Coup
A coup or French outdated Coup de Main commonly referred to a the enemy unprepared striking attack that overwhelmed him without any effective means of defense. Coming from the military (see below), the term is also used in common parlance for political or economic takeovers .
etymology
The word has been used in German since the 16th century, initially in the sense of "slap your hand". The word was later taken over as a loan translation from French Coup de main in the sense of military meaning.
Before modern warfare
In the early days, warfare was mainly aimed at conquering and holding important cities and castles. At that time, a coup d'état was understood as the conquest of an enemy fortification without siege . In connection with a coup d'état on a fortification, a spy or defector opened the gates when the attacking army arrived.
The conquest of Troy through the use of the Trojan horse is not to be seen as a coup , despite taking advantage of a surprise, as a long siege preceded it.
In 1620 during the Bohemian War , the Colonel Sergeant Count Heinrich von Dampierre tried to take the city and the Pressburg Castle in a coup with 10,000 men . However, this failed and Dampierre was killed.
In warfare
The coup d'état is a surprising, raid-like attack on enemy forces or on an enemy object behind enemy lines, in which this was previously unrecognized, rarely also in an enemy battle line as in the trench warfare of the First World War by the storm troops - mostly by a sub-unit, rarely one Unit.
The of combat "attack" is planned in advance compared to the coup and prepared, is carried out by an association and reinforced by planned fire support.
The coup d'état is an act of combat that is used by the infantry, especially in hunting combat . Combat activities during the hunt cannot be ordered by the command level leading the mission. The on-site guide decides ad hoc about the deployment by leading with assignment , whether and when a successful implementation is possible.
In contrast to an ambush, the coup is carried out as a combat act of attack. Surprise and abrupt execution are essential to success. The purpose of the coup d'état is to surprise the opponent, to establish a temporal and spatial superiority in order to destroy him or to inflict losses, and then to break away from the enemy before he can organize a defense and take a counterattack.
The coup d'état is part of the hunting combat type of combat , rarely any other special combat action.
For the coup, the sub-unit is converted into a cover group with all heavy infantry weapons such as B. machine gun and bazooka and an assault group with all other soldiers. It is essential that the shot sectors are precisely assigned with the main direction of fire and the left and right border so that the assault group does not get into the fire area of their own weapons.
The cover group holds down the enemy in the break-in point with a fire and prevents enemy forces from being fed in by fire to the left and right of the break-in point.
The storm group holds down the enemy forces with storm fire during the storm, takes the break-in point and destroys the enemy with subsequent penetration, e.g. B. by using hand grenades.
Wire obstacles or other barriers are made passable by means of explosives before the storm . After the break-in, further sub-targets are taken and the cover group is drawn up. Important facilities of the opponent are made unusable by bombardment or detonation .
After the coup d'état, the sub-unit moves to a fixed collection point and moves from there to a new hiding place. In doing so, she has to reckon with opposing forces (including reconnaissance forces) at all times, as the opponent may try to provide his own forces.
literature
- Army Service Regulations 100/100 Leadership in Combat (TF / G) - classified information only for official use (not public), Bonn 1962, 1974, 1998, (new editions and continuous updates), from 2007 Army Service Regulations 100/100 Troop Leadership of Land Forces.
- Army service regulation 100/900: leadership terms.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Coup_de_Main
- ↑ Duden online: coup
- ↑ Friedrich Kluge (inception), Elmar Seebold: Etymological dictionary of the German language . 24th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-017473-1 , p. 389 .