Hallo Everyone!
Well I just moved over to blogspot from livejournal and yes I should start it off with an analysis. Now that I finally got the time to start on my campaigns' commentaries proper I'll start with something you military junkies should definitely know and .. perhaps.. love.. haha =) Well you guys should know what I mean... Marathon... Changping... Cannae... Yea! Double Envelopments! =)
Battles of double envelopments have always intrigued every military buff, student of history and even business leaders, and not to mention the carnage and devastation that this tactic has brought upon those who have fought and fallen in history.In fact, I've never liked this method because of the destruction and the unnecessary death toll it brings. However, being a fan of ancient warfare I naturally find it one of the most intriguing, interesting, and inspiring tactic to be employed to achieve victory on the battlefield.I took a deep interest in studying battles of double envelopments in the ancient world last year and one particularly insightful book on the famous Battle of Cannae that I've found interesting is 'Cannae' by reowned historian Adrian Goldsworthy. In fact, Cannae is one of my favourite double envelopment battles of the ancient world because of the significance of it and the idea of how this particular battle has become a model and motivated many generals since then. In fact, you military junkies should know, that the Schlieffen Plan (the German victory plan for WWI) drafted by von Schlieffen was motivated out of this particular battle. Subsequently, 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf incorporated the 'Cannae model' for the US led Coalition forces in Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.Well, for those of you who are not familiar with the legendary Battle of Cannae, I will now give you a short and brief introduction on it (military/history junkies you might want to skip this part haha) :
Before Rome was an Empire, it was a republic ruled by a governing body called the Senate and it comprised of Roman nobles. Rome warred with the Greek colonies on the Italian peninsular for centuries until Rome unified the entire peninsular. And, as we all know; since the Italian peninsular is located at the center of the Mediterranean; once Rome controlled Italy, interference with the power struggles surrounding the Mediterranean (Greece, Hispania, North Africa) was natural. However, long before Rome became a regional power, the Carthaginians (Empire of Carthage) owned the crown of the Mediterranean. The city of Carthage (near present day Tunis) was the center of trade, wealth and culture in the Mediterranean. I can say that the Romans stole the crown from Carthage. In short, Rome fought three long and bloody wars over a span of 100 years with Carthage, and in the end, there can only be one victor. And that victor would later go on to conquer a large chunk of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. This is what we all know. What we do not know is the brutal life and death struggle that these two regional powers engaged in. Our attention would be turned particularly to the Second Punic War, when the Battle of Cannae happened. Here is a map of the situation before the Second Punic War 218 B.C., courtesy of wikipedia:
Roman territories in pink, Carthaginian territories in purple.218 years before the birth of our Lord, the famous and brilliant Carthaginian general, Hannibal Barca, set out with an army of close to 100,000 men (according to Goldsworthy: 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry & 37 war elephants) from his base in Spain (see the map above). Hannibal sparked the Second Punic War and he was determined to win this war for Carthage because in the first war with Rome, Carthage lost. His strategy was revolutionary at that time because he plans to bring the war to Roman soil. In the first war, (Hannibal was not born then) the Carthaginians developed a defensive strategy and they lost. This time, during the Second Punic War, the Romans expected the Carthaginians to use the same strategy and wait. In fact, this is what Hannibal wants them to think. His plan turned out to be one of the most audacious move in military history and it would earn much respect from military captains throughout the history of the world. From Spain, he would march his army north, through the Pyrenees, up into southern Gaul and across the Rhone and finally, across the treacherous Alps. This march would prove to be extremely risky and a toll to the Carthaginians, due to the terrain of the march, the amount of supplies that has to be prepared and brought along (war elephants require a lot of food to be sustained) and the Gaullic tribes that are hostile to anyone along the route. Hannibal knows it, and the Romans know it too. This is the reason why the Romans do not expect the Carthaginians to launch an inland invasion from Spain onto Rome, and Hannibal would be the enemy that will forever be remembered as the one who shocked and surprised the Romans. Here is a map of the invasion route of Hannibal :
