Have interior lines ever mattered?
Upvote:2
Discarding city sieges, where encirclement is the idea, in the battlefield there are some examples.
Napoleon started the battle of Leipzig in the middle of the battlefield, and he never avoided the encirclement. He moved his forces to each flank depending of the battle development. Later on in Waterloo (Quatre Bras and Ligny), Napoleon started the battle attacking the middle of the enemy line in order to separate english and prussian forces, neglecting the risk of being encircled.
Caesar in Alesia didn't avoid encirclement, and he fortified himself in order to keep his position sieging the fortress of Alesia.
Alexander in Gaugamela fought an enemy so big that he was innevitable encircled, so he planned the battle expecting being encircled and then he attacked the weakened center of the persian line.
Upvote:3
Examples are medieval sieges, when a small defending force could stand against a large besieging army for long time, sometimes for several years.
In the modern (20 century) wars encirclement is always a disadvantage because modern armies need enormous amount of supplies to continue fighting. For this reason an encircled army cannot hold for long time.
EDIT. In this WWII Disney movie, Alexander de Seversky makes exactly this argument on the strategic level: Germany surrounded by the allies has advantage of short communication lines. But the ideas of this movie are highly controversial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1iPBvwaIkI
Especially minutes 40-45.
More post
- 📝 Historical airline schedules?
- 📝 When did Athenian archers pepper Spartan hoplites with arrows for days on an island?
- 📝 Was Emperor Francis II & I present at the Battle of Austerlitz?
- 📝 What role if any did Ligachev play in the 1991 coup attempt against Gorbachev?
- 📝 Why didn't Eisenhower personally sign Act of Military Surrender in Reims, 1945?
- 📝 How long ago was the yo-yo first used as a weapon?
- 📝 What type of people were most likely to be suspected of witchcraft in Salem?
- 📝 Does the Presidential term occurring after a death in office have a name (USA specifically)?
- 📝 Religion in present-day Colombia before Spanish colonial influence
- 📝 Why wasn't Russia in the Paris Peace Talks?
- 📝 Did any country adopt a straight pull bolt-action rifle?
- 📝 Why didn't Gengis Khan invade India?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the CIA didn't want Reagan to end the Cold War?
- 📝 How are dates in BCE ordered?
- 📝 Has a head of state ever actually killed another in battle?
- 📝 Jerusalem 1187: How would Saladin's army have laid siege to the walls?
- 📝 How did the email client industry develop?
- 📝 Why was Africa colonized last of the continents in the Age of Discovery?
- 📝 Were there established "denominations" for coins of different metals in ancient times?
- 📝 Group term for the Celts around the Alps?
- 📝 Did the French Resistance kill civilians?
- 📝 How would a large kingdom be ruled?
- 📝 How did Nansen plan to get home from the Fram expedition?
- 📝 Was it illegal in 18th century France or Spain to use false titles of nobility?
- 📝 Did Napoleon plan to invade India?
- 📝 Are there recorded incidents of the Gentlemen Pensioners protecting the monarch in the 16th century?
- 📝 History of the 1793 revision of the constitution of Vermont
- 📝 How common are major cities not built by abundant water?
- 📝 Was the attempt to take Stalingrad a distraction to the original objectives of the German Sixth Army during Case Blue in 1942?
- 📝 What do the knight figures in the Kehlsteinhaus fireplace symbolize?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Have interior lines ever mattered?
- 📝 Have American urban rioters ever looted residences?
- 📝 Have fair-skinned peoples ever been the lower/oppressed class?
- 📝 Have any kings ever been serving admirals?
- 📝 Did military operation names ever have any meaning?
- 📝 Have Germany and Poland ever signed a peace treaty after WWII?
- 📝 Was the interior of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople ever covered with mosaic icons?
- 📝 Did war chariots ever actually have blades on the wheel hubs?
- 📝 Could Thomas Jefferson have ever heard Mozart's Symphony No. 40, KV. 550?
- 📝 Have any artifacts or archaeological remains from the White Ship disaster of 1120 ever been recovered?
- 📝 Have Moscow and Beijing ever been cities under the same rule?
- 📝 Have famous rabbis ever converted to Islam?
- 📝 Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?
- 📝 Have primary voters in US overseas territories or their delegates ever had a noteworthy influence in any primary election or convention?
- 📝 Is there a record of the times the nuclear brief case or its Russian counterpart have ever been actually opened?
- 📝 Have the Romani people (gypsies) ever fought back violently against prejudice?
- 📝 Have American gangsters ever helped their government in war time out of patriotism?
- 📝 Do photos of Wernher von Braun and Neil Armstrong exist? Have they ever met?
- 📝 Have voice actors ever been used to impersonate military or political officials to trick the enemy into doing something?
- 📝 Have there ever been maximum age limits for public office in the United States?
- 📝 Have US troops ever been lawfully quartered in private homes during wartime under the Third Amendment?
- 📝 Have any spies ever managed to keep their identity secret from their handlers?
- 📝 Have atheists ever been persecuted in India?
- 📝 Have fashionable hair lengths ever been reversed from their current styles?
- 📝 Have map projections and distortions ever affected treaties?
- 📝 Have the arts ever moved borders?
- 📝 Have sanctions ever stopped a nation from starting or continuing a war?
- 📝 Prior to 1963 did a British nobleman ever disclaim or renounce his title? What would have happened if someone had tried?
- 📝 Did French ever have any special status in Austria?
- 📝 Have any large scale cultural or ideological shifts ever been successfully reversed by those who opposed it?
