Breakout (military)
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A breakout is a military operation to end a situation of
investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
(being surrounded) by offensive operations that achieve a breakthrough—escape from offensive confinement. It is used in contexts such as this: "The British breakout attempt from
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". It is one of four possible outcomes of
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, the others being
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
,
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, or reduction.


Overview

A breakout is achieved when an invested force launches an attack on the confining enemy forces and achieves a breakthrough, meaning that they successfully occupy positions beyond the original enemy front line and can advance from that position toward an objective or to reunite with friendly forces from which they were separated. To be categorized a breakout, an invested force is not necessarily required to be completely encircled by an enemy force. Rather, they may have their movement partially restricted by a terrain feature or potentially the use of an area denial weapon such as the
VX nerve agent VX is an extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound in the organophosphorus class, specifically, a thiophosphonate. In the class of nerve agents, it was developed for military use in chemical warfare after translation of earlier discoveri ...
.Army Field Manual FM 3-90 (Tactics) p. D-0 That was the case in 1944 in the Saint Lo Breakout in which a large portion of the force's movement was restricted by water and not in fact by enemy positions. While that may be true of a
beachhead A beachhead is a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a landing beach by sea and begins to defend the area as other reinforcements arrive. Once a large enough unit is assembled, the invading force can begin advancing inland. The ...
, it is not necessarily true of a
bridgehead In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...
. If the bridge is sufficient in capacity compared to the size of the force and does not significantly restrict its movement, it does not represent a sufficient barrier for the force to be considered encircled. Similarly, open water may not be a barrier in the same right. Consider a small detachment of marines with more than sufficient amphibious transports and a significant military presence at sea, such as the beginning stages of the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. Had they evacuated to sea, they would retain a significant military presence, as they were principally a naval military force. Conversely, consider the military evacuation of British troops at
Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Operation Winter Storm Operation Winter Storm (german: Unternehmen Wintergewitter), a German offensive in December 1942 during World War II, involved the German 4th Panzer Army failing to break the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army during the Battle of St ...
or the British 1st Armored Division suffered at
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. That is referred to as a failed breakout. A breakout may be attempted in conjunction with relief, which may be essential especially if the invested force has already experienced failed breakout attempts (again, as in Winter Storm).


First World War

As the situation on the Western Front during the First World War has been widely regarded as a single continent-long siege, rather than a series of distinct battles, it is possible to consider offensive action from the Allies as a type of breakout. In that sense, the Allied armies may be considered encircled, albeit on a hitherto-unheard of scale, with the German army to their east, the Alps and the Pyrenees to their south, and the sea to their west and north. Indeed, as the Dunkirk evacuation illustrated, despite having by far the largest navy in the world, those armies' amphibious movements were nearly impossible logistically. Similarly, as is seen at the
Battle of Sarikamish The Battle of Sarikamish (''Sarighamishi chakatamart''), russian: Сражение при Сарыкамыше; tr, Sarıkamış Harekatı, lit=''Operation Sarıkamış'' was an engagement between the Russian and Ottoman empires during World W ...
, mountainous terrain remained a significant obstacle to military movement and could inflict numerous casualties.


Strategy and tactics

The classic breakout strategy involves the concentration of force at one weak point of the encircling force. In the case of the Battle for North Africa, a variation of the tactic was used by German Field Marshall
Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...
, who secured both his flanks before quickly penetrating into the enemy's rear. During the Second World War, British General
Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and t ...
also adopted the strategy by attacking the enemy's narrow front. Breakout maneuvers, despite their own myriad risks, may become necessary by a number of disadvantages encircled forces suffer: *They are vulnerable to concentrated artillery fire. *They are vulnerable to use of
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. *They, at some point, exhaust their supplies if resupply is not possible by air. *They cannot evacuate the dead and the wounded. *They are vulnerable to loss of morale and discipline. The invested force suffers from the disadvantages resulting from occupying a confined space and also from those resulting from a lack of resupply. Therefore, the encircling force has a significant tactical advantage and the advantage of time. It may, in fact, choose to not engage their enemy at all and simply wait it out, leading to eventual exhaustion of ammunition if the invested force gives battle or to the eventual exhaustion of food and water otherwise. The
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lists four conditions, one of which normally exists when a force attempts a breakout maneuver: *The commander directs the breakout or the breakout falls within the intent of a higher commander. *The encircled force does not have sufficient relative combat power to defend itself against enemy forces attempting to reduce the encirclement. *The encircled force does not have adequate terrain available to conduct its defense. *The encircled force cannot sustain long enough to be relieved by forces outside the encirclement. Of necessity, the broad concept is subject to interpretation. In ''The Blitzkrieg Myth'', John Mosier questions whether the concept as applied to tank and other warfare in the Second World War was more misleading than helpful to planning, on account of the numerous exceptional conditions faced in war and also whether evaluation based largely on how well breakout or breakthrough potential was realized is appropriateMosier, John (2003). ''The Blitzkrieg Myth''. HarperCollins Publishers. (pbk.)


Examples

An example is the battle of Hube's Pocket on the Eastern Front in the Second World War in which the German
First Panzer Army The 1st Panzer Army (german: 1. Panzerarmee) was a German tank army that was a large armoured formation of the Wehrmacht during World War II. When originally formed on 1 March 1940, the predecessor of the 1st Panzer Army was named Panzer Group ...
was encircled by Soviet forces but broke out by attacking westward and linking with the
II SS Panzer Corps The II SS Panzer Corps was a German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern and Western Front (World War II), Western Fronts during World War II. It was commanded by Paul Hausser during the Thir ...
, which was breaking into the encirclement from outside. The breakout effort focused on the west because it was thinly held by the 4th Tank Army. The maneuver was an improvisation after Soviet General
Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – ...
concentrated his blocking forces southwards, where the German breakout had been anticipated. The German forces escaped relatively intact.


See also

*
Penetration (warfare) In ground attack position, penetration is the breaching of, and moving past, a defensive military line. Penetration is a strategic military maneuver much like the pincer movement with a few differences. The penetration attack goes straight thro ...
*
Breakthrough (military) A breakthrough occurs when an offensive force has broken or penetrated an opponent's defensive line, and rapidly exploits the gap. Usually, large force is employed on a relatively small portion of the front to achieve this. While the line may h ...


References

{{Reflist Breakout Military strategy Military tactics