napoleon Background and movement to battle See also [[Gettysburg Campaign]] [[Gettysburg Battlefield]] [[Gettysburg Confederate order of battle]] [[Confederate order of battle]] This was mainly due to the difficulty of supplying armies in the field, or conducting night operations. An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces Night operations are military activity performed in the very Low light environments typically at night Typically, the means of prolonging a battle was by employment of siege warfare. Improvements in transportation, and the sudden evolving of trench warfare with its siege-like nature during the First World War in the 20th century, lengthened the duration of battles to days and weeks. Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All ^[8] This created the requirement for unit rotation to prevent combat fatigue^[9], with troops preferably not remaining in combat area of operations for more then a month. This theory proved to be completely unmanageable during the Second World War. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

The use of the term "battle" in military history has led to its misuse when referring to almost any scale of combat, notably by strategic forces involving hundreds of thousands of troops that may be engaged in either a single battle at one time (Battle of Leipzig) or multiple operations (Battle of Kursk). The Battle of the Nations (or Battle of Leipzig or Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig) on 16–19 October 1813 was one of the most decisive defeats suffered by Napoleon The Battle of Kursk (Курская битва refers to a series of German and Soviet operations on the Eastern Front of World War II The space a battle occupies depends on the range of the weapons of the combatants, and may occupy large geographic areas as in the case of the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns Until the advent of artillery and aircraft, battles were fought with the two sides in sight, if not reach, of each other. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine The depth of the battlefield has also increased in modern warfare with inclusion of the supporting units in the rear areas; supply, artillery, medical, etc. Modern warfare, although present in every Historical period of Military history, is generally used to refer to the concepts, methods and ; now outnumbering the front-line combat troops.

Battles are, on the whole, made up of a multitude of individual combats, skirmishes and small engagements within the context of which the participating individuals will usually only experience a small part of the events of the battle's entirety. A military engagement is a Combat between two forces neither larger than a division and not smaller than a company, in which each has an assigned or perceived To the infantryman, there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of a minor raid or a major offensive, nor is it likely that they anticipate the future course of the battle; few of the British infantry who went over the top on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, would have anticipated that they would be fighting the same battle in five months time. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, was the opening day of the Battle of Albert, which was the first phase of the British "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Conversely, some of the Allied infantry who had just dealt a crushing defeat to the French at the Battle of Waterloo fully expected to have to fight again the next day. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. In the Battle of Waterloo (Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo Belgium

Battlespace

Main article: Battlespace

The factors of battles

Battles are decided by various factors. Battlespace is a unified strategy to integrate and combine Armed forces for the Military theatre of operations, including air, information The number and quality of men and equipment, the commanders of each army, and the terrain advantages are among the most prominent factors. Commander is a Military rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service A unit may charge with high morale but less discipline and still emerge victorious. This tactic was effectively used by the early French Revolutionary Armies. The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the Ancien regime under Louis Weapons and armor may also play as a decisive factor; however, during the Wars of Scottish Independence the Scots emerged victorious over the English despite inferior weaponry. The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Discipline within the troops is also important; at the Battle of Alesia, the Romans were greatly outnumbered but won because of superior training. The Battle of Alesia or Siege of Alesia took place in September 52 BC around the Gallic Oppidum of Alesia, a major town centre and A squad that does not retreat is far more valuable than an army that flees upon sight. Battles can also be determined by terrain. Capturing high ground, for example, has been the central strategy in innumerable battles. An army that holds the high ground forces the enemy to climb, and thus wear down. Another advantage is it is physically easier to strike a blow from a higher position than from a lower position. Although this does not hold as much in modern warfare, with the advent of aircraft, terrain is still vital for camouflage, especially for guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes raids etc Generals and commanders also play a decisive role during combat. Hannibal, Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte were all legendary generals and, consequently, their armies were extremely successful. Hannibal (Pronounced in Phoenician: Hanniba'al means " Ba'al is my grace " or " Ba'al has given me grace " 247 BC &ndash Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. An army that can trust the commands of their leaders with conviction in its success invariably has a higher morale than an army that doubts its every move. The British in the naval Battle of Trafalgar, for example, owed its success to the reputation of celebrated admiral Lord Nelson. The Battle of Trafalgar ( 21 October 1805) was a historic sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson 1st Viscount Nelson 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758– 21 October 1805 was a British

