Military strategy seeking total destruction of an enemy's military capacity
Annihilation is a military strategy in which an attacking army seeks to entirely destroy the military capacity of the opposing army. This strategy can be executed in a single planned pivotal battle, called a "battle of annihilation". A successful battle of annihilation is accomplished through the use of tactical surprise, application of overwhelming force at a key point, or other tactics performed immediately before or during the battle.
The end goal of a battle of annihilation is to cause the leaders of the opposing army to
defensive
military action. It is not necessary to kill or capture all, or even most, of an opposing army's forces to annihilate it in the sense used here. Rather, the destruction of the enemy army as a cohesive military force able to offer further meaningful military offense or defense, even if temporarily, is the objective.
Significance
In ancient and classical times, many battles ended with the annihilation of one of the opposing forces, the Battles of
Napoleon Bonaparte, with whom the battle of annihilation in the modern sense is most closely associated, and term "Napoleonic battle of annihilation" is sometimes used. The
Battle of Austerlitz is often cited as the paragon of the modern battle of annihilation.
Napoleon's victories at
Jena (1806) are often cited as the classic battles of annihilation. Napoleon himself was unable to again achieve such decisive results, partly because his enemies then adjusted to his tactics. For example, the
Battle of Borodino was a victory but did not result in the desired destruction of the Russian army.
After Napoleon
Nevertheless, strategists, influenced by those of the Napoleonic era, most notably
Liddell Hart, who claims in
Strategy that a poor choice of words by Clausewitz led his interpreters to overestimate the value of battles of annihilation.
[2] Consequently, at the beginning of the
American Civil War, many top military commanders mistakenly expected that a battle of annihilation would quickly end the war. However, the size and firepower of armies were making the battle of annihilation more difficult to achieve.
A contrast may be seen between Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union
General
Battle of Vicksburg, he forced
John C. Pemberton's army into a siege position in which it was forced to surrender without a battle. In the Virginia campaign of 1864 against Lee, he continually maneuvered around Lee and forced him to withdraw further and further south until he had to choose between abandoning the Confederate capital, Richmond, or withdrawing into siege lines.
William Tecumseh Sherman may also be cited. Rather than pursuing the chimera of destroying
John Bell Hood's army, Sherman chose to operate directly against the Confederate economy. His
famous march through Georgia, directly away from Hood, was basically the opposite of a Napoleonic strategy.
During the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussians (and later the Germans) made their own version of the battle of annihilation by destroying entire armies relatively quickly by means of rapid troop movement and rapid encirclement of the enemy. Those tactics came into fruition during the decisive battles of Metz and Sedan in which two main French armies were completely annihilated at the same time and relatively quickly, rendering France almost completely defenseless against the German invasion.
The Napoleonic ideal was still alive at the beginning of
Battle of Tannenberg during the war's opening weeks. However, attempts to create such a result on the
Western Front resulted in great slaughter to no effect. Armies were now too large to have flanks to turn and had too much firepower and too much defensive depth to be broken by assault.
Since World War I, the paradigm of armies maneuvering in the empty countryside for weeks and then meeting in a battle lasting usually a single day no longer applies (at least to wars between
major powers
). Instead, armies are deployed in more-or-less continuous lines that stretch perhaps hundreds of miles. Thus, the battle of annihilation may be considered to be mainly of historical interest, except for secondary campaigns.
The tactics executed by the Prussians during the
.
During the
US Navy was wary of committing all of its forces to one major battle. Further, the IJN concentrated so much of its efforts on preparing for a single massive showdown, which never truly occurred, that it neglected devoting resources towards protecting its naval supply lines, which soon fell prey to a
Fabian strategy when they were extensively targeted by US submarines. Even Japanese victories such as the
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands failed to annihilate their opponents utterly. The hoped-for "decisive battle" against the US Navy never came, and the IJN was gradually ground down through attrition.
Alternatives
Initially, it might seem that annihilation of the opposing army is the obvious object of any military campaign. However, many battles have been fought to cause an enemy army simply to retreat or to suffer attrition, and many campaigns have been waged to avoid, rather than seek, such a battle. Reasons for not seeking a battle of annihilation include the following:
- Avoidance of the risk and cost associated with such a battle
- Lack of means to attempt such a battle
- Ability to achieve desired objectives through other means
- Accepted practice
- Political concerns
- Possibility for enemy to declare fight to the death
- Fear of repercussions
See also
References
- ^ J. Nagl, (2005), p. 19.
- ^ Hart, B. H. Liddell, (1991), p. 319.
Sources
- J. Nagl. (2005). Learning to eat soup with a knife. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
- Hart, B. H. Liddell. (1991) Strategy, Second Revised Edition. New York, Meridian.
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