Introduction to Army
Army, a large body of men (and sometimes women) trained and armed for land warfare. An army mainly comprises of ground troops, their weapons and equipment, and military bases. Infantry, armored vehicles, and artillery along with additional support troops who handle transportation, medical care, and other responsibilities are also part of the army.
The size and strength of armies varies greatly as it is dependent on many factors. A countrys economy plays a major role as wealthy nations are able to expensive weapons and pay large numbers of soldiers.
Today, all developed nations maintain armies with large numbers of tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and even ships. The less developed nations that cannot afford to have advanced weapons often have to depend on specially trained light infantry, small ground attack aircraft, and armored cars.
Switzerland, does not maintain a standing army of professional soldiers as it has very less potential enemies. Instead it has opted for a large national militia of men who can be called into service during crisis situation. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States have extensive foreign commitments and hence, require a huge standing army to meet their international needs.
There are differences in the way countries raise and maintain their army. While some use a military draft, others have universal military service, which necessitates that all qualified men and women in a certain age range serve. There are also some nations that have an entirely volunteer army. In present times, women are included in almost all armies.
Armies are divided into regular army and an army reserve by most of the nations. The professional soldiers constitute the regular army and receive regular training and are always on active duty and ready for combat. It is not affordable for nations to maintain a regular army large enough to meet any crisis. A large amount of army reserve is even maintained by those nations that mostly rely on regular forces. This reserve is also called a national guard or militia and trains citizens for immediate active duty in an emergency.
The biggest units of some armies are called army groups, comprising several hundred thousand soldiers. 50,000 to 100,000 soldiers form a single corps, and many such corps forms an army. Each of the corps is divided into two or more divisions and any necessary support troops.
The basic fighting unit of many armies is known as the division, which include infantry, armored forces, and artillery; and engineers, who are also sometimes considered as combat troops. Support troops who handle transportation, medical care, and other responsibilities are also included in the divisions. Divisions usually are identified according to their equipment, training, and function. Infantry, mechanized, armored, and airborne divisions are included in the types of divisions. Each of the division may vary in size from about 10,000 to 18,000 soldiers. In addition most of the divisions have three or more brigades of roughly equal size, and each brigade has three to five battalions. The battalion, which is a combat unit of 500 to 800 soldiers, is further divided into groups of 100 to 200 soldiers. Infantry and armored units of this size are generally known as companies. Artillery groups also known to be as batteries and groups of cavalry are called troops.
Armies are mainly used by the nations to conquer enemy territory and also to defend itself from attack. Army plays a role in preventing war during peacetime and also come to the rescue of civilians in certain emergencies. As an example of armies preventing war was in 1991, when French and Belgian troops went to Zaire, now Congo (Kinshasa), to restore order after Zairian soldiers rioted.
Tactical nuclear weapons were developed in the mid 20th century, which gave armies an important defensive strategy. These weapons were designed with the purpose of being used in places where a conventional war was being fought. The army, which massed its men and equipment, was vulnerable to a nuclear attack. The fear of being faced with such an attack could prevent a nation from attacking an enemy. This idea is called deterrence and was used by the Soviet Union and Western nations from the end of World War II in 1945 to the late 20th century, which was a period of hostility known as the Cold War.
The term army refers both to the complete ground forces of a country and also to a large tactical unit (more properly called a field army), such as the U.S. Fifth Army. In this article, the more general meaning is intended—"army" means all of a nation's ground forces. An army's ranking is based on its overall fighting strength, which in turn depends on the number of troops on active duty, well-trained soldiers and modern weapons. A small army with tactical nuclear weapons may possess greater attacking power than a huge army with antiquated weapons.
Nations like China, India, North Korea, Russia, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom have the worlds major armies. Excluding India and North Korea, all other nations armies have tactical nuclear weapons. But, India and North Korea have the potential to produce such weapons in future.
