From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Guerrilla (alternative spelling guerilla;
also called partisan) is a term to describe
combat groups. Guerrilla warfare operates with
small, mobile and flexible combat groups called cells, without a
front line. Guerrilla warfare is one of the oldest forms of
asymmetric warfare. Primary contributors to modern theories of
guerrilla war include
Mao Zedong and
Che Guevara.
Etymology
The term was invented in
Spain
to describe the tactics used to resist the
French
regime instituted by
Napoleon Bonaparte (one should however remember, that the
tactics themselves were known and used even centuries earlier).
The
Spanish word means "little war". The Spanish word for
guerrilla fighter is guerrillero. The change of usage
from the tactics to the person implementing them is a late 19th
century mistake. In most languages the word still denotes the
style of warfare. However this is changing under the influence of
the English usage.
Tactics
Guerrilla tactics are based on
ambush and
sabotage, and their ultimate objective is usually to
destabilize an authority through long, low-intensity
confrontation. It can be quite successful against an unpopular
foreign regime: a guerrilla army may increase the cost of
maintaining an occupation or a colonial presence above what the
foreign
power may wish to bear.
Guerrillas in wars against foreign powers do not principally
direct their attacks at civilians, as they desire to obtain as
much support as possible from the population as part of their
tactics. Civilians are primarily attacked or assassinated as
punishment for
collaboration. Often such an attack will be officially
sanctioned by guerrilla command or tribunal. An exception is in
civil wars, where both guerrilla groups and organized armies
have been known to commit
atrocities against the civilian population.
Guerrillas are often characterised as
terrorists by their opponents. Guerrillas are in particular
danger of not being recognized as
combatants because they are outnumbered and may take off their
uniforms to mingle with the local population. Guerrillas are
usually classified as unlawful enemy combatants.
Guerilla warfare is classified into two main categories: urban
guerilla warfare and rural guerrilla warfare. In both cases,
guerrillas rely on a friendly population to provide supply and
intelligence. Rural guerillas prefer to operate in regions
providing plenty of cover and concealment, especially heavily
forested and mountainous areas. Urban guerillas, rather than
melting into the mountains and jungles, blend into the population
and are depedent on a support base among the people. The
difference between a successful and doomed guerrilla movement is
the availability of outside
logistics support from foreign opponents of the local regime.
Maoist theory of people's war divides warfare into three
phases. In the first phase, the guerrillas gain the support of the
population through attacks on the machinery of government and the
distribution of
propaganda. In the second phase, escalating attacks are made
on the government's
military and vital institutions. In the third phase,
conventional fighting is used to seize cities, overthrow the
government and take control of the country.
Examples
Examples of successful guerrilla warfare:
However, guerrilla warfare has generally been unsuccessful
against native regimes, which have nowhere to retreat to. The rare
examples of successful guerrilla warfare against a native regime
include the
Cuban Revolution and the
Chinese Civil War. More common are the unsuccessful examples
of guerrilla warfare, which include
Malaysia,
Bolivia,
Argentina, and the
Philippines.
In many cases, guerrilla tactics allow a small force to hold
off a much larger and better equipped enemy for a long time, as in
the
Second Chechen War and the
Second Seminole War.
Guerrillas in Europe
In centuries of history, many guerrilla movements appeared in
Europe to fight foreign occupation forces. During
The Deluge in
Poland most of guerrilla tactics were applied. In the
19th century, peoples of the
Balkans used the tactics to fight the
Ottoman empire. The Spanish used it to fight Napoleon in the
Peninsula War the conflict from which the term "guerrilla"
(meaning small war from the Spanish for war, guerra)
spawned, and Poles used it during the
January Uprising.
In
World War II, several guerrilla movements operated in the
countries occupied by
Nazi Germany. These included the Polish
Home Army,
Soviet partisans,
Yugoslav partisans,
French resistance or
Maquis,
Italian partisans,
ELAS and royalist forces in
Greece. The
United Kingdom created
Auxiliary Units to conduct guerrilla warfare in the event of
invasion. Before the Second World War the Official or Old
IRA
that fought in opposition to British control of
Ireland might be called guerrillas.
