h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Art of Warfare - A12553805
Author: Lady Admiral Ayeka - U193180

This is an article in relation to the variety of tactics used by armies.

I would be glad of any opinions or criticisms...

Anyone still in here? I love war.

Hmm, where to start...

Nice idea - nice format - however, there are quite a lot of points I don't necessarily agree with...

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Irregular warfare
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Mercenaries

You refer to them as...

"They were fighting mainly for their ideology, religion or for their state rather than for money."

Whereas the etomology or the word Mercenary is the Latin "Mercenarius" meaning 'Hireling' and the accepted meaning of the word is a soldier fighting for money.

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Psychological Warfare
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I don't like your definition here... For me, psychological warfare could include such things as propaganda, 'hearts & minds', media manipulation, misinformation... Blitzkrieg is not what I would call 'psychological' it was a purely physical tactic - high speed warfare, not giving your enemies time to respond or regroup, whilst ensuring your own supply lines do not become overstretched.

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Mechanised Warfare
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I'd hazard a guess that the chariot pre-dated the catapult (or at least even if it didn't, it certainly deserves a mention.


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Urban warfare
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"Snipers can hide in the tallest buildings taking pot shots at passing infantry"


In terms of conventional armies executing urban warfare operations, snipers are not usually used to take pot shots at passing infantry... Passing infantry senior officers perhaps, but their not generally used nowadays just to wind up the cannon fodder.

On the other hand, Snipers are often used by modern irregular forces or insurgeants - so where does one type of warfare start and another begin?

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Amphibious Warfare
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"Amphibious warfare has the advantage of surprise and defensive cover of the rolling ocean."

Hmm, not so sure about that nowadays... Yes, it's got the advantage of being the _only_ method of moving _large_ bodies of men and machinery into a country.

Airborne landings have a much better chance of providing a 'surprise attack' but are limited in firepower etc... And the element of surprise is lost the moment the first ship shows up on someone's radar screen

"The army is completely untouchable by enemy fire until it lands on the beaches where the army can leap out of the boats and attack the enemy."

Apart from by mines, defending shipping, aircraft, artillery, etc.
Unless complete surprise is achieved, amphibious landing vessels are _extremely_ fragile and easily attacked.


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Electronic Warfare
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What you defined as electronic warfare is just a small part of the whole...

What about ELINT/COMINT/SIGINT - Jamming of enemy radars, listening to enemy communications, false signalling (stick a man in a truck in the middle of nowhere with a few radios and he can make an enemy believe he's a complete armoured division), using an enemies emissions against them (anti-radar missiles, Direction Finding equipment, etc).

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Nuclear Warfare
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There are other types of nuclear warfare than the simple destruction of a single town by a single bomb as you described.

There are tactical nuclear weapons which could be used to destroy an enemy armoured formation. It's been thought that nuclear weapons are just about the only efficient way to destroy a US Carrier Battle Group

You could discuss the differences between the possible tactical use of nukes and the strategy of MAD developped during the Cold War.


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Chemical and Biological Warfare
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"This is the use of compounds while the sole purpose of attacking people with no physical damage to the infrastructure."

You're missing the effects of Area Denial, whether they be on purpose or accidental... Certain Biological/Chemical agents can leave an area 'out of bounds' to people for decades - there's an Island off the coast of scotland somewhere that's been shut off for over 50 years now because the MOD tested Anthrax there.

Hi there
Apart from the points raised by Whisky, above, I would think that this piece could be more aptly named the 'Style' or 'Types' of war.

I would have thought that the 'Art' of warfare refers more to the planning and conduct of a campaign, rather than the different forms it can be conducted in.

I seem to recall that there is a treatise by an ancient Chinese tactician, Sun Tzu, entitled 'The Art of War' which is required reading by would be Generals.

Thank you Whiskey and Deke, I will listen to your posts and I will make the suggested changes after I've done some more research.

No problem and sorry, I did feel a little awful posting all that - I didn't want you to feel I was completely putting down your work. I'm sure it's got the makings of a great entry.