Battle

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

Famous quotes containing the word battle:

    A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.
    Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)

    Above the bayonets, mixed and crossed,
    Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost
    Receding through the battle cloud,
    And heard across the tempest loud
    The death cry of a nation lost!
    Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)

    Much have I seen and known—cities of men
    And manners, climates, councils, governments,
    Myself not least, but honored of them all—
    And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
    Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
    I am a part of all that I have met;
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)