Raid (military)

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Raid
British commandos watch as an ammunition dump burns during Operation Archery, Vågsøy 27 December 1941.
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Raiding, also known as depredation, is a

warriors, guerrilla fighters or other irregular military forces. Some raids are large, for example the Sullivan Expedition
.

The purposes of a raid may include:

  • to demoralize, confuse, or exhaust the enemy;
  • to
    ransack
    , pillage, or plunder
  • to destroy specific goods or installations of military or economic value;
  • to free POWs
  • to capture enemy soldiers for interrogation;
  • to kill or capture specific key persons;
  • to gather intelligence.

Land

Tribal societies

Among many tribal societies, raiding was the most common and lethal form of warfare. Taking place at night, the goal was to catch the enemy sleeping to avoid casualties to the raiding party.[2]

Iron Age Ireland

Cattle raiding was a major feature of Irish society in the Iron Age and forms the central plot of the historical epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (English: Cattle Raid of Cooley).

Bedouin ghazzu

The traditional habit of Bedouin tribes of raiding other tribes, caravans, or settlements is known in Arabic as ghazzu.[3][4] Such activity was still noticed by J. S. Buckingham in 1820s Palestine not only among nomadic Bedouin, but also among the nominally sedentary villagers of er-Riha (Jericho), who left the little land cultivation he observed to women and children, while men spent most of their time riding through the plains and engaging in "robbery and plunder", their main and most profitable activity.[3]

Arabia during Muhammad's era

Main article:
List of battles of Muhammad

The Islamic prophet Muhammad made frequent use of raiding tactics. His first use of raids was during the

Nakhla raid. In January 624[5] Muhammad ordered this raid to attack a Quraysh caravan and gather information.[6][7]
Invasion of Thi Amr he ordered a raid on the Banu Muharib and Banu Talabah tribes after he received intelligence that they were allegedly going to raid the outskirts of Medina.[9] One person was captured by Muslims during this raid.[9]

In August 627[10][11][12] he ordered the First Raid on Banu Thalabah, a tribe already aware of the impending attack. So they lay in wait for the Muslims, and when Muhammad ibn Maslamah arrived at the site, 100 men of the Banu Thalabah ambushed them, while the Muslims were making preparation to sleep, and after a brief resistance killed all of Muhammad ibn Maslamah's men. Muhammad ibn Maslamah pretended to be dead. A Muslim who happened to pass that way found him and assisted him to return to Medina. The raid was unsuccessful.[13]

Medieval Europe

Small scale raiding warfare was common in Western European warfare of the

Black Prince in Southern France in 1355. This last is notable not just for its success and scope but the fact that the raiders deliberately captured records in order to carry out a post-operational analysis of the impact of the raid on the enemy economy.[15]

Large scale raiding

The largest raids in history were the series undertaken during and following the

Grande Armée, and cavalry raids that took place during the American Civil War such as Morgan's Raid,[16] and numerous examples of small group raids behind enemy lines that have taken place throughout all periods of history.[citation needed
]

In the operational level of war, raids were the precursors in the development of the Operational Manoeuvre Groups in the Soviet Army as early as the 1930s.[17]

Seaborne

Main article: Amphibious warfare

Raiding by sea was known at the time of the

Mediterranean
.

A karakoa, a large pre-colonial Visayan warship used for seaborne raids in the Philippines (c. 1711)

In pre-colonial

pillage, and to capture hostages. Participation and prowess in these raids were recorded in the widespread practice of full-body tattooing (batok). Raids were usually seaborne, and coastal communities had sentinels that watch for possible raids. When spotted, it was preferable for the defenders to meet the attackers at sea in ship-to-ship combat (bangga) rather than engage them on land. The raids had strict codes of conduct on the treatment of captives. People who surrendered were spared, to be ransomed or to work under temporary indentured servitude as alipin then set free. Anyone who kills a captive is required to pay their value, or risk becoming an alipin themselves. Higher-ranked captives were treated well and were usually ransomed by relatives.[18][19][20]

A lanong, an Iranun warship used for piracy and raids in the Sulu Sea, mainly for slaves (c. 1890)

The practice of seaborne raids also continued among the

chattel slavery. They had little chances of returning to their home settlements, unless ransomed, and were instead sold on the slave markets.[21][22][23][24] These kinds of raids were especially prevalent in the Sulu and Celebes Seas and has continued into modern-day piracy.[21][25]

Viking karve
longship

In the early

Cadiz to destroy shipping being assembled for the Spanish Armada was carried out by Sir Francis Drake in 1587.[29] Similarly the Dutch executed the Raid on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Dutch Raid on North America during the Third Anglo-Dutch War
.