Types of battle

Battles can be fought on land, sea and in the modern age, in the air. Naval battles have occurred since before the 5th century BC. A naval battle is a Battle fought using Ships or other waterborne vessels Air battles have been far less common, due to its late conception, the most prominent being the Battle of Britain in 1940. The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and However since the Second World War land or sea battles have come to rely on air support. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Indeed, during the Battle of Midway, five aircraft carriers were sunk without either fleet coming into direct contact. The Battle of Midway was a major Naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with

There are numerous types of battle. A "battle of encounter" is a meeting engagement where the opposing sides collide in the field without either having prepared their attack or defence. A meeting engagement, a term used in Warfare is a Combat action that occurs when a moving force incompletely deployed for Battle, engages an enemy at The goal of a "battle of attrition" is to inflict greater loss on the enemy than you suffer yourself; many battles of the First World War were intentionally (Verdun) or unintentionally (Somme) attrition battles. The Battle of Verdun was one of the most critical battles in World War I on the Western Front, fought between the German and French The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, fought from July to November 1916 was among the largest battles of the First World War A "battle of breakthrough" aims to pierce the enemy's defences, thereby exposing the vulnerable flanks which can be turned. A "battle of encirclement"—the Kesselschlacht of the German Blitzkrieg—surrounds the enemy in a pocket. Blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war" is a popular name for an Offensive operational-level Military doctrine which involves an initial Salient Salients can be formed in a number of ways An attacker can produce a salient in the defender's line by either intentionally making a Pincer movement around the A "battle of envelopment" involves an attack on one or both flanks; the classic example being the double-envelopment of the Battle of Cannae. For the 11th century battle in the Byzantine conquest of the Mezzogiorno, see Battle of Cannae (1018. A "battle of annihilation" is one in which the defeated party is destroyed in the field, such as the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Battle of the Nile or Aboukir Bay (August 1-2 1798 saw a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson defeat a French

A "decisive battle" is one of particular importance; often by bringing hostilities to an end, such as the Battle of Hastings or the Battle of Hattin, or as a turning point in the fortunes of the belligerents, such as the Battle of Stalingrad. The Battle of Hastings was the decisive Norman victory in the Norman Conquest of England. The Battle of Hattin (also known as " The Horns of Hattin " because of a nearby extinct Volcano of the same name took place on Saturday July A belligerent is an individual group country or other entity which acts in a hostile manner such as engaging in Combat. The Battle of Stalingrad is a commonly used name in English sources for several large operations by Germany and its allies and Soviet forces conducted with the A decisive battle can have political as well as military impact, changing the balance of power or boundaries between countries. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions The concept of the "decisive battle" became popular with the publication in 1851 of Edward Creasy's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812 &ndash 1878 was a British Historian. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to Waterloo is a Book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851 British military historians J.F.C. Fuller (The Decisive Battles of the Western World) and B.H. Liddell Hart (Decisive Wars of History), among many others, have written books in the style of Creasy's work. Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO, commonly J Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart ( 31 October 1895 &ndash 29 January 1970) usually known before his knighthood as

