Ancient warfare is war as conducted from the beginnings of history to the end of the ancient period. In Europe, the end of antiquity is often equated with the fall of Rome in 476. In China, it can also be seen as ending in the fifth century, with the growing role of mounted warriors needed to counter the ever-growing threat from the north. Ancient warfare - Overview. The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is less one of technology than of organization. The development of first city-states, a ...

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Ancient warfare - Overview
Ancient warfare - Chariots Ancient warfare - Infantry Ancient warfare - Cavalry Ancient warfare - Naval warfare
Ancient warfare - Tactics and weapons
Ancient warfare - Strategy Ancient warfare - Tactics Ancient warfare - Weapons Ancient warfare - Sieges
Ancient warfare - Cultures
Ancient warfare - Chinese Ancient warfare - Persian Ancient warfare - Egyptian Ancient warfare - Germanic Ancient warfare - Greek Ancient warfare - Indus Valley Ancient warfare - Japanese Ancient warfare - Roman
Ancient warfare - Important ancient wars Ancient warfare - Important ancient battles Ancient warfare - Unit types Ancient warfare - Sources

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Ancient warfare, Ancient warfare - Overview, Ancient warfare - Chariots, Ancient warfare - Infantry, Ancient warfare - Cavalry, Ancient warfare - Naval warfare, Ancient warfare - Tactics and weapons, Ancient warfare - Strategy, Ancient warfare - Tactics, Ancient warfare - Weapons, Ancient warfare - Sieges, Ancient warfare - Cultures, Ancient warfare - Chinese, Ancient warfare - Persian, Ancient warfare - Egyptian, Ancient warfare - Germanic, Ancient warfare - Greek, Ancient warfare - Indus Valley, Ancient warfare - Japanese, Ancient warfare - Roman, Ancient warfare - Important ancient wars, Ancient warfare - Important ancient battles, Ancient warfare - Unit types, Ancient warfare - Sources

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Ancient warfare - Chinese. Main article: Military history of China Ancient China during the Shang Dynasty was a Bronze Age society based on chariot armies. Archaeological study of Shang sites at Anyang have revealed extensive examples of chariots and bronze weapons. The overthrow of the Shang by the Zhou saw the creation of a feudal social order, resting militarily on a c ...

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Ancient warfare, Ancient warfare - Overview, Ancient warfare - Chariots, Ancient warfare - Infantry, Ancient warfare - Cavalry, Ancient warfare - Naval warfare, Ancient warfare - Tactics and weapons, Ancient warfare - Strategy, Ancient warfare - Tactics, Ancient warfare - Weapons, Ancient warfare - Sieges, Ancient warfare - Cultures, Ancient warfare - Chinese, Ancient warfare - Persian, Ancient warfare - Egyptian, Ancient warfare - Germanic, Ancient warfare - Greek, Ancient warfare - Indus Valley, Ancient warfare - Japanese, Ancient warfare - Roman, Ancient warfare - Important ancient wars, Ancient warfare - Important ancient battles, Ancient warfare - Unit types, Ancient warfare - Sources

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Armoured warfare in modern warfare is understood to be the use of armoured fighting vehicles as a central component of the methods of war. Armoured warfare - First World War. Modern armoured warfare began with the development of the tank during the First World War. Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare became more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools. Ancient warfare, Modern warfare, Hist ...

Including:

Armoured warfare - First World War Armoured warfare - The inter-war period Armoured warfare - Second World War Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact Armoured warfare - Tank tactics Armoured warfare - Airborne threats Armoured warfare - Support

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Both sides in the Arab-Israeli series of conflicts have made heavy use of tanks and other armoured vehicles. Up until the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli armoured units typically had the advantage, mainly due to good tactics and unit cohesion. In 1973, Israel failed to understand the importance of the introduction of anti-tank guided missiles. Hundreds of AT-3 Sagger man-portable anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) supplied to the Egyptians by the Soviet Union inflicted heavy losses on Israeli tanks. Since then, ATGMs have played an important rol ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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During the Cold War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact assumed armoured warfare to be a dominant aspect of conventional ground warfare in Europe. Infantry fighting vehicles were first developed in the 1960s with the Soviet Union's BMP-1. Rotary-wing aircraft were built and theorised as "flying tanks." ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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An ambush is a long established military tactic in which an ambushing force uses concealment to attack an enemy that passes its position. Ambushers strike from concealed positions such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops. The tactic is generally used to gather intelligence or to establish control over an area. Ambushes have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare. Ambush - Procedure. In modern warfare, an ambush is most often employed by ground troops up to platoon ...

