Enemy contact

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The term contact with the enemy describes the first encounter with the enemy. The military meaning of this moment and the term are based on a theory developed around 1870 by Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke . Due to a multitude of unforeseeable factors, he considered a campaign to be predictable only up to the first enemy contact. The mission tactics he developed resulted from this premise , which is still an essential feature of military leadership in the German armed forces. The term not only describes a first battle , but generally the moment when real experiences for the first time replace theoretical assumptions, for example with regard to the location and strength of the enemy, and in which commands or instructions within an order often become effective.

The term enemy contact is used in a large number of military reports and directives in German-speaking countries.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Walle: Moltke, Helmuth Graf (Prussian Baron 1843, Count 1870). In: German biography . Retrieved April 30, 2018 .