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Guerrilla warfare

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Not to be confused withGorilla.
"Guerrilla" and "Guerrilla War" redirect here. For other uses, seeGuerrilla (disambiguation)andGuerrilla Warfare (disambiguation).
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Guerrilla warfare during the Peninsular War,byRoque Gameiro,depicting a Portuguese guerrilla ambush against French forces

Guerrilla warfareis a form ofunconventional warfarein which small groups ofirregular military,such as rebels,partisans,paramilitarypersonnel or armedciviliansincludingrecruited children,useambushes,sabotage,terrorism,raids,petty warfareorhit-and-run tacticsin arebellion,in aviolent conflict,in awaror in acivil warto fight against regularmilitary,policeor rivalinsurgentforces.[1]

Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of thePeninsular Warin the 19th century,[2]the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th centuryBC,Sun Tzuproposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics inThe Art of War.The 3rd century BC Roman generalQuintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosusis also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called theFabian strategy.Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies.

Guerrilla tacticsfocus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited skirmishes with the goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw (see alsoattrition warfare). Organized guerrilla groups often depend on the support of either the local population or foreign backers who sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts.

Etymology[edit]

Spanish guerrilla resistance to the Napoleonic French invasion of Spain at theBattle of Valdepeñas

The Spanish wordguerrillais the diminutive form ofguerra( "war" ); hence, "little war". The term became popular during the early-19th centuryPeninsular War,when, after the defeat of their regular armies,the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully roseagainst theNapoleonictroopsand defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy in combination with ascorched earth policyandpeople's war(see alsoattrition warfare against Napoleon). In correctSpanishusage, a person who is a member of aguerrillaunit is aguerrillero([geriˈʎeɾo]) if male, or aguerrillera([geriˈʎeɾa]) if female.Arthur Wellesleyadopted the term "guerrilla" intoEnglishfrom Spanish usage in 1809,[2]to refer to the individualfighters(e.g., "I have recommended to set the Guerrillas to work" ), and also (as in Spanish) to denotea group or bandof such fighters. However, in most languagesguerrillastill denotes a specific style of warfare. The use of thediminutiveevokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state.[3]

History[edit]

Main article:History of guerrilla warfare
Soviet partisanson the road in Belarus, 1944 counter-offensive

Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes:

Primitive (and guerrilla) warfare consists of war stripped to its essentials: the murder of enemies; the theft or destruction of their sustenance, wealth, and essential resources; and the inducement in them of insecurity and terror. It conducts the basic business of war without recourse to ponderous formations or equipment, complicated maneuvers, strict chains of command, calculated strategies, timetables, or other civilized embellishments.[4]

Evidence ofconventional warfare,on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Chinese general and strategistSun Tzu,in hisThe Art of War(6th century BC), became one of the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare.[5]This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare.[6]

In the 3rd century BC,Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus,used elements of guerrilla warfare, such as the evasion of battle, the attempt to wear down the enemy, to attack small detachments in an ambush[7]and devised theFabian strategy,which theRoman Republicused to great effect againstHannibal's army, see alsoHis Excellency: George Washington:the Fabian choice.[8]

In themedieval Roman Empire,guerrilla warfare was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid.[9]In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name asDe velitatione bellica('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in the future.[10]

The Normans often made many forays into Wales, where the Welsh used the mountainous region, which the Normans were unfamiliar with, to spring surprise attacks upon them.[11]

Sincethe Enlightenment,ideologies such asnationalism,liberalism,socialism,andreligious fundamentalismhave played an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare.[12]

In the 17th century,Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj,founder of theMaratha Empire,pioneered theShiva sutraorGanimi Kava(Guerrilla Tactics) to defeat the many times larger and more powerful armies of theMughal Empire.[13]

Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja)(1753–1805) used guerrilla techniques chiefly centred in mountain forests in theCotiote Waragainst the BritishEast India Companyin India between 1793 and 1806. Arthur Wellesley (in India 1797–1805) had commanded forces assigned to defeat Pazhassi's techniques but failed. It was the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the Indian subcontinent. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India withPresidency army regimentsthat suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare.[14]

Siege of theFortaleza San Luisby the Dominican rebels by Melanio Guzmán

TheDominican Restoration Warwas a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in theDominican Republicbetween nationalists andSpain,the latter of whichhad recolonized the country17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish forces and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic.[15]

Seán Hogan'sflying columnof the IRA's3rd Tipperary Brigade,during theIrish War of Independence

The Moroccan military leaderAbd el-Krim(c. 1883– 1963) and his father[16]unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during theRif Warin 1920. For the first time in history,tunnel warfarewas used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco.[17]

In the early 20th centuryMichael CollinsandTom Barryboth developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare duringthe guerrilla phase of the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence.Collins developed mainlyurban guerrilla-warfaretactics inDublin City(the Irish capital). Operations in which smallIrish Republican Army(IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked a target and then disappeared into civilian crowds frustrated the British enemy. The best example of this occurred onBloody Sunday(21 November 1920), when Collins's assassination unit, known as"The Squad",wiped out a group of British intelligence agents ( "theCairo Gang") early in the morning (14 were killed, six were wounded) – some regular officers were also killed in the purge. That afternoon, aRoyal Irish Constabularyforce consisting of both regular RIC personnel and theAuxiliary Divisiontook revenge, shooting into a crowd at a football match inCroke Park,killing fourteen civilians and injuring 60 others.[18][19]

In WestCounty Cork,Tom Barry was the commander of the IRAWest Cork brigade.Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their fellows in urban areas. These units, called "flying columns",[20]engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10 – 30 minutes. TheKilmichael Ambushin November 1920 and theCrossbarry Ambushin March 1921 are the most famous examples of Barry's flying columns causing large casualties to enemy forces.

