Attrition warfare

Attrition warfare is a military strategy consisting of belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the
point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel.[1] The word attrition comes from the Latin root
atterere, meaning "to rub against", similar to the "grinding down" of the opponent's forces in attrition warfare.[2][3]

Contents
Strategic considerations
Examples in history
Most typical
Best known
Most unusual
List of wars
See also
Military theory
Notes
References

Strategic considerations
Attrition warfare represents an attempt to grind down an opponent's ability to make war by destroying their military resources
by any means including guerrilla warfare, people's war, scorched earth and all kind of battles apart from a decisive battle.[4]
Attrition warfare does not include all kinds of Blitzkrieg or using concentration of force and a decisive battle to win. The side
that reinforces their army at a higher speed will normally win the war. Clausewitz called it the exhaustion of the adversary.[5]

A side that perceives itself to be at a marked disadvantage may deliberately seek out attrition warfare to neutralize its
opponent's advantages over time. Sun Tzu has stated, that there is no country that has benefitted from prolonged warfare,[6]
but Russia in 1812 won the war with attrition warfare against Napoleon. When attritional methods have worn down the
enemy sufficiently to make other methods feasible, attritional methods are often complemented or even abandoned by other
strategies. But in World War I military commanders on both sides relied on attrition warfare resulting in terrible casualties
without a strategic result.

The difference between war of attrition and other forms of war is somewhat artificial since even a single battle normally
contains an element of attrition. One can be said to pursue a strategy of attrition if one makes it the main goal to cause gradual
attrition to the opponent eventually amounting to unacceptable or unsustainable levels for the opponent while limiting one's
own gradual losses to acceptable and sustainable levels. That should be seen as opposed to other main goals such as the
conquest of some resource or territory or an attempt to cause the enemy great losses in a single stroke (such as by
encirclement and capture). Attrition warfare also tries to increase the friction in a war for the opponent.[7]

Examples in history

Most typical

The French invasion of Russia is a textbook example how elements of attrition warfare interfered with Napoleon's military
logistics and won the war without a decisive battle. One of the best visual representations of the Russian attrition warfare
strategies was created by Charles Joseph Minard. It shows the steady decrease of the number of soldiers of the French
Grande Armée during the course of the war.
 Animated map of the Russian
campaign

Minard's map of French casualties see also Attrition warfare against Napoleon

Best known

The best-known example of attrition warfare might be on the Western Front during
World War I.[8] Both military forces found themselves in static defensive positions in
trenches running from Switzerland to the English Channel. For years, without any
opportunity for maneuvers, the only way the commanders thought that they could
defeat the enemy was to repeatedly attack head on and grind the other down.

One of the most enduring examples of attrition warfare on the Western Front is the
Battle of Verdun, which took place throughout most of 1916. Erich von Falkenhayn
later claimed that his tactics at Verdun were designed not to take the city but rather to
The Battle of Verdun resulted in over
destroy the French Army in its defense. Falkenhayn is described as wanting to "bleed
700,000 casualties
France white"[9] and thus the attrition tactics were employed in the battle.

Soldiers on the Italian Front fought a series of battles of attrition along the Isonzo
River between June 1915 and November 1917.[10]

Attritional warfare in World War I has been shown by historians such as Hew Strachan to have been used as a post hoc ergo
propter hoc excuse for failed offensives. Contemporary sources disagree with Strachan's view on this. While the Christmas
Memorandum is a post-war invention, the strategy of attritional warfare was the original strategy for the battle.[11]

Most unusual

An example in which attritional warfare was stumbled into without intent occurred during the latter part of the American
Civil War, when Union general Ulysses S. Grant continually attempted to force the Army of Northern Virginia into a decisive
engagement in the open, but was prevented from doing so by the quick repositioning and refortification by Robert E. Lee.
Due to this, the Army of the Potomac was forced to attempt to dislodge its counterpart with direct attacks against entrenched
positions on numerous occasions.

While these did not yield the breakthrough that Grant had hoped for, and the Union casualties were higher by volume as a
result, the Union was able to replenish its forces more readily, and the Confederacy began taking a higher percentage of
casualties compared to its overall capacity. By the time Grant finally forced Lee into an open engagement at the Battle of
Appomattox Court House, the Army of Northern Virginia was unable to mount an effective counterattack against a fraction
of the Union army, and subsequently surrendered. [12]

List of wars
Scythian tactics during the European Scythian campaign of Darius I of
513 BC, which was in deep steppes retreat, avoiding a direct
confrontation with Darius I's army, while spoiling the wells and pastures.
The Athenians, who were weaker in land warfare during the
Peloponnesian War, employed attrition warfare using their navy.[13]
The "delaying" tactics of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
(surnamed "Cunctator", the delayer) against Hannibal during the Second
Punic War.
Muhammad Tapar's campaign against the Nizaris of Alamut in 1109– Approximately 750,000 soldiers were
1118 killed over four years during the
Second Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1285 and 1286 American Civil War

