Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Essays/Describing conflicts
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This is an essay which contains the advice or opinions of one or more members of the Military history WikiProject. While it is not a part of the formal military history style guide, it provides some recommendations and ideas for members to consider. |
This largely grew from looking at the 'battle' boxes in the Eastern Front articles.
Thesea re not rules. There are always exceptions.
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[edit] Common name of the event
The common name must be in English, transliterated, and sourced.
[edit] Objective of the event
The box needs to state what the objective of the event was (sourced).
The percentage of success, if stated, is related to the objective. It is NOT preferable that a percentage be stated in the article, but be used in the Discussion page to arrive at determining how the Outcome of the article's subject can be described without entering into an edit war.
If the objective was territorial, calculate the territory captured vs. territory planned for capture.
If the objective was in changing force correlation, calculate percentage of enemy destroyed vs. total enemy number.
If the objective was to induce change,... this is the hard one. For example the Offensive was intended to reduce enemy's morale. No significant casualty count or territorial gain, but a result never the less.
[edit] Military scope of the event
This works well at all periods, but will become significantly more meaningless and abstract with the smaller pre-19th century conflicts. It is intended as a guide, so the terms will not apply to any period outside of the 20th century, but other terms existed. The intention is that the terms used are more easily understood by the 21st century readers.
To identify the scope of the conflict, compare the total number of attacker’s combat and combat support personnel to the minimums in the table below. Alternatively consult the formation or unit table.
| conflict level | Ground | Naval | Sea | Formation/unit name | |
| National Conflict | All available | All available | All available | Highest rank | |
| Theatre Conflict | 500,000 | 250,000 | 125,000 | Army Group | |
| Theatre Strategic plan | 250,000 | 125,000 | 60,000 | Army | |
| Theatre Operational plan | 125,000 | 60,000 | 30,000 | Corps | |
| Theatre Tactical plan | 60,000 | 30,000 | 15,000 | Division Group | |
| Conflict Campaign | 250,00 | 60,000 | 15,000 | Army | |
| Strategic Campaign | 125,000 | 30,000 | 7,500 | Army Corp | |
| Operational Campaign | 60,000 | 10,000 | 3,000 | Corps | |
| Tactical Campaign | 30,000 | 5,000 | 1,500 | Division | |
| Conflict Operation | 125,000 | 30,000 | 7,500 | Corps | |
| Strategic Operation | 60,000 | 15,000 | 3,000 | Division Group | |
| Operational Operation | 30,000 | 7,500 | 1,500 | Division | |
| Tactical Operation | 15,000 | 3,000 | 750 | Brigade | |
| Tactical Conflict mission | 20,000 | 5,000 | 1,500 | Division | |
| Strategic Tactical mission | 10,000 | 2,500 | 750 | Brigade | |
| Operational Tactical mission | 5,000 | 1,250 | 400 | Regiment | |
| Tactical mission | 2,500 | 600 | 200 | Battalion group |
All military outcomes require either securing of a given territorial objective or neutralisation of the enemy forces. Other desired outcomes may therefore be more politically or economically motivated. Where the attacking ground personnel are less then 2,500 in number, they are considered significant for the tactical mission only. However a covert operation performed by a squad may yield very significant results affecting much larger echelons. These missions are however Covert, and not Overt or conventional Operations, and need to be so described.
All military actions that use number of personnel less then 50% of those stated for tactical missions are considered transitory in nature, or are conducted with militarily insignificant objectives.
The outcome is always presenting the perspective from the attacking side, and in terms of achieved objectives. It ranges from absolute success to utter failure.
The words used are those that are commonly found in literature and reflect the activitieds involved by the attacker either in success or failure of the engagement.