Thousands of Hannibal's men perished along the perilous march. Not only do they have to march across treacherous terrains, but the weather was a constant problem as Hannibal's men were mostly North Africans (Libyans, Numidians, Hispanics) and these men were used to the warm climate of the Mediterranean. The minute Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees (the mountain range that separated Spain from southern France), the temperature dropped and many of his men fell ill. Supplies was always a constant problem, because the Numidian cavalry needed dry hay and the elephants needed tons of food to be sustained. Additionally, along the way, Hannibal's columns were constantly harassed and ambushed by Gaullic tribes. Lastly, he had to cross the Alps (which the Romans woud never dream that any sane man would do that). Moreover, Hannibal took his army across the Alps during the Winter!! We do not exactly know how many men lost their lives along the march alone. According to Goldsworthy, when Hannibal finally made it across the Alps, his army shrunk to 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry and only 6 elephants. This is almost an 80% loss of his forces!And now, with the morale of his army at an all time low, and his men suffering from the harsh cold, starving and weak, they are only at the beginning of the campaign. Hannibal now had to face the Romans, who are better fed, better supplied and at a better state compared to his army. Hannibal, through the years of 218 BC and 217 BC, would triumph and destroy two Roman armies at the Battle of Trebia and at Trasimene on Roman soil. I would not be explaning how he won those two battles, but our focus would be on his greatest victory, at the plains near the town of Cannae, fought in 216 BC. Basically, the Romans in 216 BC wanted to get rid of Hannibal at all costs and they decided to change their strategy and get rid of the Fabian Plan. I will not be going into the politics of the Roman Senate as it would be too much to be explained and elucidated. If you want to know about the Fabian Plan just leave me a comment. I'll be happy to tell you about it.
The Romans, in 216 BC, fielded the largest ever assembled army in the history of the Roman Republic until the time of Julius Caesar. A total of 8 legions would carry the Roman standart to march against Hannibal's forces. A total of 86,000 Romans would face off with Hannibal's forces of 40,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry and a few thousand more light infantry. He was outnumbered two to one and this time, he had no where to run to.The Romans chose a flat plain flanked by a river to the left and low hills to the right to maximise their numerical superiority and as well as to ensure Hannibal do not ambush them in any other way (at the battles of Trebia and Trasimene the Romans lost because of Hannibal's ambushes). Hannibal merely smiled at the choice of the battle site because a flat plain is what he exactly wanted. His plan would be one of the most challenging moves in military history to be executed. This is his battle allignment and the deployment of the Roman positions, again, courtesy of wikipedia:
Dispositions [Red: Romans] [Blue: Carthaginians]
Hannibal would line up his army into a crescent shaped formation to suck the mass of the Roman infantry in. His cavalry at his left and right flanks would drive away the Roman cavalry and then later return to cut the escape route of the enveloped Roman force. On the 2nd of August in 216 BC the battle was fought with the Romans being confident of total victory, however, after only a few hours on the dusty plain, Hannibal had not only defeated but virtually annihilated the entire Roman force. Historians differ on the death toll, but many would say that at least 50,000 to 70,000 Romans alone perished in the battle. Relatively to the modern era, the battle of Cannae back then can be said to be like an industrialised massacre in our present era, like the battle of Stalingrad and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second world war.
The double envelopment: Hannibal deploys his elite infantry at both the left and right flanks.
The Carthaginian cavalry returns to the rear of the Roman forces to cut off their retreat.
Hannibal did everything in his power to upset and confuse the superior and advantaged Roman forces. He dispatched his light Numidian cavalry to harass the water supplies of the Roman camp days before the battle. He positioned his men on the plain so that the sunlight will not shine into the eyes of his men but into the eyes of the Romans. He also positioned his forces so that the dust blown by the wind will be poured onto the Roman legions. All these tactics proved successful to enable the Roman legionaries to be confused during the encirclement. With all the dust blown and the thunderous noise of thousands of men marching and slashing and the sunlight blinding the Romans, most of them were not aware of the trap even when the encirclement/envelopment is complete.This battle was flawlessly executed and even many of Hannibal's captains and officers were shocked by his adacious plan and ingenuity against a superior foe. However, Hannibal, after annihilating this gigantic Roman force at Cannae, was poised to make history but his actions would change history forever. His fellow commanders recommend to march on Rome and take it. However, he did not. We do not know why Hannibal did not march on Rome. Many historians across the world differ on their views on Hannibal's actions afer Cannae. Goldsworthy himself stated a few reasons in his book. If Hannibal had taken Rome, I would not like to fathom what would happen. History could have changed forever. Latin would not even exist. I wonder whether if the Lord's word would ever take root in Europe. There would not be a Roman calender and that is for sure. Everything that Roman civilisation has brought to Europe and the world would not have happened. For those of you who want to know more about post-Cannae and what happened to Rome and Hannibal and Carthage leave a comment. I'll be happy to talk to you about it. =)
And there. The famous battle of Cannae. My main purpose of this entry was actually to analyse the reasons of success of double envelopments. However, due to space constraint I could only explain one of all the famous battles of encirclements and I chose Cannae. In terms of military tactics and in modern warfare, the last thing a commander of a company would want is to discover that the enemy is on all sides and that his men are cut off from their communication and supply lines, likewise not to mention a general or a commander of an army.
