Historical examples of flanking maneuvers

Flanking maneuvers play a critical role in nearly every major battle in history; and have been used effectively by famous military leaders like Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Khalid ibn al-Walid,[1] Napoleon, Saladin, Nader Shah, William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson throughout.

Sun Tzu's The Art of War strongly emphasizes the use of flanking, although it does not advocate completely surrounding the enemy force as this may induce it to fight with greater ferocity if it cannot escape.

Using a double flanking maneuver known as a pincer movement, Hannibal managed to surround and kill nearly the entirety of a larger Consular Roman Army.

The advance at the proper moment of the African infantry, and its wheel right and left upon the flanks of the disordered and crowded Roman legionaries, is far beyond praise.

The whole battle, from the Carthaginian standpoint, is a consummate piece of art, having no superior, few equal, examples in the history of war.

When Pompey turned Caesar's cavalry, rather than finding a route through which to attack his enemy in the rear, he encountered 2,000 legionnaires.

Despite Chevalier Bayard brave rearguard actions at Mola bridge, the French army was forced to seek refuge in Gaeta where they surrendered a few days later.

[9] As Trevor Dupuy put it: Ulm was not a battle; it was a strategic victory so complete and so overwhelming that the issue was never seriously contested in tactical combat.

[10]The aftermath of the campaign would quickly see the fall of Vienna, and the final exit of Austria as a member of the Allied forces.

[11] The December 1805 Battle of Austerlitz is widely seen as a tactical masterpiece of the same stature as Cannae, the celebrated triumph by Hannibal some 2,000 years before.

[12] Prior to the engagement, Napoleon went to great lengths to indicate to the Russians and Austrians that his forces were weak and he was on the verge of seeking a peace.

Although a spirited resistance movement continued in France for some time, these effectively ended large scale fighting for the rest of the war.

In September 1870, Napoleon III had formed the Army of Châlons to attempt to relieve the 150,000 French troops invested at Metz.

The First World War began with one of the largest flanking maneuvers in military history, both in terms of the strength of the forces in the field as well as the vast geographic area through which they were deployed.

In November 1914 Erich von Falkenhayn, who had replaced Moltke in September, informed the Kaiser that no great successes could be expected on the Western Front, and that strength, morale, and supplies were exhausted.

Once the allies had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching a flank attack against the elite Republican Guard before it could escape.

The Iraqis suffered massive losses and lost dozens of tanks and vehicles, while U.S. casualties were comparatively low, with a single Bradley knocked out.