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The pincer movement or double envelopment is a basic element of military strategy
Military strategy

Military strategy is a policy implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal s. Derived from the Greek language strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops....
 which has been used, to some extent, in many war
War

...
s, and is considered to be the consummate military maneuver
Maneuver

Maneuver, manoeuvre may be:...
, executed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae
Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, taking place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy....
 in 216 BC, over 2,200 years ago.






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Pincer
Battle Cannae Destruction
The pincer movement or double envelopment is a basic element of military strategy
Military strategy

Military strategy is a policy implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal s. Derived from the Greek language strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops....
 which has been used, to some extent, in many war
War

...
s, and is considered to be the consummate military maneuver
Maneuver

Maneuver, manoeuvre may be:...
, executed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae
Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, taking place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy....
 in 216 BC, over 2,200 years ago. This maneuver was also later effectively used by Khalid ibn al-Walid
Khalid ibn al-Walid

Khalid ibn al-Walid also known as Sayfu l-Lahi l-Maslul , was one of the most successful military commanders of all time. He is noted for his military prowess, commanding the forces of Muhammad and those of his immediate successors of the Rashidun Caliphate; Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab....
 at the Battle of Walaja
Battle of Walaja

The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia in May 633 between the Rashidun Caliphate army under Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Sassanid Empire and its Arab allies....
 in 633
633

Events...
 AD, Field Marshal
Field Marshal

Field marshal is a military officer rank. Today it is the highest rank in the armies in which it is used, one step above a general or colonel-general....
 Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld
Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld

Count Carl Gustav Rehnski?ld was a Sweden Field Marshal under the command of King Karl XII of Sweden of Sweden. Despite being choleric and irritable, Rehnski?ld's military skills made him the chief military advisor and second-in-command to King Charles and earned him the epithet, the "Parmenio of the Northern Alexander."...
 at the Battle of Fraustadt
Battle of Fraustadt

The Battle of Fraustadt was fought on February 2, 1706 / February 3, 1706 / February 13 1706 between Sweden and Saxony-Poland and their Russian allies near Fraustadt in Poland....
 and by Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan

Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and United States Representative from Virginia. One of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War, he later commanded the troops that suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion....
 at the Battle of Cowpens
Battle of Cowpens

}|-||}The Battle of Cowpens was an decisive victory by American Revolutionary forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War of the American Revolutionary War....
 over 1,100 years later. An earlier form of pincer movement was also described by the Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 military theorist Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu , also called Sun Wu , is traditionally believed to be the author of The Art of War, sometimes called the Sun Tzu, an influential ancient China book on military strategy considered to be a prime example of Taoism strategy....
 in the 6th century BC, and possibly used at the Battle of Marathon
Battle of Marathon

The Battle of Marathon, Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 BC and was the culmination of the first attempt by the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Ancient Greece....
 in the 5th century BC.

Hannibal's double envelopment at the Battle of Cannae
Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, taking place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy....
 in 216 BC is viewed by military historians as one of the greatest battlefield maneuvers in history, and is cited as the first successful use of the pincer movement to be recorded in detail.

The flanks
Flanking maneuver

In military tactics, a flanking Maneuver warfare, also called a wiktionary:flank attack, is an attack on the sides of an opposing force....
 of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it. At the same time, a second layer of pincers attacks on the more extreme flanks, so as to prevent any attempts to reinforce the target unit.

Most infantry
Infantry

Infantry are soldiers who are primarily trained for the role of fighting on foot. A soldier in the infantry is known as an infantryman. Infantry units have more physically demanding training than other branches of armies, and place a greater emphasis on fitness, physical strength and aggression....
 combat, on every scale, is based in some fashion on this military tactic and it is commonly used by aircraft
Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
 as well. It was vaguely described in Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu , also called Sun Wu , is traditionally believed to be the author of The Art of War, sometimes called the Sun Tzu, an influential ancient China book on military strategy considered to be a prime example of Taoism strategy....
's The Art of War
The Art of War

The Art of War is a China military science treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategy and Military tactics of its time....
, but he argued that it was best to allow the enemy a path to escape, as he felt the target army would fight with more ferocity when completely surrounded.

