Investment (military)
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Investmentis the military process of surrounding an enemyfort(ortown) witharmed forcesto prevent entry or escape.[1][2]It serves both to cut communications with the outside world and to prevent supplies and reinforcements from being introduced.
Acontravallationis a line of fortifications built by the attackers around thebesiegedfortification facing towards an enemy fort to protect the besiegers fromsortiesby its defenders and to enhance theblockade.[3][verification needed][4]The contravallation can be used as a base to launch assaults against the besieged city or to construct further earthworks nearer to the city.
Acircumvallationmay be constructed if the besieging army is threatened by a field army allied to an enemy fort. It is a second line of fortifications outside the contravallation that faces away from an enemy fort. The circumvallation protects the besiegers from attacks by allies of the city's defenders and enhances theblockadeof an enemy fort by making it more difficult to smuggle in supplies.[5]
Lines of contravallation and circumvallation generally consist of earthenrampartsandentrenchmentsthat encircle the besieged city.
Antiquity
[edit]
Thucydidesnotes the role circumvallation played in theSicilian Expeditionand in the SpartansiegeofPlataeaduring the initial stages of thePeloponnesian Warin 429 BC.
Julius Caesarin hisCommentaries on the Gallic Wardescribes his textbook use of the circumvallation[6]to defeat theGaulsunder their chieftain,Vercingetorix,at theSiege of Alesiain September 52 BC.
During theSiege of Jerusalem,Titus and his Roman legions built a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometres (9 miles).
Middle Ages
[edit]Another example from the pre-modern period is theSiege of Constantinople (717–718).
Thecaliphof theUmayyad Empiretook advantage of the violent anarchy in theByzantine Empireto prepare a huge host, comprising more than 100,000 troops and 1,800 ships, to take them to the Byzantine capital,Constantinople.Upon arriving outside the city'sTheodosian walls,the Arab army had some knowledge that EmperorLeo III the Isaurianhad allied withBulgariaunderKhanTervel,and so, in preparation for theBulgarian army,built a set of stone walls against the city and against the countryside, with the Arab camp in between.[7]
KingPepin the ShortofFranciabuilt a number of fortified camps during hisSiege of Bourbon (761)to surround the town completely.[8]He built a complete set of lines of circumvallation and contravallation during theSiege of Bourges (762).[9]
Modern era
[edit]The basic objectives and tactics of a military investment have remained the same in the modern era. During theSecond World War,there were many sieges and many investments. One of the best-known sieges of the war, which demonstrated the tactical use of investment, was the Siege of Stalingrad.During the first half of the siege, the Germans were unable to fully encircle the city and so the Soviets got men and supplies in across theVolga River.During the second half of the battle, the complete investment of Stalingrad by the Soviets, including airspace, which prevented the construction by the Germans of an adequately largeairbridge,eventually forced the starving Germans in the city to surrender.
In modern times, investments andsiegesof cities are often combined with intensiveshelling,air strikesand extensive use oflandand/orseamines.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^investMerriam-Webster
- ^"4.Milit.The surrounding or hemming in of a town or fort by a hostile force so as to cut off all communication with the outside; beleaguerment; blockade "(Oxford English Dictionary:investment,n. Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011.Entry/99052.Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1900).
- ^Oxford English Dictionary:circumvallation,n. Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011.Entry/33402.Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1889.
- ^Harry Pratt Judson (1961),Caesar's Army: A Study of the Military Art of the Romans in the Last Days of the Republic,New York: Biblo & Tannen, p. 87,ISBN9780819601131,
If an attempt at relief from without was to be feared, another line of works must be created, outside the first, and facing outwards. In modern warfare this latter line is called thecircumvallation,and the inner one thecontravallation.
- ^[verification needed]Oxford English Dictionary:contravallation,n. Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011.Entry/40491.Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1893.
- ^Julius Caesar.– viaWikisource.
- ^Petersen 2013,pp. 703–708.
- ^Petersen 2013,p. 729.
- ^Petersen 2013,pp. 730–731.
Sources
[edit]- Petersen, Leif Inge Ree (2013).Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400–800 AD): Byzantium, the West and Islam.Leiden:Brill.ISBN978-90-04-25199-1.
