Strategy and Tactics in War

What is the difference in strategy and tactics, and does it matter: would I use a knowledge of the differences in my exam? Well, the answer to the first question will be answered, at least I hope it will, in this piece. As for the second, it depends on the question and if you spot the opportunity. Remember, an analytical answer always scores better than a descriptive one. And if you read this piece, you should be left in a position in which you can seize that opportunity should it come your way, and get that 7!

The simple difference between strategy and tactics is that strategy covers the big picture, the overall aim. Take a step back and look at the root of the word: it comes from the Greek strategos which means ‘the art of the general’. In war, the overall aim is to win, or sometimes, not to lose. Whereas as tactics are the means employed to bring about that overall aim. Of course, in the midst of a long war, or a war with many fronts, you would have to break this down a bit more, but you already have the basis for an analysis of a war. But, come on, this is history. So let’s make it a bit complicated.

Political strategy – What are the war aims? What would the post-war order look like? Who to ally with, and how to keep allies on board. How to keep morale up. How honest to be with your own population? What restrictions to impose on them? This is all part of the political strategic thinking.

Military strategy – If winning the war is the overall aim, strategies to do so need to be put in place: a war of manoeuvre in 1914, a war of attrition for most of the rest of the war; blitzkrieg or strategic bombing in WW2 or guerrilla warfare in Vietnam. Priorities are part of strategic planning too: the focus on defeating Hitler before the Japanese in WW2, the allocation of resources: tanks or planes, surface ships or submarines, or the allocation of resources (including men) for one front more than another, and we can also see it on the Home Fronts: rationing, conscription or deploying women into the workplace.

Operational strategy  – This is broken down from the overall strategy. It is seen on the different fronts in both WW1 and WW2, and the war at sea, and the war in the air. It is seen in the ‘search and destroy’ strategy used by the Americans in Vietnam. We have also entered the world of campaigns. For example, the Battle of the Somme in WW1, the Battle of Britain in WW2, the Battle of the Atlantic in both world wars, or the Vietcong’s TET campaign. And within the campaigns, there are still strategic decisions to be made: how to attack. Where the enemy is strongest or weakest? Attack hard at the centre of the enemy’s lines with secondary attacks on the flanks so as to prevent the freeing of reserves – known as penetration. Or envelopment: deploy a secondary attack at the centre of the line with the main attack on its flanks (a pincer movement) simultaneously cutting the enemy off from support and supplies whilst the enemy cannot fall back. Or turning the enemy by attacking on one flank thereby cutting off those supply lines and forcing the enemy from a strong position. Or else defend until the enemy is so weakened as to make an attack more likely to be successful.

Tactics – This is at the level were war gets personal. It is the tactics employed when facing the enemy. It’s how you get from your trench and into the enemy’s trench, or off the Normandy beaches, or how you get to defeat the Vietcong out in the paddy fields. It’s also, how you get your bombs to drop on target, or you’re your submarine into position to attack a convoy. What tactics do you use, including what weaponry? It is whether tanks are used or gas in WW1. It is adding sirens to Stuka dive bombers (the ‘Jericho trumpets) in order to maximize panic, or deploying kamikaze or suicide bombers in WW2. Or it is the guerrilla tactics deployed by the Vietcong: retreat when the enemy attacks, raid when the enemy camps, attack when the enemy tires, pursue when the enemy retreats.

So, I hope this proves useful to you in helping explain the character of wars, as well as how they are won and lost. Depending on the question, you might use most of what you have learnt here or just a part of it, but it will enable you to present an analytical response and that has got to lift your grade.