What is the technical term for a head on head battle?
score:28
The basic circumstances of a battle depends on the readiness of the two sides to give battle at that time and place.
When neither side is prepared, and both armies arrive piece-meal and assemble as the battle is under way, is termed a meeting engagement. Examples include the first day of Gettysburg, Auerstadt, and Teugn-Hausen.
When only one side is prepared, and the other is not, is termed an ambush. Such battles are the bread-and-butter for guerrilla armies in particular, though others can create similar circumstances. Pearl Harbor and the first two days of the Battle of the Bulge are examples of this type.
When both sides are prepared for the time and place is termed a set-piece battle (also called a pitched battle). Day 3 of Gettysburg is an example of a pure set-piece battle.
Many battles are mixtures of the three pure types.
Ulm is, at least on a grand-tactical level, a combination meeting engagement and ambush, with Mack's force attempting an ambush of Le Grande Armee but being in turn ambushed as Napoleon's force arrives, piece-meal, all around him.
Quatre Bras is a combination of meeting engagement and set-piece, with both armies mostly arriving during the day, but the location having been deliberately chosen by Wellington and Ney also expecting a battle that day at the crossroads.
Waterloo itself might be thought of as combination set-piece, between the French and Anglo-Dutch armies, with Blucher's Prussian force then springing an ambush as it arrives meeting-engagement style.
Austerlitz is also an example of all three: initially appearing to be a pure set-piece affair, the arrival of Davout's III Corps springs a meeting-engagement ambush on the Russian forces just as they commit to the attack on Bonaparte's right wing.
Le Drang likewise combines elements of both ambush and meeting-engagement, the U.S. 7th cavalry arriving piece-meal attempting surprise but in turn surprised by both the size and reaction speed of the North Vietnamese force they have landed atop of - a mutual ambush one might even say.
It is also true that the classification of many battles may be unclear, or a matter of opinion, depending on the precise definition in time and space for the battle. It is not immediately clear to me how I would choose to categorize either Abensberg or Eckmuhl, for example.
Upvote:-1
Welcome on the stack exchange. For a head on head battle, that I understand as two armies walking until they are in sight of each other and engage, there is a specific term: Encountering battle
EDIT: the correct term in english is meeting battle (As another user said. Sorry, I'm not native english speaker)
However you could have some specific types of such a battle, like an ambush, hit-and-run tactics, etc...
And as far as I know, I think you would like to name the true type of battle that Stirling Bridge was: I guess it is a stand-still battle.
EDIT: the correct term in english is set-piece (As another user said. Sorry, I'm not native english speaker)
Upvote:7
The "Braveheart" movie was inaccurate in its depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It showed the Scottish army standing in open field, awaiting an English cavalry attack, and thrusting their spears forward at just the right moment, repelling the attack. (It also employed cinematic license to show the Scots "mooning," their enemies.) The "tactics" used in the movie were the ones used unsuccessfully at Falkirk. The Scots lost that battle in large part because of Edward I's Welsh archers, which were not a factor in either the real or the movie versions of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
The real battle of Stirling Bridge was an ambush, of the kind described in Pieter's excellent answer. The English had to cross a narrow bridge onto swampy ground, where the Scots were hidden behind hills and trees. The English outnumbered the Scots almost two to one in total, but the Scots attacked at odds of one to one (or better) when slightly more than half the English army was across. The swampy ground plus the "hiding" gave the Scots the advantage, and the English army was routed.
More post
- 📝 During the Siege of Alesia, why were certain Roman forts located outside the circumvallation lines?
- 📝 What happened to sacrificed animals in ancient Greece?
- 📝 How much faster/better were European printing presses compared to Chinese block printing?
- 📝 What is the source for Diogenes' quote in Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy?
- 📝 Were Serbs and Croats one people / tribe in the past? If not, why do they speak the same language?
- 📝 Identification of location of ship yard or naval base
- 📝 Where does Lincoln say the South wants us to believe as they believe?
- 📝 When did the Egyptians stop wrapping their dead in bandages?
- 📝 What are the historical equivalents of cooperative storytelling like modern role-playing games?
- 📝 Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?
- 📝 What is this (possibly Swedish) military uniform? Perhaps cavalry?
- 📝 When did Pontius Pilate rule?
- 📝 Why did Mozambique join the British Commonwealth?
- 📝 Did New Mexicans under Spain regard themselves as Mexican?
- 📝 When was the "Alexandrian period" of Greek sciences?
- 📝 How many Spartan boys survived army training?
- 📝 Why didn't SW Virginia join West Virginia?
- 📝 What are the intellectual roots of the "French Republican identity" pursuit?
- 📝 Why were the Soviets better at replacing their lost men and material?
- 📝 Was the fall of the Inca Empire inevitable?
- 📝 Did Stalin have full control of the government in 1936?
- 📝 What did the English people during the Peasants' Revolt know about the Ciompi Revolt?
- 📝 How effective were siege guns and gun boats compared to field artillery in the 19th century?
- 📝 Why did Sweden and Norway become the vassals of Denmark?
- 📝 Why were Catholic priests so instrumental in the Mexican independence movement?
- 📝 Did Hitler get called a fascist by his opponents within Germany? Did he or other Nazis have a problem with that?
- 📝 How likely was an enlisted man to have fought at both Falkirk and Bannockburn?
- 📝 How hard did they beat up Henry II after the murder of Thomas Becket?
- 📝 Was democracy present in India before British colonization?
- 📝 When did Germans stop supporting Adolf Hitler?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the technical term for a head on head battle?
- 📝 What is the reason for the modern prominence of the Confederate battle flag, as opposed to some other Confederate flag?
- 📝 What was the actual cause of the disaster for the Royal Navy’s battlecruisers in the Battle of Jutland?
- 📝 What is the proper term for the "year 0"?
- 📝 What is the term for a person who surveys the land and relays messages from a noble to his governed village?
- 📝 What were Helfrich's orders for Doorman in 1942 prior to the Battle of the Java Sea, and did he comment on these in later life?
- 📝 What is the reasoning behind these huge numbers for participants in the Battle of Grunwald 1410?
- 📝 What is the term for "power vacuum" before the concept of vacuum?
- 📝 What was the term to serve for 1861 confederate volunteers?
- 📝 Up to what levels were World War II commanders known for fighting at the battle front?
- 📝 What was the Carthaginian (Punic) term for elephant
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was the economic basis for West Berlin?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the claim that "Taiwan has always been part of China"?
- 📝 What is the context for Napoleon's quote "[the Austrians] did not know the value of five minutes"?
- 📝 What was the first battle in history fought by vast-majority-% "distance-shooting" non-mechanized force?
- 📝 What did the Romans do for Judea?
- 📝 What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
- 📝 What was the 1970s name for skinny jeans?
- 📝 What was the last battle fought mainly by sail-powered ships?
- 📝 Japan is known for being isolationist, so what cultivated its history of interventionism in the 20th century?