![Battle of Waterloo map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Battle_of_Waterloo_map.png)
A battle is an occurrence of
combat
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
in
warfare between opposing
military units of any number or size. A
war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a
military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a
skirmish.
The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally, the word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...
,
Battle of Britain, and
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...
, all in World War II.
Wars and
military campaign
A military campaign is large-scale long-duration significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of interrelated military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war. The term derives from the ...
s are guided by
military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...
, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as
operational mobility. German strategist
Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
.
Etymology
Battle is a
loanword from the
Old French , first attested in 1297, from
Late Latin , meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing", from
Late Latin (taken from Germanic) "beat", from which the English word battery is also derived via
Middle English .
Characteristics
The defining characteristic of the fight as a concept in
Military science
Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mil ...
has changed with the variations in the organisation, employment and technology of military forces. The English
military historian
Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships.
Professional historians norma ...
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" but the origins and outcomes of battles can rarely be summarized so neatly. Battle in the 20th and 21st centuries is defined as the combat between large components of the forces in a
military campaign
A military campaign is large-scale long-duration significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of interrelated military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war. The term derives from the ...
, used to achieve
military objectives.
[pp. 65–71, Dupuy] Where the duration of the battle is longer than a week, it is often for reasons of
planning
Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...
called an operation. Battles can be planned,
encountered or forced by one side when the other is unable to
withdraw from combat.
A battle always has as its purpose the reaching of a
mission goal by use of military force.
[p.67, Dupuy] A victory in the battle is achieved when one of the opposing sides forces the other to abandon its mission and
surrender its forces,
routs the other (i.e., forces it to retreat or renders it militarily ineffective for further
combat operations) or
annihilates the latter, resulting in their deaths or capture. A battle may end in a
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory ( ) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.
The phrase originates from a quote from P ...
, which ultimately favors the defeated party. If no resolution is reached in a battle, it can result in a
stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior ...
. A conflict in which one side is unwilling to reach a decision by a direct battle using
conventional warfare often becomes an
insurgency.
Until the 19th century the majority of battles were of short duration, many lasting a part of a day. (The
Battle of Preston (1648), the
Battle of Nations (1813) and the
Battle of Gettysburg (1863) were exceptional in lasting three days.) This was mainly due to the difficulty of supplying
armies in the field or conducting
night operations. The means of prolonging a battle was typically with
siege warfare. Improvements in
transport 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.
This created the requirement for
unit rotation to prevent
combat fatigue
Combat stress reaction (CSR) is acute behavioral disorganization as a direct result of the trauma of war. Also known as "combat fatigue", "battle fatigue", or "battle neurosis", it has some overlap with the diagnosis of acute stress reaction used ...
, with troops preferably not remaining in a combat area of operations for more than a month.
![Marching to Raate-road](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Marching_to_Raate-road.jpg)
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 one battle at a time (
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...
) or operations (
Battle of Kursk). The space a battle occupies depends on the range of the
weapons of the combatants. A "battle" in this broader sense may be of long duration and take place over a large area, as in the case of the
Battle of Britain or the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...
. Until the advent of
artillery and
aircraft, battles were fought with the two sides within sight, if not reach, of each other. The depth of the battlefield has also increased in
modern warfare with inclusion of the supporting units in the rear areas; supply, artillery, medical personnel etc. often outnumber the front-line combat troops.
Battles are made up of a multitude of individual combats,
skirmishes and small
engagements
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
and the combatants will usually only experience a small part of the battle. To the
infantryman, there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of a minor raid or a big offensive, nor is it likely that he anticipates 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 the battle would last five months. 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 (at the
Battle of Wavre).
Battlespace
Battlespace is a unified strategic concept to integrate and combine
armed forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
for the
military theatre of operations
In warfare, a theater or theatre is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress. A theater can include the entirety of the airspace, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations.
T ...
, including
air,
information,
land,
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
and
space. It includes the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to apply combat power, protect the force or complete the mission, comprising enemy and friendly
armed forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
; facilities; weather; terrain; and the
electromagnetic spectrum.