During the Second World War, the British set up the

Dieppe sufficiently to cause sufficient destruction to the port.[32]

Air

Air landed

raid on Fort Eben-Emal in Belgium in 1940,[33] and the British Operation Colossus and Operation Biting, which were raids in Italy and France in 1941 and 1942.[34]

Aerial bombardment

Main article: Strategic bombing

The Royal Air Force first used the term "raid" in the Second World War when referring to an air attack. It included those by one aircraft or many squadrons, against all manner of targets on the ground and the targets defending aircraft. "Raid" was different from "battle", which was used for land, sea, or amphibious conflict. An aircraft "raid" was always planned ahead of time. Aircraft patrols (against U-boats) and defensive launches of carrier aircraft (against recently detected enemy ships) are differentiated from raids.

See also

References

  1. ^ The Handbook Of The SAS And Elite Forces. How The Professionals Fight And Win. Edited by Jon E. Lewis. p.312-Tactics And Techniques, Landings And Raids On Enemy Territory. Robinson Publishing Ltd 1997. ISBN 1-85487-675-9
  2. ^ Gat (2006)
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781317543473
    . Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  4. ISBN 9781620874141
    .
  5. ISBN 978-9960899558
  6. ^ Muḥammad Ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, Mukhtaṣar zād al-maʻād, p. 346.
  7. ^ Muḥammad Ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb, Mukhtaṣar zād al-maʻād, p. 346.
  8. ^ Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar, pp.128-131. (online)
  9. ^
    ISBN 9789960980324
  10. ISBN 9789957051648.Note: Book contains a list of battles of Muhammad in Arabic, English translation available here
  11. ISBN 978-9960897547.(online
    )
  12. ISBN 978-0887063442
  13. ISBN 9798694145923[permanent dead link
    ‍]
  14. ^ Rogers (2007), Chapter 7 Little War
  15. ^ Rogers (2000), pp. 304–324
  16. ^ Black (2004)
  17. ^ Simpkin and Erickson (1987), p. 72
  18. ^ Scott, William Henry (1994). Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
  19. ^ Emma Helen Blair & James Alexander Robertson, ed. (1903). "Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (1582) by Miguel de Loarca". The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803, Volume V., 1582–1583: Explorations By Early Navigators, Descriptions Of The Islands And Their Peoples, Their History And Records Of The Catholic Missions, As Related In Contemporaneous Books And Manuscripts, Showing The Political, Economic, Commercial And Religious Conditions Of Those Islands From Their Earliest Relations With European Nations To The Beginning Of The Nineteenth Century. The A.H. Clark Company (republished online by Project Gutenberg).
  20. ^ Isorena, Efren B. (2004). "The Visayan Raiders of the China Coast, 1174–1190 AD". Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society. 32 (2): 73–95.
  21. ^ a b Teitler, Ger (2002). "Piracy in Southeast Asia. A Historical Comparison". MAST (Maritime Studies). 1 (1): 68.
  22. ISBN 9789971693862
    .
  23. doi:10.20495/tak.30.4_401. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2018-11-04. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  24. ISBN 9789971692421. Archived from the original
    on 2019-07-04. Retrieved 2018-05-06.
  25. ISBN 9781315545264
    .
  26. ^ Griffith (1995), Chapter 4 The Viking Notion of Strategy
  27. ^ Longmate (1990), pp. 314–382
  28. ^ Crowley (2008), Chapter 6 The Turkish Sea
  29. ^ Hanson (2003), pp. 111–122
  30. ^ Chappell (1996), pp. 5 & 13
  31. ^ Smith (2012), pp. 48–54
  32. ^ Chappell (1996), pp. 19–26
  33. ^ Evans (2000), p. 42
  34. ^ Thompson (1989), pp. 11 & 18

Sources
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