(This is Part 10 of a series. Go back to Part 9.)
The fourth sub-principle of concentrating strength against weakness is to:
4. Attack at a gap or joint in the enemy's line.
A gap or joint in the enemy's line is a point of weakness which can be exploited to great advantage. However, it must be quickly used or it will disappear.
Napoleon's characteristic battle plan, which he called "envelopment, breakthrough and exploitation," provides a very good example:
First he would order a frontal attack on the enemy's line. But wait! Didn't we just learn that a direct frontal attack is foolish? Yes, indeed. But Napoleon's frontal attack was simply meant to fix the enemy's attention while the real attack came elsewhere.
Once the enemy general had committed his reserves to counter Napoleon's frontal attack, a large French force would attack the enemy from the rear, along the enemy's line of retreat—the envelopment.
The enemy general would now pull troops from some point in his front line to counter the attack from the rear. The thing is, Napoleon could calculate this point in advance, because inevitably it would be that point in the enemy's line closest to the atttack from the rear.
As the enemy general shifted troops from the front to reinforce his rear, the expected gap or joint would appear in the enemy's front line. When Napoleon saw this point of weakness he would then drive a masse de rupture through it—the breakthrough.
As the enemy army broke up into a panicked mob, the French cavalry would now attack the fleeing soldiers from the rear—the exploitation.
Bonaparte first formulated this "strategic battle," as he called it, at the Battle of Castiglione in 1796, and used variations of it in a number of battles thereafter.
The "strategic battle" shows the power of attacking a gap or joint in the enemy's line. Notice also that Napoleon
created the weakness which he then exploited.
Alexander the Great also exploited a gap to win the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. His army, outnumbered 5 to 1, faced a huge Persian army under Darius II, who watched the battle from a place behind the center of his line.
Darius' cavalry, on the Persian left, moved forward and attacked Alexander's right flank. In doing so, however, the cavalry opened up a gap in the Persian line.
Alexander, always nimble in exploiting opportunities, immediately led his cavalry on a rapid charge into this gap, momentarily overwhelming the troops there. Before they could recover, Alexander and his cavalry quickly wheeled to their left and attacked in flank the Persian soldiers in the center who were guarding Darius.
Darius, seeing Alexander coming straight toward him from behind his own lines, panicked and fled the field. The Persian army, finding itself leaderless, disintegrated.
(This is the end of Part 10. Go to Part 11.)
—jim sloman, 8.20.03 for 5.28.04
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