Attrition warfare

"War of attrition" redirects here. For other uses, see War of attrition (disambiguation).

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, materiel and morale. 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.

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 types of battles apart from a decisive battle. Attrition warfare does not include 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.

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, 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. World War I military commanders on both sides ineffectively relied on attrition warfare, which resulted in 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. A strategy of attrition is pursued when the primary objective is to gradually weaken the opponent to a point of unacceptable or unsustainable loss, while simultaneously ensuring that one's own losses remain within acceptable and sustainable limits. 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.

While attrition warfare might appear to be a strategic option for combatants possessing greater resources or asymmetric advantages over their adversaries, it also carries considerable drawbacks. Perhaps the most common reason for failure of attrition warfare is related to the time required to fulfill one's war goals. The geopolitical and strategic situation may shift dramatically over long periods of time, potentially giving the opponent an edge if victory is not achieved soon enough. Additionally, the attrition strategies gives opponents time to adjust tactics and strategy. Although the strategy is typically victorious for the more well-resourced nation, it may eventually fail due to operational and geopolitical mishaps, such as Athens during the Peloponnesian War, or due to strategic miscalculations, such as Germany during the Battle of Britain.

Examples in history

Most typical

Animated map of the Russian campaign

The French invasion of Russia is a textbook example of attrition warfare, where Russia 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.

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

Best known

The Battle of Verdun resulted in over 700,000 casualties.

One commonly known example of attrition warfare might be on the Western Front during World War I. 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 destroy the French Army in its defense. Falkenhayn is described as wanting to "bleed France white" 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.

Ukrainian soldier in a trench during the Battle of Bakhmut. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War since February 2022.

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.

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 suffered high casualties, the Union was able to replace its losses more readily than the Confederacy. Eventually the Confederate losses rose to a point where they were suffering a larger percentage of casualties compared to its size than their opponents were suffering. 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.

List of wars

Approximately 750,000 soldiers were killed over four years during the American Civil War.

• 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.
• 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 1109–1118
• Second Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1285 and 1286
• 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 later battles of the Philippine–American War
• 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

  

  The Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) killed more than 500,000 people before a UN-brokered ceasefire ended it.

• 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 and later the Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)
• The later phases of the Iran–Iraq War
• The Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001): especially the Bosnian War (1992–1995), the Croatian War (1991–1992 and 1995), and the Kosovo War (1998–1999).
• The War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
• The Sri Lankan Civil War after 2005
• The 2011 Libyan civil war
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)
• The Syrian civil war (2011–present), in particular the Battle of Aleppo (2012–2016).
• The fight of the Polisario Front in Western Sahara against the Moroccan Army (2020–present).
• The Tigray War between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels (2020–2022).
• During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military adopted a strategy of attrition.
• The Israel–Hamas war (2023–present)

See also

• Asymmetric warfare
• Demoralization (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)

References

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• DiGiovanni, Janine (2012). "Bleary-Eyed Troops Fight a Building at a Time in Syria". New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
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• Foley, Robert (1916). "A New Form of Warfare? Erich von Falkenhayn's Plan for Victory, 1916". Retrieved 16 March 2018.
• Handel, Michael I. (2003). Strategic Logic and Political Rationality: Essays in Honor of Michael I. Handel. Psychology Press. p. 80. ISBN 9780714654843. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
• idlocgov (2022). "Attrition (Military science)". 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". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 68 (1): 47. Bibcode:1957GSAB...68...47K. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1957)68[47:MGITUS]2.0.CO;2. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
• McPherson, James (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford University Press. p. 734. ISBN 1442097515. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
• Merriam Webster Dictionary (2021). "attrition". Retrieved 3 April 2021.
• Murray, Nicholas (2021). "Attrition Warfare". Retrieved 3 April 2021.
• nctimes (2012). "Airstrikes turn Libya conflict into battle of attrition". Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• Sun Tzu (2004). The Art of War. Retrieved 3 April 2021.