The differences among land battles throughout history

There is an obvious difference in the way battles have been fought throughout time. Early battles were probably fought between rival hunting bands as disorganized mobs. However, during the Battle of Megiddo, the first reliably documented battle, in the fifteenth century BC, actual discipline was instilled in both armies. This continued through the Ancient Times and the Middle Ages. However, during the many wars of the Roman Empire, barbarians continued using mob tactics. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived As the Age of Enlightenment dawned, armies began to fight in highly disciplined lines. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Each would follow the orders from their officers and fight as a single unit instead of individuals. Each army was successively divided into regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons. A regiment is a Military unit, composed of a variable number of Battalions – commanded by a Colonel. A battalion is a Military unit of around 500-1500 men usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel A company is a Military unit, typically consisting of 75-200 Soldiers Most companies are formed of three to five Platoons although the exact number may vary A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or Squads and containing about 30 to 50 soldiers These armies would march, line up, and fire in divisions. Native Americans, on the other hand, did not fight in lines, utilizing instead guerrilla tactics. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States The United States during the American Revolution also followed suit. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" Europe, during the Napoleonic Wars, continued using disciplined lines, continuing into the American Civil War. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815 involved Napoleon's French Empire and a shifting set of European allies and opposing coalitions Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South A new style, during World War I, known as trench warfare, developed nearly half a century later. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static This also led to radio for communication between battalions. Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. Chemical warfare also emerged with the use of poisonous gas during World War I and the Austro-Prussian War. Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Austro-Prussian By World War II, the use of the smaller divisions, platoons and companies, became much more important as precise operations became vital. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Instead of the locked trench warfare of World War I, during World War II, a dynamic network of battles developed where small groups encountered other platoons. As a result, elite squads became much more recognized and distinguishable. Vehicle warfare also developed with an astonishing pace with the advent of the tank, replacing the archaic cannons of the Enlightenment Age. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical Artillery has since gradually replaced the use of frontal troops. Modern battles now continue to resemble that of World War II, though prominent innovations have been added. Indirect combat through the use of aircraft and missiles now comprise of a large portion of wars in place of battles, where battles are now mostly reserved for capturing cities.

The difference of naval battles throughout history

One significant difference of modern naval battles as opposed to earlier forms of combat is the use of marines, which introduced amphibious warfare. Marines (from the English adjective marine, meaning of the sea, from Latin language mare, meaning sea via French adjective Today, a marine is actually an infantry regiment that sometimes fights solely on land and is no longer tied to the navy. A good example of an old naval battle is the Battle of Salamis. The Battle of Salamis ( Ancient Greek:) was a decisive naval battle between the Greek City-states and Persia in September 480 BC in the Most ancient naval battles were fought by fast ships using the battering ram to sink opposing fleets or steer close enough for boarding in hand-to-hand combat. A battering ram is a Siege engine originating in ancient times to break open Fortification walls or doors Troops were often actually used to storm enemy ships as used by Romans and pirates. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering This tactic was usually used by civilizations that could not beat the enemy with ranged weaponry. Another invention in the late Middle Ages was the use of Greek fire by the Byzantines, which was used to light enemy fleets on fire. Greek fire was a burning-liquid weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. Empty demolition ships utilized the tactic to crash into opposing ships and set it afire with an explosion. After the invention of cannons, naval warfare became useful as support units for land warfare. During the 19th century, the development of mines led to a new type of naval warfare. The ironclad, first used in the American Civil War, resistant to cannons, soon made the wooden ship obsolete. An ironclad was a steam-propelled Warship of the later 19th century protected by Iron or Steel armor plates Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The invention of a U-Boat, that is, submarine, during World War I by the Germans brought naval warfare to both above and below the surface. U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. With the development of military aircraft during World War II, battles were fought in the sky as well as below the ocean. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Aircraft carriers have since become the central unit in naval warfare, acting as a mobile base for lethal aircraft. An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with

Aerial battles throughout history

Although the use of aircraft has for the most part always been used as a supplement to land or naval engagements, since their first major military use in World War I aircraft have increasingly taken on larger roles in warfare. During World War I, the primary use was for reconnaissance, and small-scale bombardment, using ineffectual hand-dropped bombs. Aircraft began becoming much more prominent in the Spanish Civil War and especially World War II. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Aircraft design began specializing, primarily into two types: bombers, which carried explosive payloads to bomb land targets or ships; and fighter-interceptors, which were used to either intercept incoming aircraft or to escort and protect bombers (engagements between fighter aircraft were known as dog fights. A dogfight or dog fight is Aerial combat between Fighter aircraft. Some of the more notable aerial battles in this period include the Battle of Britain and the Battle of Midway. The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and The Battle of Midway was a major Naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

Another important use of aircraft came with the development of the helicopter, which first became heavily used during the Vietnam War, and still continues to be widely used today to transport and augment ground forces. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys.