A double envelopment by definition leads to the attacking army facing the enemy in front, on both flanks, and in the rear. If the attacking pincers link up in the enemy's rear, the enemy is encircled
Encirclement

Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces.This situation is highly dangerous for the encircled force: at the military strategy level, because it cannot receive supplies or reinforcements, and on the military tactics level, because the units in the force can be subject...
. Such battles often end in surrender or destruction of the enemy force, although the encircled force can attempt a breakout
Breakout (military)

A breakout is a military operation to end a situation of encirclement or siege. It is used in contexts such as: "The British breakout attempt from Normandy"....
, attacking the encirclement from the inside in order to escape, or a friendly external force can attack from the outside to open up an escape route for the encircled force.

See also

  • Battle of Marathon
    Battle of Marathon

    The Battle of Marathon, Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 BC and was the culmination of the first attempt by the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Ancient Greece....
  • Battle of the Trebia
    Battle of the Trebia

    The Battle of the Trebia was the first major battle of the Second Punic War, fought between the Carthage forces of Hannibal and the Roman Republic in 218 BC....
  • Battle of Cannae
    Battle of Cannae

    The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, taking place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy....
  • Battle of Walaja
    Battle of Walaja

    The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia in May 633 between the Rashidun Caliphate army under Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Sassanid Empire and its Arab allies....
  • Battle of Manzikert
    Battle of Manzikert

    The Battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Great Seljuq Empire forces led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert ....
  • Battle of Cowpens
    Battle of Cowpens

    }|-||}The Battle of Cowpens was an decisive victory by American Revolutionary forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War of the American Revolutionary War....
  • Battle of Fraustadt
    Battle of Fraustadt

    The Battle of Fraustadt was fought on February 2, 1706 / February 3, 1706 / February 13 1706 between Sweden and Saxony-Poland and their Russian allies near Fraustadt in Poland....
  • Battle of Tannenberg (1914)
    Battle of Tannenberg (1914)

    The Battle of Tannenberg was a decisive engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of World War I, fought by the Russian First Army and Second Army |Second Armies and the Eighth Army between 23 August and 2 September 1914....
  • Battle of Khalkhin Gol
    Battle of Khalkhin Gol

    The Battle of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet-Japanese Border Wars, or Japanese-Soviet War, fought between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan in 1939....
     (operational envelopment)
  • Battle of Stalingrad
    Battle of Stalingrad

    The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia....
     (strategic envelopment)
  • Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation
  • Six-Day War
    Six-Day War

    In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
  • Encirclement
    Encirclement

    Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces.This situation is highly dangerous for the encircled force: at the military strategy level, because it cannot receive supplies or reinforcements, and on the military tactics level, because the units in the force can be subject...
  • Flanking maneuver
    Flanking maneuver

    In military tactics, a flanking Maneuver warfare, also called a wiktionary:flank attack, is an attack on the sides of an opposing force....
  • Operation Postern
    Salamaua-Lae campaign

    The Salamaua?Lae campaign was a series of actions in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Australian and United States forces sought to capture two major Empire of Japan bases, one in the town of Lae, and another one at Salamaua....


Further reading

  • U.S. Army training manual of different modes of attack, including double envelopment
  • GlobalSecurity.org with a section on envelopments
  • Academic on military diagramming with diagram of a double envelopment
  • of Georgy Zhukov
    Georgy Zhukov

    Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, Order of the Bath was a Soviet Union military commander who, in the course of World War II, played an important role in leading the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from the Axis Powers' occupation, to advance through much of Eastern Europe, and to conquer Nazi Germany's capita...
    's double envelopment at the battle of Stalingrad