Factors
Battles are decided by various factors, the number and quality of combatants and equipment, the skill of
commanders and terrain are among the most prominent. Weapons and armour can be decisive; on many occasions armies have achieved victory through more advanced weapons than those of their opponents. An extreme example was in the
Battle of Omdurman, in which a large army of Sudanese
Mahdists
The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...
armed in a traditional manner were destroyed by an Anglo-Egyptian force equipped with
Maxim machine gun
The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.
The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...
s and artillery.
On some occasions, simple weapons employed in an unorthodox fashion have proven advantageous;
Swiss pikemen gained many victories through their ability to transform a traditionally defensive weapon into an offensive one.
Zulus in the early 19th century were victorious in battles against their rivals in part because they adopted a new kind of spear, the
iklwa
An assegai or assagai (Arabic ''az-zaġāyah'', Berber ''zaġāya'' "spear", Old French ''azagaie'', Spanish ''azagaya'', Italian ''zagaglia'', Middle English ''lancegay'') is a pole weapon used for throwing, usually a light spear or javelin m ...
. Forces with inferior weapons have still emerged victorious at times, for example in the
Wars of Scottish Independence. Disciplined troops are often of greater importance; at the
Battle of Alesia
The Battle of Alesia or Siege of Alesia (September 52 BC) was a military engagement in the Gallic Wars around the Gallic ''oppidum'' (fortified settlement) of Alesia in modern France, a major centre of the Mandubii tribe. It was fought by ...
, the Romans were greatly outnumbered but won because of superior training.
Battles can also be determined by terrain. Capturing high ground has been the main tactic in innumerable battles. An army that holds the high ground forces the enemy to climb and thus wear themselves down. Areas of jungle and forest, with dense vegetation act as force-multipliers, of benefit to inferior armies. Terrain may have lost importance in modern warfare, due to the advent of aircraft, though the terrain is still vital for camouflage, especially for
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
.
Generals and commanders also play an important role,
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...
,
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
,
Khalid ibn Walid
Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arab military commander. He initially headed campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career i ...
,
Subutai
Subutai (Classical Mongolian: ''Sübügätäi'' or ''Sübü'ätäi''; Modern Mongolian: Сүбээдэй, ''Sübeedei''. ; ; c. 1175–1248) was a Mongol general and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed m ...
and
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
were all skilled generals and their armies were extremely successful at times. 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 owed its success to the reputation of Admiral
Lord Nelson.
Types
![Marten's Poltava](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Marten%27s_Poltava.jpg)
Battles can be fought on land, at sea, and in the air.
Naval battle
Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large lan ...
s have occurred since before the 5th century BC. Air battles have been far less common, due to their late conception, the most prominent being the
Battle of Britain in 1940. Since the Second World War, land or sea battles have come to rely on air support. During the
Battle of Midway, five
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
s were sunk without either fleet coming into direct contact.
![Battle Scene](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Battle_Scene.jpg)
* A
pitched battle is an encounter where opposing sides agree on the time and place of combat.
* A ''battle of encounter'' (or ''encounter battle'') is a
meeting engagement where the opposing sides collide in the field without either having prepared their attack or defence.
* A ''
battle of attrition
Attrition warfare is a military strategy consisting of belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel. The word ''attrition'' comes from the Latin root ...
'' aims to inflict losses on an enemy that are less sustainable compared to one's own losses. These need not be greater numerical losses – if one side is much more numerous than the other then pursuing a strategy based on attrition can work even if casualties on both sides are about equal. Many battles of the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
in the First World War were intentionally (
Verdun) or unintentionally (
Somme __NOTOC__
Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places
*Somme (department), a department of France
*Somme, Queensland, Australia
*Canal de la Somme, a canal in France
*Somme (river), a river in France
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Somme'' (book), a ...
) attrition battles.
* A ''battle of
breakthrough
Breakthrough or break through may refer to:
Arts Books
* ''Break Through'' (book), a 2007 book about environmentalism by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger
* ''Break Through'' (play), a 2011 episodic play portraying scenes from LGBT life
* ...
