On Tactics by B. A. Friedman

Author:B. A. Friedman [Friedman, B. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682471647
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2017-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

15

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.

—Sun Tzu

The development of a tactical system in theory is one thing, but in practice tactics will always occur on the ground, the waves, or in the sky. The tactician must translate his mission and his vision for its accomplishment into a plan that can be executed in the real world. It must both mitigate the disadvantages of the terrain and exploit its advantages. The finest tactical coup is useless if the troops cannot execute it. The tactician therefore must take into account the terrain and environment in which he operates. Much like strategy, the effects of the environment are pervasive.

For ground operations, Sun Tzu’s chapters on types of terrain, written centuries ago, almost cannot be improved on. In his chapter 10 he presents six types of ground: accessible, entrapping, indecisive, constricted, precipitous, and distant. These six types relate to the ground and the advantage or disadvantage conferred by it on the military force that occupies it (table 15.1).

Table 15.1 Six Types of Ground

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.