Irregular military
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Irregular military is any non-standard military component that is distinct from a country's national armed forces. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used. An irregular military organization is one which is not part of the regular army organization. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are often used; such organizations may be called a troop, group, unit, column, band, or force. Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations, or are members of special military units that employ irregular military tactics. This also applies to irregular infantry and irregular cavalry units.
Irregular warfare is warfare employing the tactics commonly used by irregular military organizations. This involves avoiding large-scale combat, and focusing on small, stealthy, hit-and-run engagements.
Regular vs. irregular
The words "regular" and "irregular" have been used to describe combat forces for hundreds of years, usually with little ambiguity. The requirements of a government's
In international humanitarian law, the term "irregular forces" refers to a category of combatants that consists of individuals forming part of the armed forces of a party to an armed conflict, international or domestic, but not belonging to that party's regular forces and operating inside or outside of their own territory, even if the territory is under occupation.[1]
The
- being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates to a party of conflict
- having a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance
- carrying arms openly
- conducting operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war
By extension, combat forces that do not satisfy these criteria are termed "irregular forces".
Types
The term "irregular military" describes the "how" and "what", but it is more common to focus on the "why" as just about all irregular units were created to provide a tactical advantage to an existing military, whether it was
- legionaries.
- feudal peasants and freemen liable to be called up for short-term military duty.[3]
- letters of marque to attack foreign vessels during wartime and to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy during "peacetime", often on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them.[4]
- Revolutionary – someone part of a revolution, whether military or not.[5]
- Peninsula War in Spain against France.[6]
- Montoneras – they were a type of irregular forces that were formed in the 19th century in Latin America.
- unprivileged combatant[7] (for example the Hostages Trial[1947–1948]).
- Militia – military force composed of ordinary citizens.
- Ordenanças – The Portuguese territorial militia system from the 16th century to the 19th century. From the 17th century, it became the third line of the Army, serving both as local defense force and as the mobilization system that provided conscripts for the first (Regular) and second (Militia) lines of the Army.
- Second World War.
- Freedom fighter– A type of irregular military in which the main cause, in their or their supporters' view, is freedom for themselves or others.
- Paramilitary – An organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces.
- non-combatantsto gain political leverage. The term is almost always used pejoratively. Although reasonably well defined, its application is frequently controversial.
- False flag or pseudo-operations – Troops of one side dressing like troops of another side to eliminate or discredit the latter and its support, such as members of the Panzer Brigade 150, commanded by Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny in Operation Greif during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and Selous Scouts of the Rhodesian Bush War.
- Iraqi Insurgency, rather than larger rebel organizations like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
- Fifth column - A group that carries out sabotage, disinformation, espionage, and/or terrorism within a group that responds to external enemies
- Bandit - It is generally treated as an organized crime, but it has the character of a resistance movement depending on the political and social situation.
- Private army - Combatants who owe their allegiance to a private person, group, or organization.
- rules of warthan non-mercenaries, and many countries have criminalized "mercenary activity".
Intense debates can build up over which term is to be used to refer to a specific group. Using one term over another can strongly imply strong support or opposition for the cause.
It is possible for a military to cross the line between regular and irregular. Isolated regular army units that are forced to operate without regular support for long periods of time can degrade into irregulars. As an irregular military becomes more successful, it may transition away from irregular, even to the point of becoming the new regular army if it wins.
Regular military units that use irregular military tactics
Most conventional military officers and militaries are wary of using irregular military forces and see them as unreliable, of doubtful military usefulness, and prone to committing atrocities leading to retaliation in kind. Usually, such forces are raised outside the regular military like the British
Although they are part of a regular army,
In Finland, well-trained light infantry Sissi troops use irregular tactics such as reconnaissance, sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines.
The founder of the
Effectiveness
While the morale, training and equipment of the individual irregular soldier can vary from very poor to excellent, irregulars are usually lacking the higher-level organizational training and equipment that is part of regular army. This usually makes irregulars ineffective in direct, main-line combat, the typical focus of more standard armed forces. Other things being equal, major battles between regulars and irregulars heavily favor the regulars.
However, irregulars can excel at many other combat duties besides main-line combat, such as
The total effect of irregulars is often underestimated. Since the military actions of irregulars are often small and unofficial, they are underreported or even overlooked. Even when engaged by regular armies, some military histories exclude all irregulars when counting friendly troops, but include irregulars in the count of enemy troops, making the odds seem much worse than they were. This may be accidental; counts of friendly troops often came from official regular army rolls that exclude unofficial forces, while enemy strength often came from visual estimates, where the distinction between regular and irregular were lost. If irregular forces overwhelm regulars, records of the defeat are often lost in the resulting chaos.[citation needed]
History
By definition, "irregular" is understood in contrast to "regular armies", which grew slowly from personal bodyguards or elite militia. In Ancient warfare, most civilized nations relied heavily on irregulars to augment their small regular army. Even in advanced civilizations, the irregulars commonly outnumbered the regular army.