Today, direct engagements between aircraft are rare - the most modern fighter-interceptors carry much more extensive bombing payloads, and are used to bomb precision land targets, rather than to fight other aircraft. Anti-aircraft batteries are used much more extensively to defend against incoming aircraft than interceptors. Despite this, aircraft today are much more extensively used as the primary tools for both army and navy, as evidenced by the prominent use of helicopters to transport and support troops, the use of aerial bombardment as the "first strike" in many engagements, and the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the center of most modern navies.

Battle naming

Battles are almost invariably named after some feature of the battlefield geography, such as the name of a town, forest or river. Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena Occasionally battles are named after the date on which they took place, such as The Glorious First of June. The Glorious First of June (also known as the Third Battle of Ushant, and in France as the fr ''Bataille du 13 prairial an 2'' or fr ''Combat de Prairial'' In the Middle Ages it was considered important to settle on a suitable name for a battle which could be used by the chroniclers. Generally a chronicle (chronica from Greek (from) is a historical account of facts and events in chronological order For example, after Henry V of England defeated a French army on 25 October 1415, he met with the senior French herald and they agreed to name the battle after the nearby castle and so it was called the Battle of Agincourt. Henry V (16 September 1386 &ndash 31 August 1422 was one of the most significant English warrior kings of the 15th century Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a A herald, or more correctly a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between Pursuivant and King of arms. A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The Battle of Agincourt was an English victory against a larger French army in the Hundred Years' War. In other cases, the sides adopted different names for the same battle, such as the Battle of Gallipoli which is known in Turkey as the Battle of Çanakkale. Sometimes in desert warfare, there is no nearby town name to use; map coordinates gave the name to the Battle of 73 Easting in the First Gulf War. The Battle of 73 Easting was a decisive Tank battle fought on 26 February 1991, during the Gulf War, between United States and

Some place names have become synonymous with the battles that took place there, such as the Passchendaele, Pearl Harbor or the Alamo. This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym" "Passchendaele" redirects here For the 2008 film by that name see Passchendaele (film The 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, also known as The attack on Pearl Harbor (or Hawaii Operation, as it was called by the Imperial General Headquarters) was a surprise Military strike conducted by The Battle of the Alamo was fought in February and March 1836 in San Antonio, Texas. Military operations, many of which result in battle, are given codenames, which are not necessarily meaningful or indicative of the type or the location of the battle. This article describes three distinct but related terms military operations Operations as military events and operational level of war A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word Operation Market Garden and Operation Rolling Thunder are examples of battles known by their military codenames. Operation Market Garden ( September 17, 1944 – September 25, 1944) was an Allied military operation fought in the Netherlands Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U

When a battleground is the site of more than one battle in the same conflict, the instances are distinguished by ordinal number, such as the First and Second Battles of Bull Run. In Set theory, an ordinal number, or just ordinal, is the Order type of a Well-ordered set. Background Brig Gen Irvin McDowell was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to command the Army of Northeastern Virginia. Background and opposing forces See also Northern Virginia Campaign See also [[Second Bull Run Confederate order of battle]] [[Confederate order of battle]] An extreme case are the twelve Battles of the Isonzo—First to Twelfth—between Italy and Austria-Hungary during the First World War. " Battles of the Isonzo " were a series of battles between the Austria-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I. The First Battle of the Isonzo was fought between Italians and Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front in World War I, between June The Battle of Caporetto (or Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers; Bitka za Kobarid took place from 24 October Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

Some battles are named for the convenience of military historians so that periods of combat can be neatly distinguished from one another. Military history is a Humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity Following the First World War, the British Battles Nomenclature Committee was formed to decide on standard names for all battles and subsidiary actions. To the soldiers who did the fighting, the distinction was usually academic; a soldier fighting at Beaumont Hamel on 13 November 1916 was probably unaware he was taking part in what the committee would call the "Battle of the Ancre". Beaumont-Hamel is a commune in the Somme département in the Picardie region of France. Events 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The Battle of the Ancre was the final act of the 1916 Battle of the Somme.

