* Deceive the enemy to set the conditions for future operations
As you see, the possible reasons to conduct a retrograde are numerous.
There are three forms of retrograde. They are delay, retirement, and withdrawal. As we delve into these forms the next few months, you will find that each share many similarities with one another. Depending on the environment, you could conceivably move from one form of retrograde to another.
The key consideration distinguishing the forms of retrograde is the specific intent or purpose. These purposes are:
Delay — maintain contact with the enemy and trade space for time.
Retirement — tactically move a unit not in contact with the enemy to a new location.
Withdrawal — break contact and disengage a force from the enemy in order to free the force for other missions.
Since we will focus this article on withdrawal; let’s briefly discuss delay and retirement.
Delay – This is a form of retrograde where a unit under pressure trades space (terrain) for time. It does this by slowing the enemy’s momentum (physically and hopefully psychologically) and inflicting damage (casualties, destroying assets, etc.) on the enemy without becoming decisively engaged. The last part is the most challenging! It is extremely difficult to achieve the above without becoming decisively engaged. If this occurs the objective of the delay will not be achieved.
Retirement — This is a form of retrograde in which the unit is not in contact with the enemy and wants to move away to prepare for other operations. Obviously, this is the easiest (not that any of the forms is easy to execute) to conduct and involves the least risk. Normally, units executing a retirement will move away from the enemy in a tactical road march. As in any combat operation, a unit should be prepared to fight, but the chances of this are less likely than in a delay or withdrawal.
Withdrawal – Definition
Is a form of retrograde in which a unit is in contact, but not necessarily under pressure. In this operation, the unit disengages from the enemy and moves to an assembly area or a new defensive position. A unit may conduct a withdrawal unassisted or with assistance from other friendly forces. Within the withdrawal, there are two basic types – under enemy pressure and not under enemy pressure. We will discuss each in detail momentarily. First, we will highlight some basic principles that are critical to achieving success in either type.
The May 1864 Confederate Withdrawal from Resaca “A Retrograde Which Postured Forces for Future Operations”
Principles
When planning the withdrawal, there are several principles you must consider. These include:
Obviously, the most important principle is to keep the enemy from putting extensive pressure on the withdrawing forces. Will you be able to deny the enemy from putting any pressure on the force – probably not. However, the combination of security forces delaying the enemy, well-placed obstacles, and accurate indirect fires can greatly assist in this effort.
You must maintain all-around security. A withdrawing force is vulnerable from all directions. The withdrawing force will utilize internal security and may be afforded security from its’ higher headquarters during the withdrawal.
Mobility is critical to achieving success in the withdrawal. You want to increase yours and decrease that of your foes.
You can increase yours by:
Spend the necessary time to plan and recon your routes.
Utilize your engineer assets to improve the trafficability of your routes.
Ensure you have developed a viable plan to command and control vehicle maneuver.
Rehearse the maneuver. Utilize Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) if you have them.
Position air defense and NBC (Nuclear-Biological-Chemical) recon assets along your routes. Enemy air or a well-placed chemical attack can significantly affect mobility.
Have a viable plan to ensure civilian refugees do not affect maneuver on designated routes.
Evacuate your casualties and non-essential vehicles early.
Position maintenance teams and equipment throughout your routes to assist in recovery and repair.
You can decrease his by:
Do not enable your enemy to seize key terrain that can assist him in maneuvering down high-speed avenues of approach.
Target choke points (bridges, key intersections) for destruction when the time is needed. You must ensure you will not need these in future operations.
Pre-plan obstacles (especially scatterable mines fired from artillery or air platforms) to emplace at critical times during the withdrawal.
Utilize indirect fire to slow his maneuver.
Utilize smoke to slow his maneuver.
Move during limited visibility if at all possible. Certainly, this places challenges on your own command and control. However, limited visibility conceals your movement and reduces the ability of your enemy to utilize effective indirect fires on you. Limited visibility can mean moving at night or during the day utilizing smoke.
Get your non essential forces out of the way ASAP. If they are not involved in assisting forces in the withdrawal, then move them to the rear first. Not doing this adds confusion (when no more is needed) and will clog up your withdrawal routes.
Keep eyes on the enemy throughout. Do not maneuver to the rear blind. You must know the actions of your opponent. Keep Soldier eyes on him as late as possible. When that is no longer feasible – use technology.
You must keep fires on the enemy throughout the withdrawal. Depending on the situation, this will be a combination of indirect and direct fires or just indirect fires. Your enemy must know he is susceptible to fires. If not, he will come after you in rapid order.
Effective command and control is essential during the withdrawal. There must be a plan and it must be directed. Without it, chaos will surely ensue.
Tied to the above, is the absolute need for the leaders to be seen throughout the withdrawal. As discussed earlier, the act of falling back can psychologically damage a unit. Leadership can soothe these doubts.