Lakhdari, Drif, Bouhired and Bouali. Female Algerian guerrillas of theAlgerian War of Independence,c. 1956.

TheAlgerian Revolutionof 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout the world today.[21]InSouth Africa,African National Congress(ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis ofNelson Mandela;[22]in theirintifadaagainst Israel,Palestinian fightershave sought to emulate it.[23]Additionally, the tactics of Al-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians.[24]

The Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as "freedom fighters", or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary and civilians during theBangladesh Liberation Warthat transformedEast Pakistaninto Bangladesh in 1971. An earlier nameMukti Faujwas also used.

Theoretical works[edit]

The growth of guerrilla warfare was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with theManual de Guerra de GuerrillasbyMatías Ramón Mellawritten in the 19th century:

...our troops should...fight while protected by the terrain...using small, mobile guerrilla units to exhaust the enemy...denying them rest so that they only control the terrain under their feet.[25]

More recently, Mao Zedong'sOn Guerrilla Warfare,[26]Che Guevara'sGuerrilla Warfare,[27]and Lenin'sGuerrilla warfare,[28]were all written after the successful revolutions carried by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized the tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according toChe Guevara's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression".[29]

Foco theory[edit]

Main article:Foco
ATuaregrebel fighter with aDShKon atechnicalin northern Niger, 2008

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.

— Che Guevara[30]

In the 1960s, theMarxistrevolutionaryChe Guevaradeveloped thefoco(Spanish:foquismo) theory ofrevolutionin his bookGuerrilla Warfare,[31]based on his experiences during the 1959Cuban Revolution.This theory was later formalised as "focal-ism" byRégis Debray.Its central principle is thatvanguardismbycadresof small, fast-movingparamilitarygroups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a generalinsurrection.Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, manyfocoideas were adapted intourban guerrilla warfaremovements.

Strategy, tactics and methods[edit]

See also:Strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare
Boer guerrillas during theSecond Boer Warin South Africa
The EstonianForest Brothersrelaxing and cleaning their guns after a shooting exercise inVeskiaru,Järva County,Estonian SSR,in 1953

Strategy[edit]

Guerrilla warfare is a type ofasymmetric warfare:competition between opponents of unequal strength.[32]It is also a type ofirregular warfare:that is, it aims not simply to defeat an invading enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrillastrategyaims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more cumbersome one.[33]If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy byattrition,eventually forcing them to withdraw.

Tactics[edit]

See also:Asymmetric warfare

Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete the opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and takingadvantage of terrainthat is difficult for larger units to use. For example,Mao Zedongsummarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of theChinese Civil Waras:

"The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."[34]

At least one author credits the ancient Chinese workThe Art of Warwith inspiring Mao's tactics.[35]In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North VietnameseHo Chi Minh,often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban "foco"theory and the anti-SovietMujahadeeninAfghanistan.[36]

Unconventional methods[edit]

Guerrilla groups may useimprovised explosive devicesandlogisticalsupport by the local population. The opposing army may come at last to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers. The guerrillas might get political support from foreign backers and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion throughpropagandaand use of force.[37]Some guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles.[38]Many governments and states alsorecruit childrenwithin their armed forces.[39][40]

Comparison of guerrilla warfare and terrorism[edit]

No commonly accepteddefinition of "terrorism"has attained clear consensus.[41][42][43]The term "terrorism" is often used as political propaganda bybelligerents(most often by governments in power) to denounce opponents whose status asterroristsis disputed.[44][45]

While the primary concern of guerrillas is the enemy's active military units, actualterroristslargely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians.[46]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Asprey 2023.
  2. ^abOED 2023.
  3. ^etymonline 2023.
  4. ^Keeley 1997,p. 75.
  5. ^Leonard 1989,p. 728.
  6. ^Snyder 1999,p. 46.
  7. ^Laqueur 1977,p. 7.
  8. ^Ellis 2005,pp. 99–102.
  9. ^McMahon 2016,pp. 22–33.
  10. ^Dennis 1985,p. 147.
  11. ^Hooper & Bennett 1996,pp. 68-.
  12. ^Hanhimäki, Blumenau & Rapaport 2013,pp. 46–73.
  13. ^Duff 2014.
  14. ^Wilson 1883.
  15. ^Pons 1998.
  16. ^islamicus 2023.
  17. ^Boot 2013,pp. 10–11, 55.
  18. ^Ferriter 2020.
  19. ^historyireland 2003.
  20. ^Chisholm 1911,p. 585.
  21. ^Horne 2022.
  22. ^Drew 2015,pp. 22–43.
  23. ^Chamberlin 2015.
  24. ^Boeke 2019.
  25. ^Kruijt, Tristán & Álvarez 2019.
  26. ^Mao 1989.
  27. ^Guevara 2006.
  28. ^Lenin 1906.
  29. ^Guevara 2006,p. 16.
  30. ^Guevara 2006,p. 17.
  31. ^Guevara 2006,p. 13.
  32. ^Tomes 2004.
  33. ^Creveld 2000,pp. 356–358.
  34. ^Mao 1965,p. 124.
  35. ^McNeilly 2003,pp. 6–7.
  36. ^McNeilly 2003,p. 204.
  37. ^Detsch 2017.
  38. ^Child Soldiers International 2016.
  39. ^United Nations Secretary-General 2017.
  40. ^Child Soldiers International 2012.
  41. ^Emmerson 2016.
  42. ^Halibozek, Jones & Kovacich 2008,pp. 4–5.
  43. ^Williamson 2009,p. 38.
  44. ^Sinclair & Antonius 2012,p. 30.
  45. ^Rowe 2002,pp. 3–4.
  46. ^Tamer 2017.

References[edit]

Attribution:

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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