Sometimes entire tribal armies of irregulars were brought in from internal native or neighboring cultures, especially ones that still had an active hunting tradition to provide the basic training of irregulars. The regulars would only provide the core military in the major battles; irregulars would provide all other combat duties.
Notable examples of regulars relying on irregulars include Bashi-bazouk units in the Ottoman Empire, auxiliary cohorts of Germanic peoples in the Roman Empire, Cossacks in the Russian Empire, and Native American forces in the American frontier of the Confederate States of America.
One could attribute the disastrous defeat of the Romans at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest to the lack of supporting irregular forces; only a few squadrons of irregular light cavalry accompanied the invasion of Germany when normally the number of foederati and auxiliaries would equal the regular legions. During this campaign the majority of locally recruited irregulars defected to the Germanic tribesmen led by the former auxiliary officer Arminius.[11]
During the
Following Napoleon's modernisation of warfare with the invention of conscription, the Peninsular War led by Spaniards against the French invaders in 1808 provided the first modern example of guerrilla warfare. Indeed, the term of guerrilla itself was coined during this time.
As the Industrial Revolution dried up the traditional source of irregulars, nations were forced take over the duties of the irregulars using specially trained regular army units. Examples are the light infantry in the British Army.
Irregular regiments in British India
Prior to 1857 Britain's
Irregular military in Canada before 1867
Before 1867, military units in Canada consisted of British units of volunteers.
During French rule, small local volunteer militia units or colonial militias were used to provide defence needs. During British control of various local militias, the Provincial Marine were used to support British regular forces in Canada.
Other instances of irregulars
Use of large irregular forces featured heavily in wars such as the
The Chinese People's Liberation Army began as a peasant guerilla force which in time transformed itself into a large regular force. This transformation was foreseen in the doctrine of "people's war", in which irregular forces were seen as being able to engage the enemy and to win the support of the populace but as being incapable of taking and holding ground against regular military forces.
Examples
- Arbegnoch - Guerrilla force in occupied Ethiopia 1936-44.
- Armatoloi- Ottoman Greek irregulars
- Armenian fedayi – Armenian irregular units of the 1880s–1920s
- Atholl Highlanders – The only legal and still existing private army in Europe under the command of the Duke of Atholl in Scotland, United Kingdom, (1777–1783 and since 1839)
- Bands - (Italian Army colonial and foreign irregulars)
- Bargi- Maratha horsemen 1741-51.
- Bashi-bazouk – Irregular mounted mercenary in the Ottoman Empire
- Bushwhackers – Irregular partisans who fought for the South during the American Civil War.
- Cacos - Haitian insurgent groups 19th and 20th centuries.
- Huguenot insurgency in the beginning of the 17th century in the Cévennes
- Cateran - Scottish clan warriors and marauders pre-18th century.
- Çetes - Muslim irregulars Asia Minor 1910s-1920s
- Cheta - armed bands resisting Ottoman rule in Macedonia, early 20th century.
- Chetniks - nationalist movement and guerrilla force in occupied Yugoslavia 1941-44.
- Croats (military unit) - 17th century frontier light cavalry in Habsburgh service.
- Dubat - indigenous auxiliaries in Italian Somaliand.
- Fano - Ethiopian guerrilla force
- Fedayeen - Arabic term for fighters willing to sacrifice themselves
- Fellagha - nationalist militants in Algeria and Tunisia opposing French colonial rule 1950s.
- Filibuster (military) - participants in foreign military interventions without official backing.
- Free Corps (Freikorps) – volunteer units in German-speaking countries, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries as private armies
- Free Swarm (Freischar) – volunteers, that participated in a conflict without the formal authorisation of one of the belligerents, but on the instigation of a political party or an individual
- Goumiers– originally tribal allies supporting France in Algeria during the 19th century. From 1912 to 1956 Moroccan auxiliaries serving with the French Army.
- Hajduks— bandits and irregulars in and against the Ottoman Empire, but found amongst military ranks in Hungary and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Harkis – Algerian Muslim irregulars who served with the French Army during the Algerian Warof 1954–62.
- Haydamak - pro-Cossack paramilitary (18th century)
- Honghuzi – Manchurian bandits who served as irregulars during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
- Jagunço – armed hand in Northern Brazil.
