Offensive (military)
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An Offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an Offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'.

The offensive was considered pre-eminent means of producing victory. although with the recognition of a defensive phase at some stage of the execution.¹

A quick guide to the size or scope of the Offensive is to consider the number of troops involved in the side initiating the Offensive.

A Theatre Offensive can be a war and a dominant feature of a national security policy, or one of several components of a war if a country is involved in several Theatres such as the United Kingdom in 1941. In general Theatre offensives require over 250,000 troops to be committed to operations.^{citation needed}

A Strategic offensive is a Campaign, and would involve use of over 100,000 troops as part of a general Strategy of the conflict in a given Theatre. For example the Operation Barbarossa was a Theatre Offensive composed of three distinct and inter-related Campaigns in the Southern, Central and Northern parts of USSR territory. Soviet strategic offensive operations during World War II often involved multi-front coordinated operations. Along with the Wehrmacht operations on the Eastern Front of World War II, these were the largest military operations of the twentieth century. Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II provides a listing of large scale Soviet operations.^{citation needed}

An operational Offensive is a level of war that corresponds to an Operation conducted using more than 20,000 troops. Often confused with battles, it involves combat by at least a division (for ground troops), but a smaller number for air and naval Services.^{citation needed}

A tactical Offensive is generally not a term used due to the small size of the participating force, usually less then 10,000 engaged personnel. In English it is more commonly referred to as a mission or a task, and the terms 'attack' and battle are more appropriate in use at this level of action.^{citation needed}

Offensives are largely conduced as a means to secure initiative in a confrontation between opponents. They can be waged on land, at sea² or in the air. The Naval offensive, such as the Japanese Pearl Harbor plan which became known as Operation Z, can have wide-ranging implications for national strategies, and require significant logistics commitment to destroy enemy military naval capabilities. It can also be used to interdict enemy shipping, such as the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945). Naval offensives can also be tactical in nature such as the Coronado IX operation³ conducted by the United States Navy's Mobile Riverine Force during the Vietnam War.
An Air offensive is an operation that can describe any number of different types of operations, usually restricted to specific types of aircraft. The offensive conducted with use of fighter aircraft are predominantly concerned with establishing air superiority in a given air space, or over a given territory. A bomber offensive is sometimes also know as the strategic bombing offensive, and was prominently used by the Allies during the Second World War on a large scale.⁴ Use of ground attack aircraft in support of ground offensives can be said to be an air offensive, such as that performed in the opening phase of the Red Army's operations Kutuzov and Rumyantsev when hundreds of Il-2 aircraft were used en masse to overwhelm Wehrmacht's ground troops.

Offensives describe a wide variety of forms of warfare over the entire history of recorded history.^{citation needed}

The Offensive is a major Principle of War within the realm of Military theory of conducting wars, and is a cornerstone of Maneuver warfare^{citation needed}

Every Offensive has a primary task of negating enemy defenses, and cause the enemy to withdraw.^{citation needed}

The best means to conducting Offensives have been the primary goal of many military theorists, at different levels of execution, and during different periods in Military history. One example is the study of operational "Deep battle" developed during the early 1930s, and written about in English by Richard Simpkin and David Glantz.^{citation needed}

A typical Offensive has several phases as part of its planning that include:

Penetration of enemy defensive positions

Breakthrough of the main defensive lines

Preferably using mobility to avoid a Pitched battle or enter into attrition warfare

And using either a Flanking maneuver or a Pincer movement to rout or encircle enemy forces to prevent their escape.^{citation needed}

References

Sources

• Glantz, David M., Soviet military operational art: in pursuit of deep battle, Frank Cass, London, 1991 ISBN 0-7146-4077-8
• Fulton, William B., Major General, VIETNAM STUDIES RIVERINE OPERATIONS 1966-1969, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, U.S. Government Printing Office, WASHINGTON, D. C., 1985
• Longmate, Norman. The Bombers. Hutchins & Co, 1983. ISBN 0-09-151508-7.

External links

• Tactical Reasons to Advance