Many combats are too small to merit a name. Terms such as "action", "skirmish", "firefight", "raid" or "offensive patrol" are used to describe small-scale battle-like encounters. These combats often take place within the time and space of a battle and while they may have an objective, they are not necessarily "decisive". Sometimes the soldiers are unable to immediately gauge the significance of the combat; in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, some British officers were in doubt as to whether the day's events merited the title of "battle" or would be passed off as merely an "action". In the Battle of Waterloo (Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo Belgium

The effects of a battle

Battles affect the individuals who take part, as well as the political actors. Personal effects of battle range from mild psychological issues to permanent and crippling injuries. Many battle-survivors have nightmares about the conditions they encountered, or abnormal reactions to certain sights or sounds. Some suffer flashbacks. A flashback is a psychological Phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden usually vivid recollection of a past Experience. Physical effects of battle can include scars, amputations, lesions, loss of hearing, blindness, and paralysis, and of course, death.

Battles also affect politics. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions A decisive battle can cause the losing side to surrender, while a Pyrrhic Victory such as the Battle of Isandlwana, can cause the winning side to reconsider its long term goals. A Pyrrhic victory (ˈpɪrɪk is a victory with devastating cost to the victor The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the opening major encounter in the Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom Battles in civil wars have often decided the fate of monarchs or political factions. A civil war is a War between a State and domestic political actors that are in control of some part of the territory claimed by the state Famous examples include the War of the Roses, as well as the Jacobite Uprisings. The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485 were a series of dynastic Civil wars fought in England between supporters of the Houses of Lancaster and York The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings rebellions and wars in the kingdoms of England, Kingdom of Scotland (later the United Kingdom of Great Britain Battles also affect the commitment of one side or the other to the continuance of a war, for example the Battle of Inchon and the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive. The Battle of Incheon (인천 상륙 작전 Incheon Sangryuk Jakjeon; Code name: Operation Chromite) was an amphibious invasion and battle of The Tet Offensive was a military campaign conducted between 30 January and 23 September 1968, by forces of the Vietcong, or National Front for

See also

• Battles
• Military strategy
• Naval battle
• Pitched battle
• Military tactics
• Warfare
• List of battles
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• Animated Battle Maps

References

Sources

• Glantz, D.M., Soviet military operational art: In pursuit of deep battle, Frank Cass, London, 1989
• Keegan, John (1976). David M Glantz (born 11 January 1942 in Port Chester, New York) is an American military historian and the editor of The Journal of Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE (born 15 May, 1934) is a British Military historian, lecturer and journalist The Face of Battle. Pimlico. ISBN 1-84413-748-1.  
• Dupuy, T.N. (Col. Trevor Nevitt Dupuy (Colonel U S Army, retired soldier and noted military historian was born in New York on May 3, 1916. ret. ), Understanding war: History and Theory of combat, Leo Cooper, London, 1992
• von Clausewitz, Carl, Bemerkungen über die reine und angewandte Strategie des Herrn von Bülow oder Kritik der darin enthaltenen Ansichten, Verstreute kleine Schriften, Ed. Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz (ˈklaʊzəvɪts ( July 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831) was a Prussian soldier military historian Werner Hahlweg, (Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1979), 77.
• Tucker, T. G. , Etymological dictionary of Latin, Ares Publishers, Chicago, 1985
• Richardson, F. M. , (Maj. Gen. ret. ), Hunt, Sir Peter, (Gen. ret. ) (Forward), Fighting spirit: A study of psychological factors in war, Leo Cooper, London, 1978

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