China's army, with a force of approximately 2,900,000, is the world's largest. The country has nearly 1 1/2 million troops on active duty. A large number of the Chinese forces are assigned to defensive positions near the Russian border in northeastern China. About 800,000 of the Chinese army have people in its reserve and armed militia. China uses a military draft.
The U.S. Army, excluding personnel not on active duty, has a strength of about 509,000. The United States Army has about 500,000 troops on active duty. Armies are stationed in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, and parts of Latin America and the Middle East. The United States Army mainly comprise of volunteers. The largest European armies are those of Russia and Germany. Russia has an army of approximately 460,000; Germany's is estimated at 255,000. The Russian Army, which is officially called the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation, has about 400,000 troops on active duty. A large number of Russian armies are posted along Russia's border with China. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia began to organize its army in 1992. The Russian army has small forces in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Moldova, and Tajikistan. The army has both volunteers and draftees. Russian soldiers can serve in the reserve until the age of 50 after 18 months of active duty.
There are about 1,100,000 men on active duty, about 300,000 in the reserve, and about 40,000 in the Territorial Army of the Indian Army. Mainly as doctors and nurses, only a few hundred women serve in the Indian Army. All members of India's Army are volunteers.
There are about 950,000 troops on active duty and about 600,000 in the reserve of the North Korean Army. Men from the ages of 20 to 25 are drafted to serve for five to eight years. After their service is over, the men can serve part-time in local militias until the age of 40 and then in the Red Guard until the age of 60. Women may join the army on a volunteer basis.
The French Army comprise of about 135,000 members on active duty and 11,000 in the reserve. Countries like Western Europe, several African countries, and in France's overseas territories, French troops are mainly stationed. The French Army has both volunteers and draftees.
There are about 115,000 troops on active duty, about 200,000 people in the reserve, and about 40,000 members of the Territorial Army of the British Army. British troops are stationed in Germany, Northern Ireland, and many other parts of the world. All members of the British Army are volunteers.
Other countries like Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam also have a major army presence. All these countries have 300,000 or more troops on active duty. The armies of these countries have purchased weapons and equipment from the world's major powers. None of these nations has tactical nuclear weapons; however Pakistan has the potential to produce them.
From about the 16th century until the 20th, armies generally had three combat arms, or branches: infantry, the foot soldiers with rifles and bayonets; artillery, with the big guns; and cavalry, shock troops that fought on horses with lances, sabers, carbines, and pistols. The first two combat arms are still used, but cavalry has been replaced by armor, a powerful striking force equipped with tanks and other fighting vehicles. Modern warfare requires such close cooperation among these branches that the distinction between them is disappearing. In the early 17th century, the importance of navies increased equal to that of land forces. In the early 20th century, military aircraft first came on the scene, changing the face of warfare permanently. Today, many nations have started using their armies in combination with air and naval units in joint operations. Military alliances, which began to rise in the 18th century had led to the development of combined or coalition warfare, which involves the military forces of several nations.
Nuclear weapons, missiles, and many other new weapons cannot be fitted neatly into the traditional branches of service. Missiles fired from fixed mounts may be handled by artillerymen, but other missiles—some as large as artillery shells—may be fired from a simple tube handled by one infantry soldier. Infantrymen may march to battle as they have for hundreds of years, or they may be carried in armored cars or in helicopters, or parachuted from planes.
At various times throughout history, armies have been made up of professional soldiers, mercenaries, volunteers, or conscripts. Some nations have used two or more of these types at the same time.
A professional, or regular, army is made up of soldiers who devote their careers to the military service of their country. Nearly all nations support a standing army of this type, prepared to fight on a moment's notice. Mercenaries are soldiers who will fight for any country that pays them. Volunteers are men who enlist in time of war or national emergency. A conscript army consists of men drafted, or conscripted, by the government.
Not all members of an army take part in fighting. Combat troops require a variety of supporting troops—cooks to prepare food, truck drivers to haul supplies, mechanics to repair equipment. Every fighting soldier in the U. S. Army during World War II was supported by three or four men behind the lines.