'' aims to pierce the enemy's defences, thereby exposing the vulnerable flanks which can be turned.
* A ''battle of
encirclement''—the of the German battle of manoeuvre ()—surrounds the enemy in a
pocket
A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag o ...
.
* A ''battle of
envelopment
Envelopment is the military tactic of seizing objectives in the enemy's rear with the goal of destroying specific enemy forces and denying them the ability to withdraw. Rather than attacking an enemy head-on as in a frontal assault an envelopment ...
'' involves an attack on one or both
flanks; the classic example being the
double envelopment of the
Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae () was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and their allies, led by ...
.
* 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
The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...
.
Battles are usually hybrids of different types listed above.
A ''
decisive battle'' is one with
political effects, determining the course of the war such as the
Battle of Smolensk or bringing hostilities to an end, such as the
Battle of Hastings or the
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of t ...
. A decisive battle can change the balance of power or boundaries between countries. The concept of the ''decisive battle'' became popular with the publication in 1851 of
Edward Creasy Edward Creasy may refer to:
* Edward Shepherd Creasy
Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (12 September 1812 – 17 January 1878) was an English historian and jurist.
Life
He was born the son of a Land Agent in Bexley, Kent, England and educated at Et ...
's ''
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
''The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo'' is a book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851. This book tells the story of the fifteen military engagements which, according to the author, had a ...
''. British
military historian
Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships.
Professional historians norma ...
s
J.F.C. Fuller (''The Decisive Battles of the Western World'') and
B.H. Liddell Hart
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian and military theorist. He wrote a series of military histor ...
(''Decisive Wars of History''), among many others, have written books in the style of Creasy's work.
Land
There is an obvious difference in the way battles have been fought. Early battles were probably fought between rival hunting bands as unorganized crowds. During the
Battle of Megiddo, the first reliably documented battle in the fifteenth century BC, both armies were organised and disciplined; during the many wars of the
Roman Empire,
barbarians continued to use
mob tactics.
As the
Age of Enlightenment dawned, armies began to fight in highly disciplined lines. Each would follow the orders from their officers and fight as a unit instead of individuals. Armies were divided into
regiments,
battalions,
companies and
platoons. These armies would march, line up and fire in divisions.
Native Americans, on the other hand, did not fight in lines, using guerrilla tactics. American colonists and European forces continued using disciplined lines into the
American Civil War.
A new style arose from the 1850s to the First World War, known as
trench warfare, which also led to tactical
radio.
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym ...
also began in 1915.
By the Second World War, the use of the smaller divisions, platoons and companies became much more important as precise operations became vital. Instead of the trench stalemate of 1915–1917, in the Second World War, battles developed where small groups encountered other platoons. As a result, elite squads became much more recognized and distinguishable.
Maneuver warfare also returned with an astonishing pace with the advent of the
tank, replacing the cannon of the Enlightenment Age. Artillery has since gradually replaced the use of frontal troops. Modern battles resemble those of the Second World War, along with indirect combat through the use of aircraft and missiles which has come to constitute a large portion of wars in place of battles, where battles are now mostly reserved for capturing cities.
Naval
One significant difference of modern naval battles, as opposed to earlier forms of combat is the use of
marines, which introduced amphibious warfare. 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 ( ) was a naval battle fought between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles and the Persian Empire under King Xerxes in 480 BC. It resulted in a decisive victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was ...
. 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. Troops were often used to storm enemy ships as used by
Romans and
pirates
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
. 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
Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman Empire beginning . Used to set fire to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact w ...
by the Byzantines, which was used to set enemy fleets on fire. 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
An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
, first used in the
American Civil War, resistant to cannons, soon made the wooden ship obsolete. The invention of military
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s, during
World War I, brought naval warfare to both above and below the surface. With the development of military aircraft during
World War II, battles were fought in the sky as well as below the ocean.
Aircraft carriers have since become the central unit in naval warfare, acting as a mobile base for lethal aircraft.
Aerial
![Heinkel He 111 during the Battle of Britain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Heinkel_He_111_during_the_Battle_of_Britain.jpg)
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. Aircraft began becoming much more prominent in the
Spanish Civil War and especially World War II. 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). Some of the more notable aerial battles in this period include the
Battle of Britain and the
Battle of Midway. 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. 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.
