Shock tactics

Shock tactics are those military tactics designed to overwhelm an enemy with fear, causing panic and confusion.^[1] Shock tactics are as old as warfare itself. The Mongols got their reputation for being invincible by the use of shock tactics.^[2] Numbers of Medieval knights mounted on their warhorses made coordinated shock attacks into the ranks of enemy soldiers.^[3] Robert E. Lee saw the advantage of the shock attack as not so much killing enemy soldiers, but to "create a panic and virtually destroy the [enemy] army."^[4] The disadvantage of a shock attack is that the attacker may suffer heavy casualties. During World War I, for example, Germany suffered great losses with its use of the shock attack.^[5]

A Bayonet attack can be a very effective shock tactic

Historic examples

Persian scythed chariot

Ancient armies often defeated their enemy through the psychological impact of shock tactics.^[6]

• The Hittites and Ancient Egyptians used the first mobile tool for shock tactics; the war Chariot.^[6] Charioteers were the elite branch of most armies of the time. But by the beginning of the classical period they were no longer effective.^[6] Armies had developed ways to defeat the chariots in battle.^[6] Even the infamous scythed chariots used by Darius I of Persia ^[a] could be easily defeated by the infantry.^[6] They changed to a wider spacing of their phalanx formation. This allowed the soldiers to avoid the blades and let the scythed chariots to go right through.^[6] They then ran directly into the long pike formations directly behind each phalanx which impaled the chariots and their riders.^[6]

• Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great depended on their elite Companion cavalry for their shock tactics to help win nearly every one of their battles.^[8] While the Macedonian phalanx units would engage the enemy, the cavalry was held in reserve.^[9] Once the phalanx broke up the lines, the Companion cavalry would act as shock troops and scatter the enemy soldiers.^[9]

German Tiger II tanks

• The German Blitzkrieg (lightning war) of World War II was a shock tactic that was used to great effect against their enemies.^[10] The Blitzkrieg concentrated its forces behind offensive weapons such as tanks, artillery and airplanes to quickly push through enemy lines.^[10] The tanks would then be free to cause shock and confusion behind the enemy lines.^[10] They would interrupt supply lines, and prevent reinforcements from sealing the breach in their lines.^[10] The Germans would then envelop the enemy troops and force them to surrender (military).^[b][10]

Notes

1. These were chariots that had blades attached to the wheels that could cut a man in half.^[7] They also had blades under the chariot pointing down almost touching the ground that would cut to pieces any soldiers caught under the chariot.^[7]
2. One place this tactic did not work was at the Battle of the Bulge.^[11] While the initial shock pushed the Allied lines back, after a month they had only been able to push a large "bulge" in defensive lines.^[12] In particular, at the Belgian town of Bastogne, the Germans surrounded the Americans and demanded their surrender.^[12] But the 501st Infantry Regiment refused to surrender.^[12] The Germans were unable to defeat the defenders and withdrew after the town was relieved by the tanks of General George S. Patton's 4th Armored Division.^[12]

Related pages

• Flanking maneuver
• Pincer movement (also called a double-envelopment)
• Turning movement
• Ambush
• Envelopment
• Pincer movement
• Rearguard
• Attrition warfare
• Feigned retreat
• Preemptive war
• Oblique order