This is my thoughts and opinions based on historical battles on how to execute envelopments:- Most envelopments in history are forced to be employed by military commanders who used envelopments in the face of a superior enemy. They simply had no choice but to lure their adversary into a trap.
- Your enemy must be confident of victory over you. Just like the Romans at Cannae, refering to the famed battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the Persian force was confident against the Athenians and the Athenians surprised them with a double envelopment attack.
- Tactically, your forces must be more mobile than the your adversary. Hannibal manged to cut off the Roman escape route by his superior cavalry commanded by his fellow commander, Hasdrubal. Similarly, the Mongols at the battle of Mohi (present day Ukraine) under the command of my favourite Mongol general, Subedei/Subutai managed to encirlce the large Hungarian force with mobile mounted archers and mounted swordsmen. The European knights and footmen were too immobile and slow, and therefore the Mongols had mobility superiority, which enabled them to sweep around the flanks of their adversary.
- Strategically, for an envelopment to be successful, your enemy must not be aware of your plan and naturally, not expecting it. Basically, the way for an envelopment to be successfuI is to fight unconventionally. I refer to the Korean war in 1950, where the Chinese forces time and time again enveloped the American forces. The Americans fought the campaign conventionally. Like sticking to the main roads/highways for their advance and their supplies, using superior artillery fire and air support to break through enemy lines. The Chinese forces marched through high hills and forests and cut off American supply lines and ambushed American forces on all sides. In this case, the Americans were actually more mobile than the Chinese forces (because the Americans had light support vehicles and a fast moving supply system) but only conventionally. I would also like to refer to Stalingrad. You military junkies should know. =) The famous battle of Stalingrad fought in 1942 to the spring of 1943 was the result of a Russian envelopment of the German forces sieging the city. Here is a link to the battle plan if you want to see it:
www.armchairgeneral.com/alpha/ew_images/Stalingrad.gifThe German High Command did not expect or it could have been that they refused to expect it. That we do not know but what we do know is that the Russian counter-offensive was a surprise under the cover of snow and winter and the Germans suffered a hige loss which became a blow to their situation on the Eastern Front, and would eventually lead to the failure of the conquest of Russia. Therefore, no matter what, in order for an envelopment to be successful, you must be able to take your enemy by surprise. You must have strategic advantage.
- Possessing Good Intelligence is extremely vital and definitely required on your part. You must know the situation on the ground level clearly for a perfect execution. Like Hannibal, he knew how the Roman legions fought and their organisation, and therefore he exploited the strengths and weaknesses of his adversary for his trap and plan. You must be clear and aware of the various dispositions of both your own forces and your adversary's. With good intelligence, a decisive point of attack could be planned and coordinated. Like what Sun Zi stated in the Art of War: Know yourself, know your enemy, in a hundred battles you will gain hundred victories. Know Heaven and Earth, your victory would be complete.
Of course, the list above is not exhaustive. Things like discipline and organisation cannot be overlooken. However, after looking and analysing the famous battles of envelopments in history.
The above points are extremely crucial for a perfect execution. Many battles have been fought in history that showed examples of failed envelopments, due to poor execution.
If you have any questions or you feel that you want to discuss with me regarding my analysis above do leave a comment!If not thanks guys it's been a long entry. I'll be back very soon! =)
Til then,
Godspeed
