Test Your Knowledge: Offensive Military Tactics

Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Test Your Knowledge: Offensive Military Tactics
Image: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images

About This Quiz

War calls for field commanders to take the fight to their enemies. How much do you know about offensive military tactics? Test your knowledge by taking this quiz!
What kind of units participate in a human wave attack?
Infantry
Tanks
Drones
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It's a type of frontal assault in which soldiers basically charge enemy lines.

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If you have small, mobile force gathered against a much larger force, you may need to use which tactics?
Human wave attack
Guerilla tactics
Coercion
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Using superior mobility to attack and then evade has helped many outmanned forces defeat larger (but slower) enemies.

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Strategic bombing offensives were a hallmark of which conflict?
WWI
WWII
Civil War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Thousands of bombers dropped millions of bombs on both sides, causing widespread devastation.

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For many years, cavalry forces were used to defend against and also mount what kind of attacks?
Flanking attacks
Feint
Retreat
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

They were swift enough to ward off flanking attacks or to execute them against an enemy's lines.

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The German blitzkrieg relied on concentrated force paired with what other element?
Huge bombs
Superior communication
Speed
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The potent combination of power and speed was very effective in WWII.

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Banzai attacks were fairly common during which war?
WWI
Korean War
WWII
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Japanese infantry would charge Allied lines, often at tremendous cost to their own units.

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What is a "coup de main?"
An attack carried out mostly by armored vehicles
A rapid attack that attempts to settle a battle immediately
A slow, deliberate attack that protects supply lines
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A fast, direct attack on an unsuspecting enemy can be effective in the right circumstances.

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What's a fundamental first step towards successful offensive tactics?
Resting the soldiers
Understanding the objective
Stockpiling gear
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Unless all units know where they need to go and what they're trying to accomplish, its hard to launch a successful offensive.

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When unit members walk in a zigzag pattern on a road, they are using which formation?
Staggered column
Vee
Echelon
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This formation prevents more than one solider being hit by fire and also maximizes retaliatory firepower.

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In past wars, cavalry charges could be used to break what kind of defensive formation?
Column
Line formation
Wedge
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The speed and power of mounted soldiers could shatter an enemy's lines and cause chaos.

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What kind of attack is generally a last resort for a field commander?
Feint
Flanking attack
Frontal assault
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A frontal assault means the attacks will be subjected to the defense's strongest points.

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What is always the primary objective of offensive military tactics?
To deprive the enemy of resources
To destroy the enemy
To secure key terrain
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you can simply destroy them, you don't have to think much about secondary objectives.

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Which maneuver is designed to draw defending forces to a particular area?
Feint
Flanking attack
Swarming
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Make the enemy commit more forces to one spot and then execute the real attack in another spot.

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The offensive tactic called "shock and awe" was first widely publicized during which conflict?
Iraq War
Vietnam War
WWII
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It involves using overwhelming firepower to pound an enemy into submission.

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If your attack at one part of an enemy's lines fails, you should do what?
Attack again in the same location because the area is weakened
Retreat
Attack a spot where the enemy least expects it
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Use an indirect attack to throw your enemy off balance.

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What is NOT a purpose of raiding?
To free POWs
To disrupt supply lines
To capture enemy territory
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Raiders strike and then flee back to friendly lines before the defenders can pursue them.

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Napoleon often used which kind of offensive strategy to beat down his opponents?
Pre-dawn raids
Charm offensive
Battle of annihilation
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The idea was to destroy an enemy's army in one major battle and bring a country to its knees.

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Offensive tactics can help the attacker secure what?
Initiative
More resources
Better morale
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A successful attack can give you the ability to dictate the terms of battle for days or months.

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A feint retreat may accomplish which feat?
Cause an enemy to begin a hasty chase
Pull an enemy into an ambush
Both
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Fake retreats may cause all sorts of havoc for attackers that give chase.

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What is strategic flanking?
Flanking designed to cut off civilian resources
A large-scale flanking operation
Flanking that skirts an entire country
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This kind of flanking might involve an entire army.

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What is a key component of a pincer ambush?
It is much easier to execute with air superiority.
The "pincer" forces must remain concealed.
You must have the high ground.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The enemy moves into the jaws of your pincer formation and then the ambush is initiated.

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What is a hallmark of a salient during a battle?
It refers to troops that will be used for an impending flanking attack.
It refers to the high ground.
It is a point that protrudes into enemy territory.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The troops are typically surrounded on three sides and vulnerable to counter attacks.

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What is the SECOND stage of a penetration attack?
Surveillance of the enemy's headquarters
A direct attack through an enemy's lines
An attack on the enemy's rear forces
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Following a direct attack, the attackers must clean up the rear of the enemy to prevent effective counter attacks.

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Futile frontal assaults were a hallmark of which war?
WWI
Civil War
Korean War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Soldiers ran headlong into fortified machine guns and were mowed down by the thousands.

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Attrition is a key component of which offensive tactic?
Siege
Tactical retreat
Clear and hold
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If a siege is executed properly, the defenders will surrender without a fight.

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What is a primary challenge for forces that attempt to encircle enemy units?
Maintaining supply lines
Limited field of fire
Harder to surveil the enemy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Encirclement tends to strain supply lines for the attackers and may make it harder for them to finish the offensive.

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Which tactic involves attacking an enemy from the rear?
Flanking maneuver
Counterforce
Pincer maneuver
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

By flanking, an attacker avoids the concentrated power of a defender's central position

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What's one reason you may want to choose NOT to completely encircle an enemy force?
In most situations a complete encirclement is too hard to execute.
If they have an escape route they won't fight as desperately.
It gives the enemy false hope of victory.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Cornering desperate soldiers makes them fight even harder.

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A scorpion attack is a pincer attack that is by assisted by what kind of force?
Armored vehicle attack
Air attack
Naval bombardment
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Woe to the enemy that finds itself being attacked from all sides and also from the skies.

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What's one purpose of a turning maneuver?
To halt an enemy's flanking assault
To threaten an enemy's supply lines
To fake a frontal assault
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

These indirect attacks swing far around the enemy's main lines and threatens their flanks.

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You Got:
/30
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