Shock tactics

[
First Crusade displaying a heavy cavalry implementation of the shock tactics] Shock tactics, shock tactic or Shock attack is the name of an offensive maneuver in battle in which the attacking forces engage into close combat with extreme action and massive force. The shock tactic is a fully committed attack designed as a sledgehammer blow against the enemy and aimed to break their formations, shatter their morale and eventually rout their soldiers.

Pre-modern

Shock tactics were usually performed by heavy cavalry, but was sometimes achieved by heavy infantry. The most famous shock tactic is the medieval cavalry charge. This shock attack was conducted by heavily armoured cavalry armed with lances, usually couched, galloping at full speed against enemy formation.

Modern

After the introduction of firearms the use of the cavalry charge as a common military tactic waned. Infantry charges armed with firearms became more common. The culmination and downfall of the infantry charge was at World War I, when masses of soldiers made frontal attacks on the trenched enemy. The machine gun made this tactic a futile one and only with the invention of the tank did shock tactics become viable once more.

At World War II the Germans adapted the shock tactics to modern mechanized warfare. The Blitzkrieg was a shock tactic based on tanks which gained considerable achievements during the war and was afterwards adopted by most modern armies.

The US tactic of Shock and Awe at the Second Gulf War is a shock tactic based on a combination between land and aerial warfare.

Famous shock attacks

*Pickett's Charge (July 3, 1863) at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War.
*Charge of the Light Brigade (October 25, 1854) at the Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War.
*Charge of the 21st Lancers in the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898: the last cavalry charge in battle by a British cavalry unit.
*Battle of Beersheba (October 31, 1917) in World War I: one of the last successful cavalry charges in history.
*Battle of Krojanty, a cavalry charge that gave birth to the myth of Polish cavalry charging German tanks.

hock units

Cavalry

*Cataphracts
*Clibanarii
*Lancers
*Knights

Infantry

*Phalanx
*Hoplites

Motorized

*Tank

ee also

*Shock units
*Close combat
*Close Quarters Battle
*Melee
*Cavalry tactics
*Charge
*List of military tactics
*Military doctrine
*Military History