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Ambush - Procedure
Ambush - Preparation Ambush - Waiting Ambush - Execution

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Contravallation is a standard military tactic of siege used in ancient and modern warfare. It is the process of the attacking army building a line of fortifications around the besieged city facing away from the city (to protect themselves from attacks by allies of the city's defenders and to enhance the blockade of the city) and also the resulting fortifications (known as 'lines of contravallation'). Lines of contravallation generally consist of earth ramparts and entrenchments that encircle the besieged city and are built para ...

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Circumvallation is a standard military tactic of siege used in ancient and modern warfare. It describes the process of the attacking army building a line of fortifications around the besieged city facing towards the city (to protect itself from sorties by its defenders and to enhance the blockade). The resulting fortifications are known as 'lines of circumvallation'. Lines of circumvallation generally consist of earth ramparts and entrenchments that encircle the besieged city. The line of circumvallation can be used as a base for launching assaults against the besieged city o ...

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Circumvallation - Examples of circumvallation in military history

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Tanks rarely work alone; the usual minimum unit size is a platoon (or troop) of four to five tanks. The tanks of the platoon work together providing mutual support: two might advance while covered by the others then stop and provide cover for the remainder to move ahead. Normally, multiple platoons would coordinate with mechanised infantry and utilise their mobility and firepower to penetrate weak-points in enemy lines. This is where the powerful engines, tracks and turrets come into play. The possible turret rotation of a full 360 de ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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Tanks and other armoured vehicles are vulnerable to attack from the air for several reasons. One is that they are easily detectable - the metal they are made of shows up well on radar, and is especially obvious if they are moving in formation. A moving tank also products a lot of heat, noise and dust. The heat makes seeing them on a forward-looking infra-red system easy and the dust is a good visual clue during the day. The other major reason is that most armoured vehicles have thinner armour on the roof of the turret and on the engine deck, ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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Armoured warfare is mechanically and logistically intensive and requires extensive support mechanisms. Armoured Fighting Vehicles require armoured vehicles capable of working in the same terrain to support them. These are operated by the appropriate branches of the army e.g. recovery and maintenance vehicles by the REME and combat engineering vehicles by the RE in the British Army. These include: Armoured Recovery vehicles (ARV) Many of these are based on the chassis for the vehicle they ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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Modern armoured warfare began with the development of the tank during the First World War. Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare became more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools. ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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Modern armour warfare doctrine was developed and established during the run up to World War II. The fundamental key to warfare is the concentration of force at a particular point. Concentration of force permits the guarantee or near-guarantee of victory in a particular engagement. Correctly chosen and exploited, victory in a given engagement or a small number of engagements is often sufficient to win the battle. For example, visualize a straight defensive line composed of two infantry and two armoured divisions, deployed ...

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Armoured warfare, Armoured warfare - First World War, Armoured warfare - The inter-war period, Armoured warfare - Second World War, Armoured warfare - Arab-Israeli wars, Armoured warfare - NATO and Warsaw Pact, Armoured warfare - Tank tactics, Armoured warfare - Airborne threats, Armoured warfare - Support

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Fortification is almost as old as warfare itself; however, because of the relatively small size of the armies and the lack of range of the weapons, it was traditionally not possible to defend more than a short defensive line or an isolated strongpoint. The very long fortifications of the ancient world, such as the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall, were exceptions to the general rule and were in any case not designed to completely prevent enemy crossing the border, but to act as a deterence to casual border infringement, as well as to ac ...

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Trench warfare, Trench warfare - Background, Trench warfare - Siege warfare, Trench warfare - Maori Pas, Trench warfare - Development, Trench warfare - Implementation, Trench warfare - Defensive system, Trench warfare - Trench construction, Trench warfare - Trench geography, Trench warfare - Life in the trenches, Trench warfare - Death in the trenches, Trench warfare - Weapons of trench warfare, Trench warfare - Infantry weapons, Trench warfare - Machine guns, Trench warfare - Mortars, Trench warfare - Artillery, Trench warfare - Gas, Trench warfare - Helmets, Trench warfare - Wire, Trench warfare - Aircraft, Trench warfare - Other Weapons, Trench warfare - Mining, Trench warfare - Trench battles, Trench warfare - Strategy, Trench warfare - Tactics, Trench warfare - Communications, Trench warfare - Obsolescence, Trench warfare - Recent trench warfare, Trench warfare - Sources

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Fortification is almost as old as warfare itself; however, because of the relatively small size of the armies and the lack of range of the weapons, it was traditionally not possible to defend more than a short defensive line or an isolated strongpoint. The very long fortifications of the ancient world, such as the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall, were exceptions to the general rule and were in any case not designed to completely prevent enemy crossing the border, but to act as a deterence to casual border infringement, as well as to ac ...

