Test Your Knowledge: Defensive Military Tactics

Give them a bit of land and slow them down any way you can; it saps morale and causes casualties.

The stretched supply lines can slow down attackers' momentum and wear them out, too.

A breakout is often attempted when a defending force realizes it can't hold a position for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of supplies or inadequate terrain.

You may have to hold out longer than you think, especially if you're surrounded.

It means they are effective against vehicles even if those vehicles don't pass directly above the mine.

If an attacker cuts your supply lines on the lower slopes, you lose the advantage of the high ground.

The uneven lines help push attackers toward areas where defenders can fire on them from multiple directions.

The attackers hit weak points first but then get sucked into fighting stronger points; in those areas they are vulnerable to fire from more than one direction.

Duke Wellington used this type of defense to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Revetments are essentially retaining walls on the side of a trench that provides protection and a place from which to fire a weapon.

It offers a wide field of fire and makes any attack more difficult.

Sangars are fortifications made from rocks or sandbags, often in areas where trenches aren't possible.

It's one of the most common defenses used in conflict.

The Geneva Convention banned the destruction of civilian water and food supplies to prevent massive civilian casualties.

The lack of foliage and the hard desert soil means defensive preparation takes much more time and effort.

Sherman's troops marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. His tactics were controversial but helped the Union defeat the Confederacy.

They were so shallow they were vulnerable to bullets or attacking forces could just run over defenders using trucks and tanks.

They were sometimes called killing tunnels.

The trenches contributed heavily to a bogged-down stalemate, particularly on the Western Front.

It used surprise anti-tank gun attacks to quickly disable multiple tanks before they could unleash their huge firepower.

Think of soldiers standing back-to-back in a circle trying desperately to survive.

In this defense, defenders can see and attack the ground all around them.

Also, you have to hope that your attackers can't completely surround and then destroy you.

Thus, defenders were in a much better situation than attackers.

Tanks could push through barbed wire and through all sorts of defensive positions.

Civilians suffer from mines even decades after a conflict has ended.

Plus, the swirling dust helped to blind the downwind enemies.

It helps you use your weapons to destroy hidden guns of your attackers such as concealed artillery.

The saw used a unit just behind the front lines that shifted to areas weakened by attackers; viewed from an aerial perspective it would look like a sawing motion.

This kind of counter-artillery attack came into vogue during World War I.