Currently, the
Basque
ETA and
Corsican
FLNC and other groups such as the
Greek
Marxist
November 15 claim to be guerrillas, but are commonly
recognized as
terrorists since they almost exclusivly murder civilians
instead of attacking legitimate military targets, and this is how
the government and media of their respective countries prefer to
refer to them. The Provisional
IRA,
Loyalist
paramilitaries and various anti-Good
Friday Agreement splinter-groups could be called guerrillas
but were usually called terrorists by both the
British and
Irish
governments and media. In contrast
Loyalist militants were often referred to as paramilitaries
rather than terrorists by the media.
Guerrillas in the American Revolutionary War
Although the
American Revolutionary War is often thought of as a guerrilla
war, guerrilla tactics were uncommon, and almost all of the
battles involved conventional set piece battles. Some of the
confusion may be due to the fact that generals
George Washington and
Nathaniel Greene successfully used a strategy of harassment
and progressively grinding down British forces instead of seeking
a decisive battle. Nevertheless the tactics used by most of the
American forces were those conventional warfare.
One of the exceptions was in the south, the brunt of the war
was upon
militia forces who fought the enemy
British troops and their
Loyalist supporters, but used concealment, surprise, and other
guerrilla tactics to much advantage. General
Francis Marion of
South Carolina, who often attacked the British at unexpected
places, then would fade into the swamps by the time the British
were able to get organized enough to return fire, was named by
them The Swamp Fox.
Guerrillas in the American Civil War
John Singleton Mosby formed a guerrilla unit during the
American Civil War, which Mosby called his "Partisan
Rangers".
In the late
20th century several historians have focused on the non-use of
guerilla warfare to prolong the war. Near the end of the war,
there were those in the
Confederate government, namely
Jefferson Davis who advocated continuing the southern fight as
a guerilla conflict. He was opposed by generals such as
Robert E. Lee who ultimately believed that surrender was
better than guerilla warfare.
Guerrillas in Latin America
In the
1960s,
1970s,
and
1980s,
Latin America had a number of
urban guerrilla movements whose strategy was to destabilize
democratic regimes and provoke a counter-reaction by the military.
The theory was that a harsh military regime would oppress the
middle classes who would then support the guerrillas and
create a popular uprising.
Unfortunately, while these movements did destabilize
governments, such as
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Guatemala, and
Peru
to the point of military intervention, the military generally then
proceeded to wipe out the guerrilla movements, often committing
atrocities among both civilians and the armed insurgents in
the process.
Several other guerrilla movements attempted to
overthrow US-backed
right-wing
dictatorships, whilst US-backed
Contra guerrillas attempted to overthrow the left-wing
Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
Guerrillas and the Vietnam War
Within the
United States, the
Vietnam War is commonly thought of as a guerrilla war. However
this is a misleading simplification of a much more complex
situation which followed the pattern outlined by Maoist theory.
The
National Liberation Front (NLF), drawing its ranks from the
South Vietnamese peasantry and working class, used guerrilla
tactics in the early phases of the war. However, by
1965
when U.S. involvement escalated, the National Liberation Front was
in the process of being supplanted by regular units of the
North Vietnamese Army.
The
NVA regiments organized along traditional military lines, were
supplied via the
Ho Chi Minh trail rather than living off the land, and had
access to weapons such as
tanks
and
artillery which are not normally used by guerrilla forces.
Over time, more of the fighting was conducted by the North
Vietnamese Army and the character of the war become increasingly
conventional. The final offensive into
South Vietnam in
1975
was a completely conventional military operation with no elements
of guerrilla warfare.
By the end of the Vietnam War, U.S.-led forces had killed or
incapacitated a large share of the NLF's guerrilla fighter
Guerilla warfare in Afghanistan and Kosovo
Guerilla warfare formed in integral part of the campaigns in
Kosovo in the late 1990's and Afghanistan in 2001, which created
an unique style of warfare which combined low technology guerilla
warfare with high technology air power. In these campaigns,
guerilla fighters with coordination from
special forces would engage the enemy forcing them to move out
into the open where they could be destroyed using air power
supplied by the
United States. In both cases, the guerillas were able to take
advantage of their local knowledge and willingness to take
causalities to great effect when supplemented by outside air
power.
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