Most large armies are organized into two or more field armies. Other units, listed in order of decreasing size, are corps, divisions, brigades or regiments, battalions, companies (or batteries), platoons, and squads. The size of each of these units varies from time to time and country to country.
How An Army Fights
The art of planning major military movements is called strategy. Tactics is the execution of those plans on the battlefield. Logistics deals with transporting troops to fighting fronts and supplying them with guns, ammunition, food, and clothing. These three terms cover virtually the whole range of military affairs.
StrategyThis term has often been defined as "the art of the general," but in modern war it is also the concern of a country's political leaders. Grand strategy is the overall planning of a war, involving naval and air forces as well as armies. The strategist decides where to place his forces, when to attack, and when to go on the defensive. His role is somewhat like that of a football coach who trains his team to use certain plays and decides how and when to use his best players.
TacticsIf strategy is compared to the work of a football coach, tactics may be likened to the work of a quarterback who calls the signals on the playing field. The tactical commander tries to surprise, outwit, and outmaneuver the enemy.
On the battlefield, the tactical commander usually sends out scouting parties to discover where the enemy is, how strong he is, and how well defended his positions are. The commander also makes use of aerial photographs obtained from satellites, reconnaissance airplanes, and drones (unmanned aircraft). With knowledge thus collected, he can choose the best time and place for his attack.
In making an attack, army commanders usually follow one of three standard patterns—penetration, flank attack, or encirclement (sometimes called envelopment). Penetration is a plunge through the enemy's line. Such an attack is often spearheaded by a hard-hitting tank and infantry team. The flanks, or ends, of an enemy's line are usually weaker than the front, and a flank attack is an attempt to take advantage of this weakness. In an encirclement the aim is to surround the enemy force. Sometimes troops parachute behind enemy lines, or are landed from helicopters, to seize key points and help open the way for ground attackers.
In guerrilla warfare, as in the Vietnamese War, these traditional methods are generally impractical because guerrillas do not form lines of battle but use hit-and-run tactics.
Tanks, mobile artillery, trucks, aircraft, and missiles are extremely valuable in all forms of attack. An army is usually at a great advantage if it can move quickly, strike the enemy by surprise at a weak point, and bring up reinforcements as soon as they are needed. The military term for this is mobility. But mobility must be coupled with firepower—powerful, accurate, rapid-firing guns and missile launchers in sufficient numbers to outgun the enemy—if an army is to be truly effective.
Most military offensives are preceded by intensive artillery and missile barrages aimed at knocking out the enemy's strong points and destroying bridges and railways in his rear. Aerial bombing and strafing attacks supplement artillery fire.
On the defensive, armies conceal their positions by camouflage, and "dig in" for protection. When time is short, troops dig simple foxholes for shelter. If there is more time, elaborate bunkers may be built of heavy logs or concrete and systems of trenches may be dug. Barbed wire and land mines help block the enemy's approaches.
LogisticsThis branch of military science is discussed in the article Logistics.
Ancient and Medieval Armies
The first armies were small bands of men equipped with clubs and spears, led by tribal chiefs. Large organized armies first appeared in ancient Egypt and the Middle East about 1500 B.C. or earlier. As civilizations grew in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Asia, and in the Nile Valley of Africa, ancient armies also started developing. The Babylonians had built a regular army of spear throwers and archers as early as 3200 B.C. In about 2500 B.C., the Sumerians used the first war chariots. These chariots were driven by small wild asses and, later, by horses. Organized armies that were equipped with spears and battering rams were first formed by Assyrians in the 8th century B.C.
