List of established military terms

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This is a list of established military terms which have been in use for at least 50 years. Technology has changed so not all of them are in current use, or they may have been superseded by more modern ones. However they are still in current use in articles about previous military periods. Some of them like Camouflet have been adapted to describe modern versions of an old techniques.

Contents 1 General terms 2 Entrenchment 3 Formations 4 Fortification 5 Naval 6 Siege 7 Vehicles 7.1 Land combat vehicles types 7.2 Combat aircraft types 7.3 Combat vessel types 8 Weapons types 8.1 Bombs 8.2 Edged weapons 8.2.1 Pole weapon 8.3 Incendiary weapons 8.4 Mines 8.5 Missile Weapons 8.5.1 Artillery 8.5.1.1 Gunpowder artillery types 8.5.1.2 Mechanical artillery types 8.5.2 Hand held firearms 8.6 Torpedoes 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] General terms

• Ambush To make a surprise attack on an enemy that passes a concealed position.
• Battlespace
• Blockade
• Booby traps
• Breach (military) in fortified lines or a battle line.
• Breakout
• Bridgehead see also Beachhead and Airhead
• Camouflet
• Charge (warfare)
• Counter attack
• Coup de Main, a swift pre-emptive strike.
• Defilade A unit or position is "defiladed" if it is protected from direct exposure to enemy fire. See also Hull-down
• Encirclement
• Enfilade A unit (or position) is "in enfilade" if enemy fire can be directed along the long axis of the unit. For instance, a trench is enfiladed if the enemy can fire down the length of the trench. Also, to place a unit in a position to enfilade, or the position so enfiladed.
• Envelope
• Fabian strategy, avoiding pitched battles to wear down the enemy in a war of attrition
• Flank attack is to attack an enemy or an enemy unit from the side.
• Frontal assault
• Hors de combat, out of the fight, surrendered, wounded etc.
• Killing field
• Lodgement an enclave made by increasing the size of a bridgehead
• Infiltration
• Interdiction is to attack and interrupt enemy supply lines.
• Logistics
• Materiel (also Matériel)
• Military Supply Chain Management
• Melee (also Mêlée)
• No man's land
• No quarter no mercy, all are killed. It is now a war crime to order that no quarter be given. (It may still be the practise in fact at times.)
• Overwatch when one small unit can support another.
• Parade Ground
• Patrolling
• Parthian shot
• Pickets — sentries or advance troops whose job is to warn of contact with the enemy. A soldier who has this job is on "picket duty".
• Pincer maneuver
• Pitched battle
• Pocket
• Pyrrhic Victory
• Raiding
• Reconnaissance
• The "refuse"
• Sack The deliberate destruction and/or looting of a city usually after an assault.
• Salients The enemy's line facing a salient is referred to as a re-entrant.
• Scorched earth
• Shoot and scoot - type of fire and movement tactic used by artillery to avoid counter-battery fire
• Skirmish
• Staging area

[edit] Entrenchment

• Trench
• Berm
• Earthworks
• Rifle pit or Fox hole

[edit] Formations

• Column (formation)
• Echelon formation a military formation in which members are arranged diagonally
• File (formation) single column of soldiers
• Infantry square, Pike square and Schiltron
• Phalanx
• Rank (formation) single line of soldiers
• Shield wall

[edit] Fortification

• Fortification
• Barbed wire
• Banquette or a fire step
• Bastion
• Blockhouse
• Breastwork (fortification)
• Bunker
• Counterscarp, is the side of a ditch, infront of the wall of a fortress, furthest from the wall.
• Coupure
• Castle
  • Medieval fortification
    • Arrow slit (arrow loop, loophole)
    • Barbican
    • Concentric castle
    • Drawbridge
    • Portcullis
    • Moat
    • Machicolation
    • Murder-hole
• Citadel
• Dragon's teeth
• Fort
• Fortress
• Glacis
• Hill fort (New Zealand Pa (Māori))
• Lunette
• Ravelin
• Redoubt
• Sangar (fortification), a small temporary fortified position with a breastwork originally of stone, but now built of sandbags and similar materials.
• Sally port also "to sally" out and Sortie
• Scarp (fortification) fortress side of a ditch infront of a wall.
• Sconce (fortification), a small protective fortification, such as an earthwork often placed on a mound as a defensive work for artillery.
• Slighting is the deliberate destruction of a fortification without opposition from its builders or its last users.
• Trace italienne. Star-shaped fortresses surrounding towns and even cities

[edit] Naval

• Crossing the Tee
• In the van--leading
• Line astern, Line ahead, or Line of battle
• Raking fire
• Scuttling
• Weather gage

[edit] Siege

• Siege
• circumvallation
• contravallation
• escalade
• Forlorn hope
• Chevaux de frise sword blades chained together to cut up people trying to charge into a breach in the walls.
• Invest
• parallel trenches
• Sapping Mine Counter mine
• Siege engines
• Siege train
• Siege tower
• Storm to move quickly and noisily like a storm
• Sortie also "to sally".

[edit] Vehicles

[edit] Land combat vehicles types

• Armoured car
• Chariot
• Half-track
• Tank

[edit] Combat aircraft types

• Airship
• Bomber
• Dirigible Balloon
• Fighter
• Fighter bomber
• Spotter plane

[edit] Combat vessel types

• Aircraft carrier
• Battleship
• Battlecruiser
• Cruiser
• Frigate
• Destroyer
• Submarine
• Torpedo boat
• Hovercraft

[edit] Weapons types

[edit] Bombs

• Bomb
• Grenade
  • Hand grenade
  • Rifle grenade (see also Grenade launcher)
  • Rocket propelled grenade

[edit] Edged weapons

• Bayonet
• Knife
• Sword

[edit] Pole weapon

• Pole weapon
• Bill (weapon)
• Danish axe
• Poleaxe
• pike (weapon)
• Partisan (weapon)
• halberd
• Spear

[edit] Incendiary weapons

• flamethrowers
• Greek fire
• napalm

[edit] Mines

• Land mine
  • Anti-tank mine
  • Anti-personnel mine
• Naval mine

[edit] Missile Weapons

• Bow (weapon)
• Sling (weapon)
• Slingshot (hand catapult)

[edit] Artillery

• Artillery
• Barrage
• Counter battery fire
• Shell (weapon)

[edit] Gunpowder artillery types

• cannon
• mortar
• howitzer

[edit] Mechanical artillery types

• Ballista
• Catapult
• Onager
• Mangonel
• Trebuchet

[edit] Hand held firearms

• gun

• machine gun
• musket
• pistol
• revolver
• rifle
• submachine gun

[edit] Torpedoes

• Torpedo
• Bangalore Torpedo

[edit] See also

• List of military tactics
• List of modern infantry related terms and acronyms
• List of modern AFV and artillery related terms and acronyms
• Glossary of German WWII military terms
• List of equipment used in World War II
• List of World War II electronic warfare equipment

[edit] External links

• A Glossary of Victorian Military Terms by the Palmerston Forts Society. A more comprehensive version has been published by the PFS: A Handbook of Military Terms by David Moore
• A Dictionary of Military Architecture: Fortification and Fieldworks from the Iron Age to the Eighteenth Century by Stephen Francis Wyley, drawings by Steven Lowe
• Military Earthworks Terms by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior