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High ground is an area of elevated terrain, which can be useful in combat. The military importance of the high ground has been recognized for over 2,000 years, citing early examples from China and other early-dynastic cultures who regularly engaged in territorial/power struggles. Later incorporated to be advantageous in architectural designs such as castles and fortresses which included towers and walls designed to provide structural advantages for positions of troops and weaponry which could be thrown or fired from above.
In Sun Tzu's The Art of War , military leaders are advised to take high ground and let the enemy try to attack from a lower position. [1] Fighting from an elevated position is said to be easier for a number of tactical reasons. Holding the high ground offers an elevated vantage point with a wide field of view, enabling surveillance of the surrounding landscape, in contrast to valleys which offer a limited field of view. [2]
General Ji Ling of the late Eastern Han dynasty used this principle to his advantage by sending lookouts to positions of higher-ground to scout for and provide early warning about enemy troops. [3] Additionally, soldiers fighting uphill are assumed to tire more quickly and will move more slowly, when compared to soldiers fighting downhill, who do not have to struggle against the forces of gravity alongside natural obstacles in the terrain. Furthermore, soldiers who are elevated above their enemies can get greater range out of low-speed projectiles (such as rocks, javelins/spears, arrows, grenades, etc.), whereas low-speed projectiles have a shorter range when thrown uphill.[ citation needed ]
Very steep and/or rocky terrain, like mountain sides, can be an obstacle to tanks and armored personnel carriers, or in the past to cavalry and war elephants. For example, in the Soviet–Afghan War, mujahideen guerrillas based themselves in the mountains of Afghanistan, thereby protecting themselves from the Soviet motorized divisions. This forced the Soviets to rely heavily on helicopters to conduct the war, but the United States gave the mujahideen FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which, arguably, [4] combined with the defense of the mountains, was able to win the war for the mujahideen. High ground was also employed in the 1423 Battle of Horic in Bohemia, where Taborite soldiers took to high ground, forcing the Utraquist cavalry to dismount to attack them, and also rendering their cannons ineffective. Taborite soldiers were eventually able to make a downhill charge and wipe out the remaining Utraquists. Here again, high ground played a crucial role in the outcome of the battle.
However, getting the high ground is not always advantageous. In the Battle of Jieting of the Three Kingdoms period of China, Shu Han forces occupied a hilltop, which Cao Wei forces soon surrounded and isolated the Shu forces from water supplies and reinforcements. The Shu forces suffered a humiliating defeat, and the Shu northern expedition had to be aborted.[ citation needed ]
If people claim to have the "moral high ground", that means that they consider themself morally superior to others. [5] This idiom may be reflective of a broader concept in which morality is viewed metaphorically as "high" and immorality is viewed as "low". [6]
The Hussites were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, a part of the Bohemian Reformation.
The FIM-92 Stinger is an American man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM). It can be adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles, and from helicopters and drones as the Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS). It entered service in 1981 and is used by the militaries of the United States and 29 other countries. It is principally manufactured by Raytheon Missiles & Defense and is produced under license by Airbus Defence and Space in Germany and by Roketsan in Turkey.
Operation Anaconda or the Battle of Shah-i-Kot was a military operation that took place in early March 2002 as part of the War in Afghanistan. CIA paramilitary officers, working with their allies, attempted to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. The operation took place in the Shah-i-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains southeast of Zormat. This operation was the first large-scale battle in the post-2001 War in Afghanistan since the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. This was the first operation in the Afghanistan theater to involve a large number of U.S. forces participating in direct combat activities.
The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the protracted Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen. While they were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations. Combat took place throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside, as most of the country's cities remained under Soviet control. The conflict resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans, while millions more fled from the country as refugees; most externally displaced Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan and in Iran. Approximately 7.4% to 22.2% of Afghanistan's erstwhile population of 13.5 million people is estimated to have been killed over the course of the Soviet–Afghan War. The decade-long confrontation between the mujahideen and the Soviet and Afghan militaries inflicted grave destruction throughout Afghanistan and has also been cited by scholars as a significant factor that contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; it is for this reason that the conflict is sometimes referred to as "the Soviet Union's Vietnam" in retrospective analyses.
The Battle of Lipany, also called the Battle of Český Brod, was fought at Lipany 40 km east of Prague on 30 May 1434 and virtually ended the Hussite Wars. An army of moderate Hussite nobility and Catholics, called the Bohemian League, defeated the radical Taborites and Orphans led by Prokop the Great, the overall commander, and by Jan Čapek of Sány, the cavalry commander.
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, and European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions. At a late stage of the conflict, the Utraquists changed sides in 1432 to fight alongside Roman Catholics and opposed the Taborites and other Hussite spin-offs. These wars lasted from 1419 to approximately 1434.
The Battle of Vítkov Hill was a part of the Hussite Wars. The battle pitted the forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, against Hussite forces under command of Jan Žižka. Vítkov Hill was located on the edge of the city of Prague and the battle occurred in a vineyard established by Sigismund's father, Charles IV. It ended with a decisive Hussite victory.
The Battle of Vyšehrad was a series of engagements at the start of the Hussite War between Hussite forces and Catholic crusaders sent by Emperor Sigismund. The battle took place at the castle of Vyšehrad from 16 August 1419 to c. 1 November 1420.
The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction.
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. Hills fall under the category of slope landforms.
Mountain warfare or alpine warfare is warfare in mountains or similarly rough terrain. The term encompasses military operations affected by the terrain, hazards, and factors of combat and movement through rough terrain, as well as the strategies and tactics used by military forces in these situations and environments.
Infantry tactics are the combination of military concepts and methods used by infantry to achieve tactical objectives during combat. The role of the infantry on the battlefield is, typically, to close with and engage the enemy, and hold territorial objectives; infantry tactics are the means by which this is achieved. Infantry commonly makes up the largest proportion of an army's fighting strength, and consequently often suffers the heaviest casualties. Throughout history, infantrymen have sought to minimise their losses in both attack and defence through effective tactics.
Operation Magistral was a Soviet Army military operation during the Soviet–Afghan War that began in late November 1987 and ended in early January 1988.
In military tactics, a flanking maneuver is a movement of an armed force around an enemy force's side, or flank, to achieve an advantageous position over it. Flanking is useful because a force's fighting strength is typically concentrated in its front, therefore, to circumvent an opposing force's front and attack its flank is to concentrate one's own offense in the area where the enemy is least able to concentrate defense.
The Battle of Maravar Pass was an operation by the 334th Detached Spetsnaz group in the Afghan villages of Sangam and Daridam on April 21, 1985, during the Soviet–Afghan War. Mujahideen forces ambushed the Soviet force in Maravar Gorge, cutting off its 1st company and inflicting heavy casualties. As Soviet reinforcements arrived, the mujahideen covered the civilian evacuation of the gorge and successfully carried out a fighting withdrawal.
Sun Bin's Art of War is a Chinese treatise on military strategy that dates back to the Warring States period, an era of political instability and warfare in ancient China. It is credited to Sun Bin, who was believed to be a descendant of the famous military strategist Sun Tzu. Sun Bin served as a military advisor in the Qi state during this period and is said to have authored this piece on military tactics.
The Battle of Didao, also known as the Battle of Taoxi, was fought between the states of Shu Han and Cao Wei in 255 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. The battle concluded with a Wei victory.
An advantage of terrain occurs when military personnel gain an advantage over an enemy by using or simply in spite of, the terrain around them. The term does not exclusively apply to battles and can be used more generally regarding entire campaigns or theaters of war.
The Battle of Malešov was a battle of the Hussite Wars between the Orebites-Taborites united armies under the command of Jan Žižka and the Prague Hussites with their Catholic allies that took place on 7 June 1424 near the Malešov fortress, about 6 kilometres from Kutná Hora. Clash was won by the Žižka's troops.