One of the largest and most powerful ancient armies was that of the Persian Empire. Cyrus the Great of Persia was the mightiest conqueror of the period. Cyrus extended the Persian Empire to include most of southwestern Asia in the 300's B.C. It had perhaps 500,000 men in time of war. This force was made up of mass formations of infantry supported by charioteers. After being supreme for centuries, the Persian army was finally defeated by the smaller but more cleverly led Greek army under Alexander the Great. The first known military supply system was organized by Alexander the Great of Macedonia. The key to this army's success was its basic tactical unit, the phalanx. The ancient Greeks were the first to introduce phalanx, which was probably the first important tactical formation in history, in the 7th century B.C. Phalanx was primarily a defensive formation, where soldiers with spears and heavy armor stood from 4 to 50 rows deep in a solid rectangle. Although it could neither move rapidly nor attack across rough ground but it was strong enough to withstand the shock of a cavalry charge.
After the decline of Greece in the third century B.C., the Roman army rose to dominate the ancient world. Under the Roman republic, all young men were trained for military service and subjected to rigid discipline. The Romans developed the legion, during the early 4th century B.C. The legion was a tactical unit that was easier to maneuver than the Greek phalanx. Under Julius Caesar the Roman legions conquered most of western Europe, built roads and bridges. Consisting of three lines of small phalanxes called maniples or, later, cohorts, the legion is a rectangular formation that had greater flexibility than the phalanx. The Romans, who were also skilled military engineers, conquered Carthage in 146 B.C. and built a great empire overseas.
Totally secluded from the rest of the world, the China's civilization grew up from the empires of Europe and western Asia. It was long before the A.D. 14th century that the Chinese had knowledge of gunpowder, when Europeans began to use it in guns. As the Chinese did not use gunpowder in artillery, except possibly in rockets, it did not become an important weapon of war for them.
Ancient armies had no artillery, in the modern sense, but they employed "engines of war" that could throw huge stones, arrows, or pots of burning tar.
In the Battle of Adrianople (378 A.D.), mounted barbarian warriors defeated Roman legions, marking the decline of infantry as the decisive factor in battle. After the fall of Rome in the fifth century A.D., organized armies virtually ceased to exist in Europe. In the Middle Ages, military relationship was the basis of Western Europe's society. In this kind of a society, a king ruled the society supported by the nobles who had political, economic, judicial, and military power. Throughout the Middle Ages armies were small, poorly organized, and poorly equipped. The armored knight on horseback, wielding lance, armor and broadsword, was for centuries the dominant military force. Castles were built as defensive positions by local barons.
To minimize the cost of maintaining medieval armies, some rulers opted for mercenaries who were hired soldiers to fight for their nations. Some of the mercenaries were specialized in siege weaponry, such as the stone-throwing weapons called catapults, while others used crossbows or long spears known as pikes. The Swiss pikemen were the best-known mercenaries of the late Middle Ages, who used to form large phalanxes to prevent heavily armored, mounted knights from overrunning them. The company, which still forms the basic unit of most armies, was the Swiss mercenaries, formed groups with hired soldiers from England, Germany, and Italy.
Each feudal lord had his following of knights, squires, pikemen, and bowmen, but there was little organization; leadership depended on example and persuasion. The commander of a medieval army customarily divided it into three battles corresponding to right wing, center, and left wing. This type of organization was better than none, but it did not provide the commander with much control over his forces in combat.
The Ottoman Empire, which ruled what are now Turkey, the Middle East, Greece, and most of southeastern Europe were the first to establish the first full-time professional national army since the Roman Empire, during the 14th century. Mostly slave soldiers taken from the Balkan provinces, these soldiers, were known as Janissaries. On the battlefield they were much feared as they were loyal only to the sultan, who ruled the Ottoman Empire, and to their fellow Janissaries.The Western European nations maintained a permanent army walking on the lines of the Ottoman example. A permanent army, usually known as the Royal Army or King's Army was maintained by majority of the European nations by 1500. The German independent states were the first to develop permanent quartermaster organizations to find quarters and food for their armies.
