Guerrilla

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Guerrilla (alternative spelling guerilla; also called partisan'\) is a term to describe combat groups. Guerrilla warfare' operates with small, mobile and flexible combat groups called cells, without a front line. Guerrilla warfare is one of the oldest forms of asymmetric warfare. Primary contributors to modern theories of guerrilla war include Mao Zedong and Che Guevara.

Etymology

The term was invented in Spain to describe the tactics used to resist the French regime instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte (one should however remember, that the tactics themselves were known and used even centuries earlier). The Spanish word means "little war".

Tactics

Guerrilla tactics are based on ambush and sabotage, and their ultimate objective is usually to destabilize an authority through long, low-intensity confrontation. It can be quite successful against an unpopular foreign regime: a guerrilla army may increase the cost of maintaining an occupation or a colonial presence above what the foreign power may wish to bear.

Guerrillas in wars against foreign powers do not principally direct their attacks at civilians, as they desire to obtain as much support as possible from the population as part of their tactics. Civilians are primarily attacked or assassinated as punishment for collaboration. Often such an attack will be officially sanctioned by guerrilla command or tribunal. An exception is in civil wars, where both guerrilla groups and organized armies have been known to commit atrocities against the civilian population.

Guerrillas are often characterised as terrorists by their opponents. Guerrillas are in particular danger of not being recognized as combatants because they are outnumbered and may take off their uniforms to mingle with the local population. Guerrillas are usually classified as unlawful enemy combatants.

Guerrillas usually control rural areas with lots of places to hide, such as forests and mountains. Guerrillas rely on a friendly population to provide supply and intelligence. Often the difference between a successful and doomed guerrilla movement is the availability of outside logistics support from foreign opponents of the local regime.

Maoist theory of people's war divides warfare into three phases. In the first phase, the guerrillas gain the support of the population through attacks on the machinery of government and the distribution of propaganda. In the second phase, escalating attacks are made on the government's military and vital institutions. In the third phase, conventional fighting is used to seize cities, overthrow the government and take control of the country.

Examples

Examples of successful guerrilla warfare include conflicts in Indonesia, Angola, Mozambique and Algeria, and the First Boer War. However, guerrilla warfare has generally been unsuccessful against native regimes, which have nowhere to retreat to. The rare examples of successful guerrilla warfare against a native regime include the Cuban Revolution and the Chinese Civil War. More common are the unsuccessful examples of guerrilla warfare, which include Malaysia, Bolivia, Argentina, and the Philippines.

In many cases, guerrilla tactics allow a small force to hold off a much larger and better equipped enemy for a long time, as in the Second Chechen War and the Second Seminole War.

Guerrillas in Europe

In centuries of history, many guerrilla movements appeared in Europe to fight foreign occupation forces. During The Deluge in Poland most of guerrilla tactics were applied. In the 19th century, peoples of the Balkans used the tactics to fight the Ottoman empire. The Spanish used it to fight Napoleon in the Peninsula War.

In World War II, several guerrilla movements operated in the countries occupied by Nazi Germany. These included Home Army, Russian partisans, Yugoslav partisans, French resistance or Maquis, Italian partisans, ELAS and royalist forces in Greece. The United Kingdom created Auxiliary Units to conduct guerrilla warefare in the event of invasion. Before the Second World War the Official or Old IRA that fought in opposition to British Northern Ireland might be called guerrillas.

Currently, the Basque ETA and Corsican FLNC could be called guerrillas, but the governments prefer to call them terrorists. The Provisonal IRA and various anti-Good Friday Agreement splinter-groups could be called guerrillas but were usually called terrorists. In contrast Lloyalist militants were usually referred to as paramilitaries not terrorists.

Guerrillas in the American Revolutionary War

Although the American Revolutionary War is often thought of as a guerrilla war, guerrilla tactics were uncommon, and almost all of the battles involved conventional set piece battles. Some of the confusion may be due to the fact that generals Nathaniel Greene successfully used a strategy of harrassment and progressively grinding down British forces instead of seeking a decisive battle. Nevertheless the tactics used by most of the American forces were those conventional warfare.

One of the exceptions was in the south, the brunt of the war was upon militia forces, who were greatly outnumbered by enemy British troops, but used concealment, surprise, and other guerrilla tactics to much advantage. General Francis Marion of South Carolina, who often attacked the British at unexpected places, then would fade into the swamps by the time the British were able to get organized enough to return fire, was named by them The Swamp Fox.

Guerrillas in the American Civil War

John Singleton Mosby formed a guerrilla unit during the American Civil War, which Mosby called his "Partisan Rangers".

In the late 20th century several historians have focused on the non-use of guerilla warfare to prolong the war. Near the end of the war, there were those in the Confederate government, namely Jefferson Davis who advocated continuing the southern fight as a guerilla conflict. He was opposed by generals such as Robert E. Lee who ultimately believed that surrender was better than guerilla warfare.

Guerrillas in Latin America

In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Latin America had a number of urban guerrilla movements whose strategy was to destabilize democratic regimes and provoke a counter-reaction by the military. The theory was that a harsh military regime would oppress the middle classes who would then support the guerrillas and create a popular uprising.

Unfortunately, while these movements did destabilize governments, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, and Peru to the point of military intervention, the military generally then proceeded to wipe out the guerrilla movements, often committing atrocities among both civilians and the armed insurgents in the process.

Guerrillas and the Vietnam War

Within the United States, the Vietnam War is commonly thought of as a guerrilla war. However this is a misleading simplification of a much more complex situation which followed the pattern outlined by Maoist theory.

The Viet Cong or "VC" used guerrilla tactics in the early phases of the war. However, by 1965 when American involvement escalated, the Viet Cong were in the process of being supplanted by regular units of the North Vietnamese Army.

The NVA regiments organized along traditional military lines, were supplied via the Ho Chi Minh trail rather than living off the land, and had access to weapons such as tanks and artillery which are not normally used by guerrilla forces.

Over time, more of the fighting was conducted by the North Vietnamese Army and the character of the war become increasingly conventional. The final offensive into South Vietnam in 1975 was a completely conventional military operation with no elements of guerrilla warfare.

By the end of the Vietnam War, most of the Viet Cong had been killed in action or were no longer combat-effective. One of the first acts of the new North Vietnamese-dominated unified Vietnamese government was to hunt out former Viet Cong and imprison them to consolidate the regime's hold on South Vietnam.