campaign

Hannibal's campaigns against the Romans during the invasion of Italy in the Second Punic War

Campaign , military campaign or military campaign , also outdated military campaign , (en. Campaign, fr. Campagne, ru. Кампания, поход) is the name for a large-scale military enterprise to achieve important military-political and military-strategic goals during one stage of a large one armed conflict (of a war ).

A campaign usually consists of a series of strategic operations and other military activities on the continental theater of war and / or (ocean) sea war theater , which are prepared and carried out according to a common idea and a uniform plan.

Concept history and change in meaning

Originally, a campaign was understood to mean all actions of an army (an army, a fleet) in a war:

• from marching out (maritime - from the exit),
• about the advance (maritime - the crossing) of the troops (forces),
• the raid (invasion) on the territory (equatorium) of the enemy,
• fighting in skirmishes and battles,
• until the return.

According to Carl von Clausewitz, the war sciences preferred "to view war and, in war, the individual campaign as a chain composed of lots of battles [...]"

In the era of the Cabinet Wars (around 1650 to 1800), acts of war were interrupted in winter. The campaign marked only a specific stage in a war lasting several years. A campaign usually comprised all military operations of a calendar year, from one winter camp to the next winter quarters, or even only during one season (e.g. summer campaign). Later designations for campaigns adopted these time limits.

Since the beginning of the 19th century it has been customary to designate all operations of an army that were carried out spatially on an independent part of a theater of war as a campaign (e.g. Africa campaign ) in official documents . With Carl von Clausewitz it says: "Whether one calls [...] campaign what happened in one year of warlike incidents [...], it is more common and more certain to understand the incidents of a theater of war by it." A war could and can therefore consist of several campaigns.

In the literature, in historical wars, the term campaign can often refer to the entire war; H. for more than a year, such as Napoleon's Russian campaign . Clausewitz writes: “Nobody will let the campaign of 1812 end on the Memel, where the armies were on January 1st, and count the further retreat […] over the Elbe for the campaign of 1813, since it apparently only covered a part of the entire withdrawal from Moscow. "

In military parlance at the beginning of the 21st century, a campaign is understood to mean self-contained and uninterrupted strategic operations and other military activities on the continental theater of war and / or (oceanic) naval theater of war that are prepared according to a common idea and a uniform plan and be carried out. The military operations in Syria of the armed forces grouping of Russia (2015-2017, campaign in Syria) provide an example of application.

Other uses of the term

In a figurative sense, the word campaign can also denote systematic attempts to influence or combat something or someone, e.g. B .:

• Advertising campaign ,
• Election campaign ,
• Vengeance campaign .

A campaign in this sense is similar to the campaign .

literature

• Carl von Clausewitz : About the war. Left work by General Carl von Clausewitz. MfNV publishing house, Berlin 1957.

• Bernhard von Poten (Ed.): Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. Volume 3. Leipzig 1877, p. 274, s. v. campaign

• Georg von Alten (Hrsg.): Handbook for Army and Fleet. Encyclopedia of Martial Sciences and Allied Fields. Volume 2. Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Stuttgart 1911, p. 550, s. v. campaign

• Collective of authors: Military Encyclopedia (Russian), Военный Энциклопедический Словарь. Main editor S. F. Achromejew, Moscow 1986, 863 pp.

Web links

Wiktionary: Campaign  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: War campaign  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Author collective: Military encyclopedia dictionary (Russian), Военный Энциклопедический Словарь. Main editor S. F. Achromejew, Moscow 1986, p. 313.
2. ↑ See term (Russian) поход. In: Author collective: Military encyclopedia (Russian), Военный Энциклопедический Словарь. Main editor S. F. Achromejew, Moscow 1986, p. 581.
3. ↑ See Carl v. Clausewitz: About the war. Left work by General Carl von Clausewitz. Verlag des MfNV, Berlin 1957, p. 162.
4. ↑ See Carl v. Clausewitz: About the war. Left work by General Carl von Clausewitz. Verlag des MfNV, Berlin 1957, p. 293.
5. ↑ See Carl v. Clausewitz: About the war. Left work by General Carl von Clausewitz. Verlag des MfNV, Berlin 1957, p. 293 f.
6. ↑ See conclusion of the Russian army's campaign in Syria (2015–2017). Interview with Valery Gerasimov: We have broken the backbone of the forces of terrorism. Translation a. d. Soot. Rainer Böhme, Dresden 2018, URL [1]