Desert warfare
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Desert warfare is combat in deserts. In desert warfare the elements can sometimes be more dangerous than the actual enemy. The desert terrain is the second most inhospitable to troops following a cold environment.
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[edit] Properties and tactics of desert warfare
One of the few times desert warfare can be desirable is against foreign armies that are not familiar with the area. Knowing how to navigate in the desert is the desert fighter's best advantage. Maps and intelligence personnel can not prepare a force for terrains such as small hills, rivers, and wells. There are two ways to fight in the desert, like all environments, guerrilla warfare and conventional warfare. The successful defender or attacker will need to know how to maneuver around in this environment and use it as advantage.
From a small hilltop or a hole in the ground, one man with a scoped rifle can cause heavy casualties on the most professional of armies because of the lack of cover in the desert, which allows for clear vision of the enemy. A good sniper can be a major danger to an opposing army in desert terrain. The professional army is well trained and will be looking for the sniper, but one shot from a sniper is all that is needed to kill someone, and it will surprise the troops, rendering them unable to respond. However, a second shot may give away the sniper's position. The sniper's advantage of little cover in the desert is also his disadvantage because the enemy will be looking for where a sniper would hide, and there are not many choices. Another reason to keep snipers is that they can keep an enemy from getting water as well as destroy their water supply. A small force can defeat a larger, but thirstier force.
Mobility is essential to a successful desert war. This explains the heavy use of armor in battles such as El Alamein in the Second World War. It has been noted that mobility is so important in desert warfare, that battles can sometimes begin to resemble naval engagements, where the actual possession of territory is less important than the positions of ones tanks (or ships).
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There are many enemies to the desert fighter. These include aircraft, and tanks, which can be extremely menacing to desert guerrillas because there is little way to equal such force, and there are little places to hide from them in the desert environment where there is little obstruction except lack of water and brutal heat. Another lethal enemy, which is both friend and foe, is the landmine, a most deadly device and underrated in its importance. Despite questions of morality and an ongoing international ban, they are still produced and still used in war. While civilized countries are reluctant to use the land mine in any thing other than a Demilitarized zone such as used in Korea. Land mines are used very often by poor countries in desert war. The reason is this, while the mine is very destructive soldiers are trained to trace their steps back through a minefield. The main goal of the mine is to deny mobility to the enemy, to deny land that was more it's invention more than anything else. It was designed originally in an era where you had to cross into enemy trenches or break his formation and discipline to win. This was beneficial to trench war and the mobile war of the day. Modern armies still find it useful today as mobility is the most important part of mechanized war. The mine is useful to slow the enemy down so you can counterattack, defend, or stop the enemy from counterattacking.
Although many unexpected things happen in war, when two conventional armies who fight, the one with the best tanks, aircraft, and tactics wins. A good example of this would be the Gulf War.
[edit] See also
[edit] Important battles involving desert warfare
- First Battle of El Alamein
- Second Battle of El Alamein
- Battle of Asal Uttar
- Battle of Longewala
- Battle of Basantar
[edit] Important wars involving desert warfare
- Crimean War
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
- Yom Kippur War
- Iran-Iraq War
- Six-Day War
- Gulf War
- Second Gulf War
- 1982 Invasion of Lebanon
- Sand War
- Western Sahara conflict