Naming
![Battle of Gibraltar 1607](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Battle_of_Gibraltar_1607.jpg)
Battles are usually named after some feature of the battlefield
geography, such as a town, forest or river, commonly prefixed "Battle of...". Occasionally battles are named after the date on which they took place, such as
The Glorious First of June. In the
Middle Ages it was considered important to settle on a suitable name for a battle which could be used by the
chroniclers. After
Henry V of England
Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the ...
defeated a French army on October 25, 1415, he met with the senior French
herald and they agreed to name the battle after the nearby
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
and so it was called the
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numerica ...
. 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. During the American Civil War, the Union tended to name the battles after the nearest watercourse, such as the Battle of Wilsons Creek and the Battle of Stones River, whereas the Confederates favoured the nearby towns, as in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Murfreesboro. Occasionally both names for the same battle entered the popular culture, such as the
First Battle of Bull Run and the
Second Battle of Bull Run
The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate ...
, which are also referred to as the First and Second Battles of Manassas.
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 Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
. Some place names have become
synonymous
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
with battles, such as the
Passchendaele,
Pearl Harbor,
the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Anto ...
,
Thermopylae and
Waterloo
Waterloo most commonly refers to:
* Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat
* Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place.
Waterloo may also refer to:
Other places
Antarctica
*King George Island (S ...
.
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.
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an Allies of World War II, Allied military operation during the World War II, Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a Salient (military), salient into G ...
and
Operation Rolling Thunder are examples of battles known by their military codenames. When a battleground is the site of more than one battle in the same conflict, the instances are distinguished by
ordinal number
In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is a generalization of ordinal numerals (first, second, th, etc.) aimed to extend enumeration to infinite sets.
A finite set can be enumerated by successively labeling each element with the least n ...
, such as the First and Second Battles of Bull Run. An extreme case are the twelve
Battles of the Isonzo
The Battles of the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, sl, soška fronta) were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remaind ...
—
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
to
Twelfth—between Italy and
Austria-Hungary during the First World War.
Some battles are named for the convenience of
military historian
Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships.
Professional historians norma ...
s so that periods of combat can be neatly distinguished from one another. 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
Beaumont-Hamel () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
During the First World War, Beaumont-Hamel was close to the front line, near many attacks, especially during the Battle of the Somme, one of the larg ...
on November 13, 1916, was probably unaware he was taking part in what the committee named the
Battle of the Ancre. Many combats are too small to be battles; terms such as "action", "affair" "skirmish", "firefight" "raid" or "offensive patrol" are used to describe small military 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 called an "action".
Effects
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. Some battle-survivors have nightmares about the conditions they encountered or abnormal reactions to certain sights or sounds and some experience
flashbacks. Physical effects of battle can include scars, amputations, lesions, loss of bodily functions, blindness, paralysis and death. Battles affect
politics; a decisive battle can cause the losing side to surrender, while a
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory ( ) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.
The phrase originates from a quote from P ...
such as the
Battle of Asculum can cause the winning side to reconsider its goals. Battles in
civil wars have often decided the fate of monarchs or political factions. Famous examples include the
Wars of the Roses, as well as the
Jacobite risings. Battles affect the commitment of one side or the other to the continuance of a war, for example the
Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Incheon (), also spelled Battle of Inchon, was an amphibious invasion and a battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations Command (UN). The operation involved so ...
and the
Battle of Huế
The Battle of Huế (31 January 1968 – 2 March 1968), also called the Siege of Huế, was a major military engagement in the Tết Offensive launched by North Vietnam and the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War. After initially losing cont ...
during the
Tet Offensive.
See also
*
List of battles
*
Military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...
*
Military tactics
Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, Mobility (military), mobil ...
*
Naval battle
Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large lan ...
*
Pitched battle
*
Skirmisher
*
War
Further reading
*
Interstate War Battle dataset (1823–2003)
References
;Sources
* no isbn
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External links
{{Authority control
Military operations by type