The development and subsequent execution of a viable deception plan can be of tremendous assistance during a withdrawal. A deception story which is believed by the enemy can buy you precious time and minimizes your opponent’s interference in the actual withdrawal. Obviously, what you are trying to achieve in your deception is that you are not in the process of withdrawing your forces. There are many actions you can combine to assist in deception. These include:
Conducting your withdrawal during limited visibility.
Utilizing smoke to masquerade your maneuver. Of course, this must be well-thought out. Generating smoke right at the beginning of the withdrawal essentially tells your enemy something is going on.
Withdraw vehicles in smaller groups if at all possible. This does not give off as big a signature to the enemy. Vice versa, if the entire unit picks up and moves out; this is a pretty good indicator to your foe that a withdrawal is taking place.
Construct dummy minefields and fighting positions portraying that you are staying and not leaving.
Try to keep things such as communications traffic as normal as possible. Increases in radio traffic generally indicate something is taking place.
Actions such as feints and demonstrations can plant the seed in your enemy that offensive actions, not retrograde operations are imminent.
In any retrograde operation, the main objective is to maneuver away from the enemy and not become decisively engaged. Consequently, the entire unit must understand the intent of the operation. It is very easy for smaller units to see potential enemy targets and begin offensive actions. This soon leads to that unit becoming decisively engaged and the need for other units to assist thing. It is the proverbial snowball effect!
One does not have to look far or abroad to find experts for the most difficult military task: Withdrawal under fire. Confederate General William Joseph Hardee is an acknowledged expert. Here an excerpt gleaned from the Internet.
By the way: descendent of the Hardee family live in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Gerhardt Thamm
William Joseph Hardee
(Supplemental Biography From The Confederate Military History)
Lieutenant-General William J. Hardee was born in Camden county, Georgia, in November, 1815. After receiving a military education at West Point, he entered the army with the class of 1838, as a second-lieutenant of the Second cavalry, and was promoted first-lieutenant in 1839, and served in the Florida war of 1840. He was then sent to Europe by the government as a member of a military commission to study the organization of foreign armies, and in that capacity visited the military school at St. Maur, France.
In 1844 he was promoted captain, and in 1846 crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor. He behaved with gallantry in the Mexican war, was taken prisoner at Curricito, but exchanged, and for his valor at La Hoya was brevetted major. In 1853 his professional accomplishments caused his selection by the secretary of war, for the compilation of a system of infantry tactics, which was adopted in March, 1855. In the following year “Hardee’s Tactics” was introduced at West Point, where he was appointed commandant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 he resigned this commission and entered the Confederate service as colonel of cavalry March 16th, being assigned to command at Fort Morgan, Ala. On June 17th, he was promoted to brigadier-general, in which rank he organized a brigade of Arkansas regiments, and operated in that State until called with his men across the Mississippi, when he was commissioned major-general and put in command of a division of the army in Kentucky and Tennessee under Albert Sidney Johnston. He led the advance from Corinth in command of the Third army corps, and commanded the first line of attack at Shiloh, where he was wounded, but managed his command with such energy that he was promoted major-general.
In the following summer he was put in immediate command of the army of the Mississippi, afterward called the army of Tennessee, and during the Kentucky campaign he commanded the left wing of Bragg’s army. In the battle of Perryville he bore a conspicuous part, and he was immediately afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the battle of Murfreesboro the left wing under his masterly leadership was successful in the fight, and he was especially commended by General Bragg “for skill, valor and ability.”
General Hardee had now well earned the exalted rank which he held and a military reputation which was tersely expressed by his soldiers in the cognomen “Old Reliable.” In 1863 he was detailed to defend Mississippi and Alabama, but returned to the command of his corps at Chattanooga, and commanded the right wing at Missionary Ridge, where General Thomas declared he was “the most efficient general the Confederacy had on the field.” The subsequent maneuver of his troops at Cassville and his masterly retreat in echelon of divisions won the renewed admiration of his opponents. On December 2, 1863, he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army, but soon turned this over to General Polk, who in turn gave place to Gen. J. E. Johnston. Under the latter and his successor, J. B. Hood, he commanded a corps of the army of Tennessee through the Atlanta campaign, taking a prominent part in the fighting at Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and other points, and particularly at Peach Tree Creek and the battle of July 22d, where he commanded the flank movement against the Federal left wing. His corps was again engaged at Jonesboro and the last fighting of the campaign.