See also:

Trench warfare, Trench warfare - Background, Trench warfare - Siege warfare, Trench warfare - Maori Pas, Trench warfare - Development, Trench warfare - Implementation, Trench warfare - Defensive system, Trench warfare - Trench construction, Trench warfare - Trench geography, Trench warfare - Life in the trenches, Trench warfare - Death in the trenches, Trench warfare - Weapons of trench warfare, Trench warfare - Infantry weapons, Trench warfare - Machine guns, Trench warfare - Mortars, Trench warfare - Artillery, Trench warfare - Gas, Trench warfare - Helmets, Trench warfare - Wire, Trench warfare - Aircraft, Trench warfare - Other Weapons, Trench warfare - Mining, Trench warfare - Trench battles, Trench warfare - Strategy, Trench warfare - Tactics, Trench warfare - Communications, Trench warfare - Obsolescence, Trench warfare - Recent trench warfare

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See also Roman military structure. Military history of ancient Rome - Roman army. "The Roman Army" is the name given by English-speakers to the soldiers and other military forces who served the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. The Roman words for the military were often based on the word for one soldier, miles. The army in general was the militia, and a commander of military operations, magister militiae. In the republic, a general might be called imperator, "commander" (as in Caesar imperator), but un ...

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Military history of ancient Rome, Military history of ancient Rome - Institutions, Military history of ancient Rome - Roman army, Military history of ancient Rome - Roman navy, Military history of ancient Rome - Events, Military history of ancient Rome - Patterns of Roman wars, Military history of ancient Rome - List of Roman wars

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Military history of ancient Rome - Patterns of Roman wars. The first Roman wars were wars of expansion and defence, aimed at protecting Rome itself from neighbouring cities and nations by defeating them in battle. This sort of warfare characterized the early Republican Period when Rome was focused on consolidating its position in Italy, and eventually conquering the peninsula. Rome first began to make war outside the Italian peninsula in the Punic wars against Carthage. These wars, starting in 264 BC saw Rome bec ...

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Military history of ancient Rome, Military history of ancient Rome - Institutions, Military history of ancient Rome - Roman army, Military history of ancient Rome - Roman navy, Military history of ancient Rome - Events, Military history of ancient Rome - Patterns of Roman wars, Military history of ancient Rome - List of Roman wars

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In the Mediterranean, naval warfare in the medieval period resembled that of the ancient period: fleets of galleys rowed by slaves would attempt to ram each other, or come alongside for marines to fight on deck. This mode of naval warfare continued even into the early modern period, as, for example, at the Battle of Lepanto. Famous admirals included Andrea Doria, Khair ed-Din, and Don John of Austria. However, galleys were fragile and difficult to use in the cold and turbulent North Sea and northern Atlantic. Bulkier ships were develo ...

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Medieval warfare, Medieval warfare - Origins of medieval warfare, Medieval warfare - Strategy and tactics, Medieval warfare - Deployment of forces, Medieval warfare - Employment of forces, Medieval warfare - Retreat, Medieval warfare - Fortifications, Medieval warfare - Medieval siege craft, Medieval warfare - Organization, Medieval warfare - Knights, Medieval warfare - Heavy cavalry, Medieval warfare - Infantry, Medieval warfare - Recruiting or drafting soldiers, Medieval warfare - Equipment, Medieval warfare - Personal equipment for, Medieval warfare - Weaponry, Medieval warfare - Supplies and logistics, Medieval warfare - Plunder and foraging, Medieval warfare - Supply chains, Medieval warfare - Famine and disease, Medieval warfare - Naval warfare, Medieval warfare - Significant medieval battles, Medieval warfare - Medieval wars

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Mainly as a result of the increasing firepower (such as machine guns) available to defensive forces, First World War trench warfare briefly revived a form of siege warfare. Although siege warfare had moved out from an urban setting because city walls had become ineffective against modern weapons, trench warfare was nonetheless able to utilize many of the techniques of siege warfare in its prosecution (sapping, mining, barrage and, of course, attrition) but on a much larger scale and on a greatly extended front. The development of the armoured tank and improved infantry tactics at the end of World War I swung ...

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Siege, Siege - Ancient and medieval siege warfare, Siege - Mongol siege warfare, Siege - Sieges in the age of gunpowder, Siege - Emerging theories on improving fortifications, Siege - New styles of fortresses employed, Siege - Marshal Vauban, Siege - Advent of mobile warfare, Siege - Modern warfare, Siege - Recent sieges, Siege - Police actions, Siege - Bibliography, Siege - Notes

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