Military tactic of multiple attacks
Envelopment is themilitary tactic of seizing objectives in the enemy'srear with the goal of destroying specific enemy forces and denying them the ability towithdraw. Rather than attacking an enemy head-on, as in afrontal assault, an envelopment seeks to exploit the enemy'sflanks, attacking them from multiple directions and avoiding where their defenses are strongest. A successful envelopment lessens the number of casualties suffered by the attacker while inducing apsychological shock on the defender and improving the chances to destroy them.[1] An envelopment will consist of one or moreenveloping forces, which attacks the enemy's flank(s), and afixing force, which attacks the enemy'sfront and "fixes" them in place so that they cannot withdraw or shift their focus on the enveloping forces.[2] While a successful tactic, there are risks involved with performing an envelopment. The enveloping force can become overextended and cut off from friendly forces by an enemycounterattack, or the enemy can counterattack against the fixing force.[3]
According to theUnited States Army there exist four types of envelopment:[1]
- Aflanking maneuver or single envelopment consists of one enveloping force attacking one of the enemy's flanks. This is extremely effective if the holding forces are in a well defensible spot (e.g., Alexander the Great's hammer and anvil at theBattle of Issus) or if there is a strong, hidden line behind a weak flank (e.g.Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) andBattle of Rocroi).
- Apincer movement or double envelopment consists of two simultaneous flanking maneuvers. Hannibal devised this strategy in his tactical masterpiece, theBattle of Cannae. Later on, theRashidun Caliphate GeneralKhalid ibn al-Walid applied the maneuver in a decisive battle against theSassanid Empire during theBattle of Walaja. In 1940 and 1941, inWorld War II, the Germans repeatedly employed this tactic to encircle hundreds of thousands of enemy troops at once, namely in theBattle of France and inOperation Barbarossa against the USSR.
- Anencirclement whereby the enemy is surrounded and isolated in apocket. The friendly forces can choose to attack the pocket orinvest it (to stop resupplies and to prevent breakouts) and wait for a beleaguered enemy to surrender.
- Avertical envelopment is "a tactical maneuver in which troops, either air-dropped or air-landed, attack the rear and flanks of a force, in effect cutting off or encircling the force".[4]
A special type is thecabbage tactics that has been used by the Chinese Navy around disputed islands. Its goal is to create a layered envelopment of the target.[5]
- ^abUS Army,FM 3-90 (Tactics), July 2001, 3-12
- ^US Army,FM 3-90 (Tactics), July 2001, 3–13
- ^US Army,FM 3-90 (Tactics), July 2001, 3–15
- ^vertical envelopment,encyclopedia.com, Retrieved 2009-12-03. QuotesThe Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military.
- ^Chan, Eric."Escalating Clarity without Fighting: Countering Gray Zone Warfare against Taiwan (Part 2)".globaltaiwan.org. The Global Taiwan Institute. Retrieved21 June 2021.
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