In October, 1864, he was assigned to command the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the task of collecting at Savannah forces to operate against Sherman’s advance. The troops he required were no longer to be found in the South, and by one of the most masterly retreats of the war he evaded Sherman’s overwhelming force before Savannah, and withdrew to Charleston and thence to Columbia. At Averysboro, in March, 1865, he punished the enemy effectively, and a few days later he led in the battle of Bentonville the last charge that was made by the Confederacy’s war-worn soldiers, and his only son, sixteen years of age, was among the last to fall. In this last battle of the four years, with undiminished spirit, the general, as Johnston has described it, “with his knightly gallantry dashed over the enemy’s breastworks on horseback in front of his men.” It is told of General Hardee, illustrating his thoroughness as a soldier, that he was the only lieutenant-general who personally inspected the arms and accoutrements of each soldier of his corps. General J. E. Johnston said of him that “he was more capable of commanding twenty thousand men in battle than any other Confederate general.” General Hardee died at Wytheville, Va., November 6, 1873, and his remains were interred at Selma, Ala., where he had resided after the war.
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One Comment to “Tactics 101 035 – The Withdrawal”
One does not have to look far or abroad to find experts for the most difficult military task: Withdrawal under fire. Confederate General William Joseph Hardee is an acknowledged expert. Here an excerpt gleaned from the Internet.
By the way: descendent of the Hardee family live in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Gerhardt Thamm
William Joseph Hardee
(Supplemental Biography From The Confederate Military History)
Lieutenant-General William J. Hardee was born in Camden county, Georgia, in November, 1815. After receiving a military education at West Point, he entered the army with the class of 1838, as a second-lieutenant of the Second cavalry, and was promoted first-lieutenant in 1839, and served in the Florida war of 1840. He was then sent to Europe by the government as a member of a military commission to study the organization of foreign armies, and in that capacity visited the military school at St. Maur, France.
In 1844 he was promoted captain, and in 1846 crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor. He behaved with gallantry in the Mexican war, was taken prisoner at Curricito, but exchanged, and for his valor at La Hoya was brevetted major. In 1853 his professional accomplishments caused his selection by the secretary of war, for the compilation of a system of infantry tactics, which was adopted in March, 1855. In the following year “Hardee’s Tactics” was introduced at West Point, where he was appointed commandant with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 he resigned this commission and entered the Confederate service as colonel of cavalry March 16th, being assigned to command at Fort Morgan, Ala. On June 17th, he was promoted to brigadier-general, in which rank he organized a brigade of Arkansas regiments, and operated in that State until called with his men across the Mississippi, when he was commissioned major-general and put in command of a division of the army in Kentucky and Tennessee under Albert Sidney Johnston. He led the advance from Corinth in command of the Third army corps, and commanded the first line of attack at Shiloh, where he was wounded, but managed his command with such energy that he was promoted major-general.
In the following summer he was put in immediate command of the army of the Mississippi, afterward called the army of Tennessee, and during the Kentucky campaign he commanded the left wing of Bragg’s army. In the battle of Perryville he bore a conspicuous part, and he was immediately afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the battle of Murfreesboro the left wing under his masterly leadership was successful in the fight, and he was especially commended by General Bragg “for skill, valor and ability.”
General Hardee had now well earned the exalted rank which he held and a military reputation which was tersely expressed by his soldiers in the cognomen “Old Reliable.” In 1863 he was detailed to defend Mississippi and Alabama, but returned to the command of his corps at Chattanooga, and commanded the right wing at Missionary Ridge, where General Thomas declared he was “the most efficient general the Confederacy had on the field.” The subsequent maneuver of his troops at Cassville and his masterly retreat in echelon of divisions won the renewed admiration of his opponents. On December 2, 1863, he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army, but soon turned this over to General Polk, who in turn gave place to Gen. J. E. Johnston. Under the latter and his successor, J. B. Hood, he commanded a corps of the army of Tennessee through the Atlanta campaign, taking a prominent part in the fighting at Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and other points, and particularly at Peach Tree Creek and the battle of July 22d, where he commanded the flank movement against the Federal left wing. His corps was again engaged at Jonesboro and the last fighting of the campaign.
In October, 1864, he was assigned to command the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the task of collecting at Savannah forces to operate against Sherman’s advance. The troops he required were no longer to be found in the South, and by one of the most masterly retreats of the war he evaded Sherman’s overwhelming force before Savannah, and withdrew to Charleston and thence to Columbia. At Averysboro, in March, 1865, he punished the enemy effectively, and a few days later he led in the battle of Bentonville the last charge that was made by the Confederacy’s war-worn soldiers, and his only son, sixteen years of age, was among the last to fall. In this last battle of the four years, with undiminished spirit, the general, as Johnston has described it, “with his knightly gallantry dashed over the enemy’s breastworks on horseback in front of his men.” It is told of General Hardee, illustrating his thoroughness as a soldier, that he was the only lieutenant-general who personally inspected the arms and accoutrements of each soldier of his corps. General J. E. Johnston said of him that “he was more capable of commanding twenty thousand men in battle than any other Confederate general.” General Hardee died at Wytheville, Va., November 6, 1873, and his remains were interred at Selma, Ala., where he had resided after the war.
By Gerhardt Thamm on Feb 21, 2009 at 10:07 am