Trample – the correlation of forces is so unbalanced that no opposition to the attacking force is conceivable
Pursuit – attacking forces are relentlessly pursuing defenders into the depth of their territory
Continued Advance – the Offensive is completely unimpeded in the defender’s territory
Advance – the Offensive continues beyond initial objectives unimpeded by the defenders
Deep penetration – attacking side completely penetrates defences and attacks defender’s logistic network
Raid – the breakthrough of the defences allows temporarily damage by the attacker to defender’s logistic network
Breakthrough – attacking side penetrates defences, but is unable to exploit the penetration further
Encirclement – turning defender’s both flanks, leading to entrapment of defending forces by the attacker
Siege – entrapping the defending force, that has assumed a fortified position that would be difficult to assault
Continued Offensive – the defending forces evade entrapment, and retreat in good order before the attacker
Slow Offensive – the attacking forces make slow progress against determined defence
Pyrrhic victory – achieving the Offensive’s objectives, but the high cost is exhaustive to the attacker
Stalemate – the Offensive is halting without achieving its objectives
Defensive – forcing the attacker to assume a defensive posture due to experiencing counter-attacks
Withdrawal – forcing the attacker to conduct temporary disengagement while maintaining contact with the enemy
Ceasefire – halting the tactical or operational Offensive, forcing the attacker into cessation of hostilities
Armistice - halting the strategic Offensive, forcing the attacker into cessation of hostilities
Retreat – counter-attacking defenders forcing the attacker to move out of engagement contact
Rout – the attacking forces are repelled into a chaotic and disorderly retreat by counter-attacking defenders
Surrender – the attacking tactical or operational units surrender to the defenders
Capitulation – the attacking strategic formations surrender to the defenders
Garrisoning – the capitulation of the attacking force’s leads to the garrisoning of their territory by the defenders
Occupation – the garrisoning of the attacking force’s territory leads to long-term occupation of their territory
Annexation – the occupation of the attacking force’s leads to the annexation of their territory
Incorporation – the annexation of the attacking force’s territory leads to its incorporation into the defender’s territory
Resettlement – resettlement of attacking force’s population due to incorporation of their territory into defender’s territory
[edit] Superiority
Attacking troops involved will always attempt to have either a numerical or technological (or both) superiority over defenders if they know whats good for them. Historically there have been exceptions.
Numerical superiority between armed forces (from attacker perspective)
1:10 or greater disadvantage
1:5 or greater disadvantage
1:4 disadvantage
1:3 disadvantage
1:2 disadvantage
Parity
2:1 advantage
3:1 advantage
4:1 advantage
5:1 or greater advantage
10:1 or greater advantage
Technological superiority between armed forces at similar level of economic development (from attacker perspective)
Completely obsolete vs. contemporary
Obsolete vs. contemporary
Outdated vs. contemporary
Aging vs. contemporary
Parity
Advanced vs. contemporary
Highly advance vs. contemporary
Extremely advanced vs. contemporary
[edit] Classification of Losses
Personnel losses
Unreturnable losses – killed, died from wounds, missing in action or taken prisoner
Medical losses – wounded, sick, frostbite victims, or suffering from combat shock
Demographic losses – all killed and dead, missing and not returned from captivity
Materiel losses
Unrecoverable loss – equipment damaged beyond repair
Recoverable loss – salvageable and repairable equipment
Brocken down – equipment unusable due to requiring maintenance
Abandoned – functioning equipment abandoned by personnel to the enemy
Surrendered – functioning equipment surrendered to the enemy by its personnel
[edit] Assessing military plans
This is used to evaluate the analysis before authoring/editing the article. Use is for discussion page only.
Unprecedented success – greater then 100% change in the situation to the advantage of the planner
Complete success - 100% change in the situation to the planner’s advantage
Partial success – the situation changed about 50% to the advantage of the planner
Status quo – plan failed to make changes in the situation
Partial failure - the situation changed about 50% to the disadvantage of the planner
Complete failure - 100% change in the situation to the planner’s disadvantage
Utter failure - greater then 100% change in the situation to the disadvantage of the planner