Modern Armies
BeginningsGunpowder, which came into use in the late 13th or early 14th century, completely changed warfare and had a dramatic impact on the organization and tactics of armies, and also played a major role in ending feudalism. Gunpowder-based artillery made the rulers more powerful. A knight's armor was little protection against firearms, and artillery eventually doomed the castle as a fortification. Artillery was too costly to be privately owned, and it became the property of the king. He employed professional cannoneers to man the guns; this was the beginning of standing armies.
At the end of the 15th century Spain hired professional soldiers and formed them into tercios, units composed of musketeers (soldiers armed with muskets) and pikemen (armed with pikes). These units were the first infantry, in the modern sense. By this time the long dominance of mounted knights, which had begun to crumble as early as the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), was ended.
In the early 17th century King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden organized what is con-sidered the first modern army. He formed companies of 72 musketeers and 54 pikemen to fight in lines six files deep instead of in solid masses. Companies were assigned to larger units called battalions, regiments, and brigades. Cuirassiers, cavalry wearing cuirasses (light armor in the form of a vest), were used as shock troops. Dragoons were mounted infantry. He adopted lighter guns and carriages to make his artillery more mobile and used it closely associated with his infantry.
France during the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715) produced notable military organizers and theorists. The Marquis de Louvois as minister of war was the first to set up an organization to handle army supply. He also instituted inspections to insure uniformity of discipline. One of his inspectors, Jean Martinet, left his name in military language (and in common speech as well) for a person who insists on petty details of discipline. The Marquis de Vauban was the first great military engineer. His methods of constructing fortresses—and of besieging them—were followed for several generations.
18th CenturyFrederick the Great of Prussia took over many French developments, notably the bayonet, which had been developed in the early 17th century. He particularly emphasized a warfare of rapid movement. To his army he added hussars (light cavalry for scouting and skirmishing) and horse artillery (in which all men who served the guns were mounted). Like other armies of this period, his troops fought in straight lines and maneuvered on command as if on the parade ground. He developed the "oblique order," a superior method of maneuvering and controlling these rigid lines.
The British brought these drill-book tactics with them to America. The French and Indians, however, fought from behind cover and the rigid, unbroken lines of British soldiers proved easy targets for them in their defeat of forces under General Edward Braddock in 1755. Lord Augustus Howe, observing the success of the Indian-type tactics of Robert Rogers' group of raiders called the Rangers, suggested that the British adopt formations of light infantry. This concept led to the use of a single line of skirmishers—infantrymen sent out ahead of the main body of troops to seek out the enemy.
In France artillery was standardized by Jean Baptiste de Gribeauval, who developed lighter and more maneuverable guns. The Duke of Broglie and Count Jacques Antoine Hippolyte de Guibert suggested forming various kinds of troops into divisions and grouping the divisions in larger units called corps. Pierre-Joseph Bourcet proposed a staff corps to make maps and prepare war plans. In Prussia Frederick the Great started training of staff officers.
19th CenturyA military draft system was adopted in 1793 by the French government. Napoleon successfully applied the ideas of the military theorists who had gone before him. He became a master of rapid movement, of surprise, and of maneuver to bring force to bear on enemy weakness. France during the Industrial Revolution had adopted conscription, creating mass armies and the concept of "the nation in arms" in which all citizens are involved in a war. The huge armies of the 19th century greatly complicated the problems of logistics—supply and movement. Napoleon coined the phrase "An army moves on its stomach."
After defeating Prussia at Jena in 1806 Napoleon imposed a limit of 42,000 men on the Prussian army. Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst evaded this limitation by training men for military service and then passing them into the reserve; thus the army itself was small but it was backed by trained men who could be called into service when needed. This was the first effective reserve system, and it proved its value in the eventual defeat of Napoleon.
By the time of the American Civil War firepower had so increased because of improved firearms that the stand-up fight of lines of infantry was permanently abandoned. By 1864 soldiers, even without orders, dug trenches to protect themselves, and the last year of the war was fought largely in field fortifications. In this war railroads were first used to move and supply troops, and the telegraph was first used to transmit orders.
