Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign. Battles generally are well defined in duration, area and force commitment.
Wars and military campaigns are guided by strategy, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as operational mobility. German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of strategy.
Read more about Battle: Etymology, Characteristics, Battlespace, Factors, Types, Naming, Effects
Other articles related to "battle, battles":
... The Persian exotic weapons are inaccurate and questionable for the time of the battle ... the Persians were known to use war elephants in battle, there is no evidence that the Persians used them in their invasion of Greece ... and Herodotus viewed Thermopylae as a battle against "Eastern centralism and collective serfdom," which opposed "the idea of the free citizen of an autonomous polis ...
... Battles affect the individuals who take part, as well as the political actors ... Personal effects of battle range from mild psychological issues to permanent and crippling injuries ... Some battle-survivors have nightmares about the conditions they encountered, or abnormal reactions to certain sights or sounds ...
... Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's USS Monitor in March 1862 ... The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads ...
... It is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae ... around King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who leads 300 Spartans into battle against Persian "god-King" Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of more than one million soldiers ... As the battle rages, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support in Sparta for her husband ...
... After some skirmishes at Grafton, one of the first land battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Philippi, took place in Philippi, Barbour County, in what is now West Virginia ... The battle began when a Federal battery started lobbing shells into a camp of around 825 surprised Confederate recruits who had been asleep ... In response, the Confederates ran, thus earning the battle the name “Philippi Races.” After the battle, the 9th camped on the same hill where the battery was located ...
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most audacious of enterprises; the battle is not slow to start, and victory, that is to say freedom, goes to the cleverest.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to women.”
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes 9:11.