THE NATURE OF WARFARE (/)

Combat situation over time

WW1The combat situation in WW1 was close proximity attrition warfare. The use of trenches in World War One meant that soldiers inopposing trenches were ver close to each other usually about 50 to 250 metres with some parts of trenches being closer. This closeproximity fighting meant that the use of resonably close range weapons were needed but the weapons also needed to be powerful andhave a fast firing time. The use of close range weapons or explosives such as grenades was widely used in World War One particularly inthe trenches as not much skill was needed to throw to cause substantial damage. The use of artillery weapons such as howitzers andcannons were used on the shores of Gallipoli where the ottoman soldiers had the advantage of higher ground. Although artilleryweapons were mostly used in higher areas then the enemy they were used to bomb the enemy's trenches from a resonably long range.In World War One most of the strategies included cutting off supply lines by the use of long range weaponry. Trench warfare brought theworst out of both sides but in some parts informal tunes were made and both sides were against killing each other and sometimes evenplayed each other in soccer matches and exchanged gifts which was seen in Christmas 1914 near the town of Armentieres. The use ofdevices such as the trench periscope enabled soldiers to see where to fire and was made of common things found in the trenches. Theuse of these periscopes was needed in the trenches because of the close range combat, if you put your head over the trench you wouldbe likely to be shot.The living situation in World War One is no where like today in World War One men were living in dugouts of the side of the trencheswhereas today soldiers are situated in military camps with many amenities such as hot showers, food places (mess tents), flushing toiletsand beds. During WW1 hand to hand combat was not used much but in surprise attacks over the trenches into enemy trenches where the knives onthe front of the rifles (the bayonets) were mostly used for close in combat where the use of firearms is impractical. Hand to hand combatwas not used very much during World War One because of the use of improved firearms. Before WW1 hand to hand combat was theusual battle situation with the inaccuracies and the ineffectiveness of early firearms being a driving factor.Aircraft in WW1 were only really used for surveillance purposes because the idea of the aircraft was fairly new with the Wright brotherspowered flight in 1903. Early aircraft were biplanes and could only fly at a low altitude and they were usually made of canvas and awooden frame. The use of aircraft during WW1 did not majorly effect the combat situation in World War One but it was used widely inlater wars such as WW2, Vietnam and Used widely today.At the start of WW1 many people thought cavalry would win the war with the light horse brigade playing a crucial role in the first years of

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only really used no mans land This is where the use ofbayonets

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the war. During the war many horses were killed or wounded and with the invention of the armoured vehicle becoming the tank the lighthorses were superseded by these new inventions. The last charge of the cavalry was at Beersheba on October 31 where the mountedinfantry, some of which from the Australian light horse division which were raised at the start of WW1. Today the armoured division inAustralia is still called the light horse brigade, with the 10th light horse brigade being situated in Karakatta near Perth.The combat situation in WW1 was relatively close range but in WW2 combat also came from the skies.

WW2

Vietnam War

During world war 2 the combat situation changed, no longer werethe skies home for just intelligence but now the use of improvedaircraft for bombing meant that the combat situation came closerto home with allied cities such as London being bombed regularly.The improvement of aircraft engines and building materials meantthat aircraft could carry many bombs and be armed with multiplemachine guns. Air to Air combat became more prevalent in WW2with defensive air craft fighting each other to stop bombings.Trench warfare was scarcely used in WW2 because it didn't workeffectively and more mobile warfare took place with many tankbattles. Anti aircraft and Anti ship gun implacements were oftenscattered around major coastal cities and coupled with bunkershave been somewhat effective in protecting these cities. The useof tanks in WW2 with greater gun capacity caused lots ofdestruction and WW2. WW2 was a highly mobile war withimproved tanks and aircraft and the use of atomic weapons suchas the destruction of Heroshima and Nagasaki by the UnitedStates. The combat situation in World War Two became moredistant with weapons such as torpedoes and improvements onartillery weapons on naval vessels also played a key role in WW2.WW2 had a combat situation that was more machinery tomachinery greatly changing the way war is fought today.WW2 was a big change from WW1 where military machinerybecame more advanced with the improvement in aircraft andnaval vessels. This changed the combat situation to be moremachine based where men were employed to mark machineryrather than fight in the trenches like WW1. Although there weremany changes some things still stayed the same such as the evergrowing need for military intelligence. Military intelligence wasimportant in WW1 but not as important as in WW2 wherecommunications became more encrypted with the use of theGerman Enigma machine. Having this intelligence enabled theAllies to stop attacks using the new mobilised military machinerytherefore saving many lives.

A WW2 Bomber plane

A WW2 Gun emplacement in Darwin

The start of the Vietnam war prompted a new style of warfareknown as guerrilla warfare. This was due to the jungle like terrainmeaning that attacks were spontaneous and usually not plannedvery far ahead. The combat situation in the Vietnam was mostlysurprise attacks with the North Vietnamese Viet cong soldiersagainst the southern soldiers and their allies the U.S . The changein the combat situation was that the U.S didn't know whether ornot people were concealing weapons with many "rebel" groupsseemingly innocent women even children becoming instantthreats to soldiers. These situations caused the re implementationof close range combat and the Vietnam war sparked the use ofever advancing technology. Machinery such as machine gunswhich used to be mounted on the ground were now used inhelicopters making an extremely deadly mobile machine. TheVietnam war started advancements in communication withsattelite phones and radio recievers. This made the combat morestrategic and was effective in warning others about the presenceof the enemy. The Vietnam was the start of the warfare wheresometime women and even children become involved and thishas continued into the type of warfare today the war againstterrorism with many terror groups training up the unsuspecting tocommit attacks against the enemy.Tunnels- The Viet cong soldiers, which were the communist side,enemy's to the U.S built 15000 km of underground tunnel

A 13 year old boy in the Vietnam war

WW2

prevent bombings of cities

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Today

networks which were used to house troops and transport militaryequipment such as supplies and communication. The tunnelswere very tight about 0.8 metres wide and from 0.8 to 1.8 metreshigh. The tunnels were covered by trapdoors which was how thesoldiers made surprise attacks. This changed the combat situationbecause of how quickly and quietly the surprise attacks took place.These tunnels although underground are in many ways like thetrenches. There were poor conditions and men lived their livessleeping and eating in the trenches.

The Vietnamese tunnel systems

The combat situation today varies to where the war is beingfought. The combat situation today consists mainly of intelligencemissions and operations to try and prevent terrorism. War todayin some places is long range missiles but many of these weaponsare agreed not to be used by many military superpowers such asthe U.S. Today the combat situation is more about gainingintelligence to outsmart the enemy and this has been improvingwith the use of UAVs and many other unmanned militaryequipment. Advancements in communications and weaponryhave also allowed the combat situation to be that of mobilitywarfare allowing surprise attacks that allow missions to beundertaken and completed within a short time frame. Militaryoperations today are planned tactically, maximising outcomes andminimising risk of casualty and use of resources. Many operationsto do with the direct combat towards terrorist are known as covertoperations and are very secret. The Vietnam war was mostly thesame as today with fighting against many small groups of people.This means that these situations require large amounts ofintelligence because many threats are unsuspecting and if notknown pose a great risk to the lives of military personell. The advancement of technology after the Vietnam war had rapidlychanged the way people communicate. Today communicatingdevices are a lot smaller than in the Vietnam war and have manymore capibilities such as increased range, multiple video streamsand data sharing enabling better planning and more instantintelligence gathering.

Soldiers in Afghanistan today

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but most military superpowers such as the U.S. have agreed not to use weapons of mass destruction.

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