The value of efficient staff planning was demonstrated in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71, in which the German armies quickly defeated the French. In this war were made the last charges by large masses of cavalry. Development of rapid-fire, breech-loading arms spelled the doom of the horse on the battlefield.
Machine guns and barbed-wire entanglements were innovations in the Spanish-American War, 1898. In the Boer War, 1899–1902, British forces found that modern arms could not easily overcome guerrilla forces.
World War I and AfterIn World War I, 1914–18, machine guns and greatly increased use of rapid-fire artillery drove the armies underground, and most of the fighting for four years on the Western Front was from elaborate trench systems. Railways were used to carry millions of soldiers to the fighting fronts and by motor trucks to haul supplies from railroads to the front lines.
The Germans introduced poison gas in an effort to break through, but gas proved a peril to the user as well as to the opponent. It was rarely tried after World War I. In 1916 Britain introduced the tank. It was slow-moving and lightly armed, but it proved moderately effective. In World War I also came the first use of the airplane in warfare—at first only for reconnaissance, but later for bombing behind the lines and for support of troop movements.
In World War II, from 1939-1945, greatly improved tanks and airplanes caused a revolution in military tactics. The Allies, who included Canada, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, fought the Axis powers, which included Germany and Japan in the war. There was no trench warfare. The Germans developed the blitzkrieg (lightning war), in which tanks, fast-moving columns of troops, and supporting aircraft fought as a unit and quickly overran opposing forces. (These tactics were later adopted by the Allies, notably under the American general George S. Patton.) The airplane was put to new uses in World War II—to carry troops into battle and for long-range strategic bombing.
In World War II armies in large-scale airborne operations were first used. The first successful paratroop invasion in May 1941 was launched by the Germans, when they seized the island of Crete. When Allied armies landed in Normandy, in northern France, the largest combined land, sea, and air attack in history occurred on June 6, 1944.
In the Pacific, the war was amphibious. First the Japanese seized Allied territory by seaborne invasions and then the Allies took key islands with a series of brief but costly amphibious assaults. These campaigns demonstrated the importance of close cooperation between land, sea, and air forces.
The atomic bomb was used in the last stages of the war against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but was not used in the numerous "limited" wars that followed. Although these wars were fought largely with weapons like those used in World War II, there were such new developments as guided missiles, helicopters, and jet aircraft. These weapons changed the thinking of many experts about the tactical use of nuclear weapons. Such cannons and missiles could launch nuclear warheads at a large body of troops, a supply dump, or any other target within the weapons' range. Except in the Korean War (1950–53) the "limited" wars rarely involved full-scale combat between large masses of troops; the trend, rather, was toward guerrilla warfare, in which small units of fast-moving troops strike quickly and then withdraw.
During its involvement in the Vietnam War, from 1965 to 1973, the United States Army relied heavily on conventional warfare tactics. To fight Communist guerrillas in the jungles of Vietnam, these tactics were considered the most effective way by the American army. The Vietnamese guerrillas relied on surprise and mobility and avoided major battles in the open, where heavy U.S. firepower could be decisive. In 1956, 1967, and 1973, the Arab and Israeli forces fought wars using conventional weapons. Both the sides resembled the tactics of World War II, in which aircraft and tanks spearheaded attacks and were followed into battle by infantry.
In the late 20th century, the armies of developed nations have applied tactics like fighting brief fights, intense wars that usually decide a conflict quickly. Development in computer technology and other electronics also made a massive impact on armies. Today, instant satellite photographs, real-time images of battlefields, and worldwide communications with political and military leaders are easily accessible by many armies. On very short notice, now Armies can concentrate on strategic mobility, the ability to quickly move troops, supplies, and equipment anywhere. This can be done using fast troop transport ships and large, troop-carrying jet airplanes. In only two months, the United States deployed nearly 200,000 troops and their equipment to Saudi Arabia during the Operation Desert Storm in 1990.