WHAT IS TACTICS?

There's only one principle of war and it's this: Hit the other fellow, as quick as you can, and as hard as you can, where it hurts him the most, and when he ain't looking."

--Sir William Slim

All Marines know what tactics is. After all, we've heard people talking about tactics since our first days in recruit training or Officer Candidates School. Most of us probably recall encountering tactics even before becoming Marines. People talk about chess tactics, tennis tactics, running tactics, tactics for studying and for getting better grades, etc.

So what is tactics? This isn't just a rhetorical question. Think for a minute of what tactics means to you. How would you define it? . . .

Perhaps you just found that defining tactics isn't quite as simple as it appears. A formal definition of tactics appears in Joint Pub 1-02. It says tactics is "the employment of units in combat . . . the ordered arrangement and maneuver of units in relation to each other and/or to the enemy in order to utilize their full potentialities." Although an official definition, it is merely a starting point. Our inquiry should not stop there. Over the centuries even great military leaders and thinkers have found it difficult to say exactly what tactics is. Each attempt offers a somewhat different perspective: 

". . . proper means of organization and action to give unity to effort...." [2]
--Du Picq

. . . the changeable element in warfare. " [3]

--- Palit

. . . the art of leading troops in combat. " [4]

---Von der Goltz

. . . the theory and use of military forces in combat. " [5]

--- Clausewitz

. . . "the art of fighting. " [6]

--- Montgomery

. . . "the art of executing the designs of strategy. " [7]

--Wheeler

. . . "the art and science of winning engagements and battles. It includes the use of firepower and maneuver, the integration of different arms, and the immediate exploitation of success to defeat the enemy . . . the product of judgment and creativity . . " [8]

--FMFM 1

A DEFINITION OF TACTICS

This last quotation is the Marine Corps' approach toward tactics. It is Marine Corps doctrine. What does it tell us?

First, it recognizes that tactics is neither purely art nor purely science, but rather the product of the two elements, each of which multiplies the other. We cannot simply add "judgment and creativity" (art), to "techniques and procedures" (science) and arrive at a sum which is tactics. Rather, we use each to increase manyfold the value of the others.

Second, it says that tactics is about "winning engagements and battles." Whereas the conduct of campaigns (operations) and wars (strategy) implies broad dimensions of time and space, engagements and battles involve fighting and defeating an enemy at more narrowly defined times and places.

Third, tactics relies upon the use of firepower, movement, and the integration of different arms, which is to say combined arms. Modern tactics is combined arms tactics.

Finally, a single tactical success is not an end in itself. Tactics must serve a greater purpose beyond winning the engagement or battle. Through "immediate exploitation of success," tactical actions yield operational gains. 

MARINE TACTICS

This, then, is tactics. But is it all we can say on the subject that would be of use to Marines? As Marines, we have distinct characteristics. First, we may specialize in one of three basic areas -ground, aviation, or combat service support - which are three of the four basic components of every Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Second, regardless of that specialization, we all fight together as one single whole, as a MAGTF. So we need to think about tactics in ways that relate to each separate specialty (combat service support, ground, and aviation), but do so in ways that relate each to the others by showing what they share-their common tactical ground.

That is what this book attempts to do. It is not a book about fighter tactics, or infantry tactics, or tactics for emergency field repair of combat equipment. It is about tactics for all of these things and more. It is a book of shared tactical concepts, common to all Marines in all our many skills and specialties.

Of course, you must apply these ideas according to the situation. With them, you can face any situation with a useful frame of reference common to all Marines. That brings us back to our definition of tactics from FMFM 1. As that definition notes, the purpose of tactics is winning. That is also the purpose of this book: to show all Marines some tactical concepts which can help us win.