A pincer movement whereby the red force envelops the advancing blue force.

The pincer movement or double envelopment is a basic element of military strategy which has been used, to some extent, in nearly every war. The flanks of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it. At the same time, a second layer of pincers attacks on the more extreme flanks, so as to prevent any attempts to reinforce the target unit. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,024 × 768 pixels, file size: 411 KB, MIME type: image/png)Diagram of a pincer movement. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,024 × 768 pixels, file size: 411 KB, MIME type: image/png)Diagram of a pincer movement. ... This article is about real and historical warfare. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... “Flanking” redirects here. ...

Most infantry combat, on every scale, is based in some fashion on this military tactic and it is commonly used by aircraft as well. It was vaguely described in Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but he argued that it was best to allow the enemy a path to escape, as he felt the target army would fight with more ferocity when completely surrounded. Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I Infantry or footmen are very highly disciplined and trained soldiers who fight primarily with small arms(rifles), but are trained to use everything from their bare hands to missle systems in order to neutralize... Military tactics is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. ... Flying machine redirects here. ... Sun Tzu (孫子 also commonly written in pinyin: Sūn Zǐ) was the author of The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy (for the most part not dealing directly with tactics). ... For other uses, see The Art of War (disambiguation). ...

A double envelopment by definition leads to the attacking army facing the enemy in front, on both flanks, and in the rear. If the attacking pincers link up in the enemy's rear, the enemy is encircled. Such battles often end in surrender or destruction of the enemy force, although the encircled force can attempt a breakout, attacking the encirclement from the inside in order to escape, or a friendly external force can attack from the outside to open up an escape route for the encircled force. Encirclement is a military term for the situation when one sides force or target is isolated and surrounded by other sides forces. ... Military operation to end a situation of encirclement or siege. ...

Hannibal's double envelopement at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC is viewed by military historians as one of the greatest battlefield maneuvers in history, and is cited as the first successful use of the pincer movement to be recorded in detail.^[1] A variation of this maneuver was also later used to great effect by Khalid ibn al-Walid against the numerically superior forces of the Sassanid Persian Empire at the Battle of Walaja in AD 633, though Khalid developed his version independently.^[2] For other uses, see Hannibal (disambiguation). ... For the 11th century battle in the Byzantine conquest of the Mezzogiorno, see Battle of Cannae (1018). ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC - 210s BC - 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC Years: 221 BC 220 BC 219 BC 218 BC 217 BC - 216 BC - 215 BC 214 BC... Khālid ibn al-Walīd (592-642) (Arabic: خالد بن الوليد) also known as Sayf-Allah al-Maslul (the Drawn Sword of God or Sword of Allah), was one of the two famous Arab generals during the Muslim conquests of the 7th Century. ... The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty (Persian: []) is the name used for the third Iranian dynasty and the second Persian Empire (226–651). ... Persia redirects here. ... Combatants Rashidun Caliphate Sassanid Persian Empire, Christian Arab allies Commanders Khalid ibn al-Walid Andarzaghar Strength 15,000[1] 30,000-50,000[1] Casualties ~1000+ [1] 20,000-30,000 [1][2] The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in May 633 between the Muslim... Events Oswald of Bernicia becomes Bretwalda. ...

See also

• Battle of Cannae
• Battle of Walaja
• Brécourt Manor Assault
• Battle of Cowpens
• Battle of Fraustadt
• Battle of Khalkhin Gol
• Battle of Marathon
• Battle of Stalingrad
• Battle of Tannenberg (1914)
• Encirclement
• Flanking maneuver
• Operation Postern
• Six-Day War

For the 11th century battle in the Byzantine conquest of the Mezzogiorno, see Battle of Cannae (1018). ... Combatants Rashidun Caliphate Sassanid Persian Empire, Christian Arab allies Commanders Khalid ibn al-Walid Andarzaghar Strength 15,000[1] 30,000-50,000[1] Casualties ~1000+ [1] 20,000-30,000 [1][2] The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in May 633 between the Muslim... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Richard Winters unknown Strength 13 60+ Casualties 4 dead, 6 wounded 15 dead, 12 prisoner, Wounded unknown The Brécourt Manor Assault (June 6, 1944) during Operation Chicago of the Normandy Invasion of World War II is often cited as a classic example of small... Combatants United States Great Britain Commanders Daniel Morgan Banastre Tarleton Strength c. ... The battle of Fraustadt was fought on February 3, 1706 between Swedish and Russians. ... Combatants Soviet Union Mongolian Peoples Republic Empire of Japan Manchukuo Commanders Georgy Zhukov Michitaro Komatsubara Strength 57,000 30,000 (initially), 60,000 (as positions reinforced) Casualties Archival research 7,974 killed, 15,251 wounded[1] Japanese government claim 8,440 killed, 8,766 wounded Soviet claim 60,000... Combatants Athens, Plataea Persia Commanders Miltiades, Callimachus â€ , Arimnestus Datis â€ ?, Artaphernes Strength 10,000 Athenians, 1,000 Plataeans 20,000 - 100,000 a Casualties 192 Athenians killed, 11 Plataeans killed (Herodotus) 6,400 killed, 7 ships captured (Herodotus) a These are modern consensus estimates. ... Combatants Germany Romania Italy Hungary Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovskiy Rodion Malinovskiy Andrei Yeremenko Strength Army Group B: German Sixth Army # German Fourth Panzer Army... Combatants  Russian Empire  German Empire Commanders Alexander Samsonov, Paul von Rennenkampf Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff Strength 190,000 150,000 Casualties 30,000 killed or wounded; 95,000 captured 20,000 The Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 was a decisive engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire... Encirclement is a military term for the situation when one sides force or target is isolated and surrounded by other sides forces. ... “Flanking” redirects here. ... Combatants Australia United States Empire of Japan Commanders Douglas MacArthur Hatazô Adachi Strength ~30,000 ~10,000 Casualties  ?  ? The Salamaua-Lae campaign was a series of actions in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Australian and United States forces sought to capture two major Japanese bases, one in... Combatants Israel Egypt Syria Jordan Iraq Commanders Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Uzi Narkiss, Israel Tal, Mordechai Hod, Ariel Sharon Abdel Hakim Amer, Abdul Munim Riad, Zaid ibn Shaker, Hafez al-Assad Strength 264,000 (incl. ...

References

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Further reading

• U.S. Army training manual diagram of different modes of attack, including double envelopment
• GlobalSecurity.org essay with a section on envelopments
• Academic paper on military diagramming with diagram of a double envelopment
• Map of Georgy Zhukov's double envelopment at the battle of Stalingrad