- Kachaks - Albanian bandits and rebels (1880s–1930)
- Klephts – Greek guerrilla fighters in Ottoman Greece
- Komitadji – rebel bands operating in the Balkans during the final period of the Ottoman Empire.
- Kuruc - Hungarian insurgent groups 17th-18th centuries.
- Kuva-yi Milliye - Ottoman/Turkish militia 1918-1921
- Land Storm (troops) (Landsturm) – created by a 21 April 1813 edict of Frederick William III of Prussia, lowest level of reserve troops in Prussia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands
- Legion of Frontiersmen – An irregular quasi-military organization that proliferated throughout the British Empire prior to World War I
- Macheteros de Jara - Paraguayan cavalry regiment of the Chaco War
- Republiquetas
- Requeté
- Makhnovshchina – Ukrainian anarchist army that fought both the White Armies and the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.
- Minutemen – American irregular troops during the American Revolution
- Morlachs - Dalmatian auxiliaries in Venetian service during the 17th century.
- People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam- Viet Cong's army
- Pindari – 18th century irregular horsemen in India
- Rapparee - Irish guerillas (1690s)
- Righteous Army— militias organised at several dates in Korean history
- Rough Riders – in the Spanish–American War
- Ruga-Ruga - East African auxiliaries to German and British colonial armies.
- Shifta – local militia in the Horn of Africa,
- Trenck's Pandurs – Habsburg monarchy 17th and 18th century skirmisher, later evolving in the regular Grenz infantry.[citation needed]
- Zapatistas - militant political movement active in southern Mexico from 1994.
- Zeybeks - Ottoman irregulars (17th to 20th centuries)
Irregulars in today's warfare
Modern conflicts in
The
Irregular civilian volunteers also played a large role in the
See also
- Asymmetric warfare – Military theory that also includes regulars vs. irregulars
- Fourth generation warfare
- "Yank" Levy, teacher of the Home Guardand coauthor of the first practical book on Guerrilla Warfare
- Low intensity conflict
- Military volunteer
- Unconventional warfare
- Violent non-state actors
- Sissi (Finnish light infantry)
Legal aspects, categories
- Definition of terrorism
- Enemy combatant, US term used during the "War on Terror"
- Law of war
- Martens Clause, stating that customary law applies where specific law is lacking in detail
- Unlawful combatant
References
Bibliography
- Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Epitoma rei militaris
- Dr. Thomas M. Huber, Compound Warfare: An Anthology
- Clifford J. Rogers, Military Technical Revolution debate among historians
- John M. Gates, US Army & Irregular Warfare
- Harold P. Ford, CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes 1962–1968
- Robert R. Mackey, "The UnCivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861–1865", University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3624-3
References
- ISBN 978-0-8108-5078-1
- ^ Bybee, Jay S., "Status of Taliban Forces Under Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949", 7 February 2002 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Newman, Simon (29 May 2012). "Military in the Middle Ages". thefinertimes.com. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- ^ "Privateer | Definition of privateer". Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- ^ "Revolutionary | Definition of revolutionary". Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- ^ "Battlefield: Vietnam – Guerrilla Tactics". PBS. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- ^ Duffy, Michael. "First World War.com – Encyclopedia – Franc-Tireur". firstworldwar.com. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- ^ Tsetung, Mao (1961). On Guerilla Warfare. Praegar Publisher. pp. 71–72.
- ^ Tsetung, Mao (1961). On Guerilla Warfare. Praegar Publisher. pp. 72–73.
- ^ Tsetung, Mao (1961). On Guerilla Warfare. Praegar Publisher. p. 73.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-581-4.
- ^ Kim A. Wagner (2009). Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Christopher Alan Bayly, C. A. Bayly (1996). Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870. Cambridge University Press.
- ISBN 0-333-41837-9.
- ISBN 0-306-81165-0
- ^ The CIA Secret Army, publisher Time Inc, Douglas Waller, 3 February 2003
- ^ All Necessary Means: Employing CIA Operatives in a Warfighting Role Alongside Special Operations Forces, Colonel Kathryn Stone, Professor Anthony R. Williams (Project Advisor), United States Army War College (USAWC), 7 April 2003.
- ISBN 978-1-883642-36-5
- ISBN 0-87113-854-9.
- ^ Woodward, Bob Bush at War, Simon & Schuster, 2002
- ISBN 978-1-59921-366-8
- ISBN 978-0-7432-5547-9
Further reading
- Beckett, I. F. W. (15 September 2009). Encyclopedia of Guerrilla Warfare (Hardcover). Santa Barbara, California: Abc-Clio Inc. ISBN 978-0874369298.