Fall of Tenochtitlan by Hernán Cortés in 1521

Swedish invasion of Russia in 1708
The American strategy during the American Revolutionary War
The latter portion of the American Civil War, notably the siege of Vicksburg, the overland campaign, and the
siege of Petersburg
The Attrition warfare against Napoleon in the French invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812
The latter stages of the Spanish Civil War (1938–1939)
The Chinese strategy during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Tonnage war in the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II
The Air battle for Great Britain in World War II after the bombing of London
Static battles in World War II, including Soviet urban defense during the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Tabu-dong, and the final two years of the Korean War
The Vietnam War (Body count)
The "Long War" during the Provisional IRA's armed campaign against
the British Army during the Troubles.
The Israeli–Egyptian War of Attrition from 1967 to 1970.
The Soviet–Afghan War
The later phases of the Iran–Iraq War
The War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
The Sri Lankan Civil War after 2005
The 2011 Libyan civil war[14]
The Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) killed
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present) more than 500,000 people before a
The Syrian Civil War[15] (2011–present), in particular the Battle of UN-brokered ceasefire ended it
Aleppo.
The fight of the Polisario Front in Western Sahara against the Moroccan
Army (2020–present).
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military adopted a strategy of attrition.[16]

See also
Asymmetric warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Human wave attack
 Mexican standoff
No-win situation
Pyrrhic victory
Winner's curse
Win-win game

Military theory
Fabian strategy
Flypaper theory (strategy)
Ivan Bloch
Lanchester's laws
Loss Exchange Ratio
Maneuver warfare
New generation warfare

(19th century)

Notes
1. idlocgov 2022, sources.
2. Merriam Webster Dictionary 2021.
3. Murray 2021.
4. idlocgov 2022.
5. Clausewitz 1873, chapter 8.8.
6. Sun Tzu 2004, p. 34.
7. Clausewitz 1873, chapter 1.7.
8. Kaye 1957.
9. firstworldwar 1916.
10. "Battles - The Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo, 1917" (https://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/isonzo11.htm).
firstworldwar.com.
11. Foley 1916.
12. McPherson 1988.
13. Handel 2003.
14. nctimes 2012.
15. DiGiovanni 2012.
16. "Ukraine war in maps: Tracking the Russian invasion" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682).
BBC News. 20 March 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2022.

References
Clausewitz, Carl von (1873). On War (https://www.clausewitz.com/readings/OnWar1873/TOC.htm#a).
Retrieved 3 April 2021.
DiGiovanni, Janine (2012). "Bleary-Eyed Troops Fight a Building at a Time in Syria" (https://www.nytimes.co
m/2012/10/25/world/middleeast/syrian-soldiers-fight-rebels-and-fatigue-in-homs.html). New York Times.
Retrieved 4 April 2021.
firstworldwar (1916). "Erich von Falkenhayn on the Battle of Verdun" (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/ve
rdun_falkenhayn.htm). Retrieved 3 April 2021.
Foley, Robert (1916). "A New Form of Warfare? Erich von Falkenhayn's Plan for Victory, 1916" (https://www.
academia.edu/4955145). Retrieved 16 March 2018.
Handel, Michael I. (2003). Strategic Logic and Political Rationality: Essays in Honor of Michael I. Handel (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=bEKnQyYliFwC&pg=PA80). Psychology Press. p. 80.
ISBN 9780714654843. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
idlocgov (2022). "Attrition (Military science)" (https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008445.html).
Retrieved 27 August 2022.
 Kaye, C.A. (1957). "Military Geology in the United States Sector of the European Theater of Operations
during World War II" (https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/68/1/47/4853/MILITA
RY-GEOLOGY-IN-THE-UNITED-STATES-SECTOR-OF). Geological Society of America Bulletin. 68 (1): 47.
Bibcode:1957GSAB...68...47K (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1957GSAB...68...47K). doi:10.1130/0016-
7606(1957)68[47:MGITUS]2.0.CO;2 (https://doi.org/10.1130%2F0016-7606%281957%2968%5B47%3AMGI
TUS%5D2.0.CO%3B2). Retrieved 3 April 2021.
McPherson, James (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom (https://books.google.com/books?id=vbd_tAEACAAJ).
Oxford University Press. p. 734. ISBN 1442097515. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
Merriam Webster Dictionary (2021). "attrition" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attrition).
Retrieved 3 April 2021.
Murray, Nicholas (2021). "Attrition Warfare" (https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/attrition_warfar
e/%20Attrition%20Warfare). Retrieved 3 April 2021.
nctimes (2012). "Airstrikes turn Libya conflict into battle of attrition" (https://archive.today/2012.09.04-013047/
http://www.nctimes.com/news/world/article_54aa70de-f407-5bbf-b634-5feb98c47dbd.html). Retrieved
3 April 2021.
Sun Tzu (2004). The Art of War (https://archive.org/details/TheArtOfWarBySunTzu). Retrieved 3 April 2021.

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