 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Echelon formation" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Anechelon formation (/ˈɛʃəlɒn,ˈeɪʃlɒ̃/)[1] is a (usuallymilitary) formation in which its units are arranged diagonally. Each unit is stationed behind and to the right (a "right echelon"), or behind and to the left ("left echelon"), of the unit ahead. The name of the formation comes from the French word échelon, meaning a rung of a ladder, which describes the shape that this formation has when viewed from above or below.
Use of the formation dates back to ancientinfantry andcavalry warfare, as an alternative tocolumn,line-abreast, orphalanx (box) formations. One of its earliest uses was at theBattle of Leuctra, when theThebans attacked the Spartan right with a column 48 men deep while their weaker center and right were repelled. The echelon formation may have been used byHannibal at theBattle of Cannae,Alexander the Great at theBattle of Gaugamela,Frederick II of Prussia, and theConfederate army at theBattle of Gettysburg.
.png)
The tactic still persists and is regularly employed by all branches of the modern armed forces. Tactically, echelon formations are used because of the excellent range of vision offered to each participant in the formation. In particular, it is commonly employed by armored cavalry because of the large, overlapping fields of fire that it gives to eachtank in the formation, and by combat aircraft, allowing them to communicate visually and maneuver as a single unit.
"Echeloning" is the name of a tactic in use by the United Kingdom's armed forces, mainly theinfantry. It consists of using acompany to attack a set of positions. Once the first platoon in the company has reached its limit of advance (ammunition has been expended,fatigue has become high, or casualties are mounting) anotherplatoon "echelons through" it to continue onto the next position. The tactic is similar toleapfrogging.
Echelon formations are also commonly used by civic orriot police to move crowds either to the left or right.En echelon is also used for a type of arrangement of gun turrets on ships: seeGlossary of nautical terms § E.
The term "rear echelon" is sometimes used informally and pejoratively to describerear units that performlogistic andmanagement tasks, far from the front line.[2]
The name has been adopted by thebirdwatching community to describe the familiar V-shaped formations of flights ofgeese,ducks and othermigratory birds, though this more symmetric formation is more strictly defined as aV formation.
In geology,en echelon describes an arrangement where a set of short linear features overlap or are staggered in a line that runs obliquely to the strike of the individual features.[3]Echelon faults anden echelon veins are examples.
In sheet material response toshear stress it is typical for a series ofechelon cracks to form. This is commonly seen in asphalt roads subject to shear stress imposed byaseismic fault creep.
In mathematics, the termrow echelon form refers to a kind ofmatrix where the non-zero elements are shaped in an echelon-like manner.
.jpg)
Inroad bicycle racing, an echelon formation is a diagonal line of racers, which allows cooperativedrafting incrosswinds.[4][5]