Guerrilla warfare: tactics, history, and impact

Word origin

The word guerrilla was borrowed in the early 19th century via the French guérilla from the Spanish guerrilla, a diminutive (diminutive form) of the Spanish guerra ("war"). Spanish guerra, like French guerre, goes back to Germanic *werra ("strife"), to which Old High German wërra ("confusion", "strife"), Middle Dutch warre and New English war are also related.

The historical background was the Spanish War of Independence from 1807 to 1814 against French foreign rule under Napoleon. As a starting point for the later use of the word, the Spanish partida de guerrilla is mentioned, which roughly means "scouting party". In Germany, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of gymnastics, wanted to lead his gymnasts as guerrillas against Napoleon.

In Spain, the word guerrilla has a consistently positive connotation of liberation due to its association with the struggle against the French occupation forces, much like the wars of liberation in Germany or the term "people's war" as described in Gneisenau's early memoranda.

The terms guerrilla and guerrilla warfare gained importance especially in the 20th century as a term for socially or nationally based liberation and independence wars in less developed countries, especially for liberation from the colonial powers of the time in the course of decolonization.

Meanings

The meaning of the word guerrilla also depends on the grammatical gender:

• the guerrilla: guerrilla warfare or guerrilla warfare, a special kind of war. This original meaning is now a secondary meaning, that is, the word guerrilla is rarely used with this meaning.
• the guerrilla: insurgent fighting groups waging guerrilla warfare. This is the main meaning in German today.
• the guerrilla: individual guerrilla fighter, resistance fighter, underground fighter. In Europe, irregular units are usually referred to as partisans, and in the context of post-World WarII anti-colonial movements, as guerrillas. The term guerrillero is most commonly used with reference to Latin America.

Derivations

Derived from the term are, among others, guerrilla marketing in the economy as well as "guerrilla actions" in the political field, which include, for example, communication guerrilla or guerrilla gardening.

Guerrilla warfare refers to a form of combat waged by irregular indigenous troops against a hostile army or occupying power, or - in the context of a civil war - against the country's own government. Military confrontations between parties that have very different political, strategic and weaponry orientations are also referred to as asymmetric wars or conflicts.

Guerrilla warfare is a "weapon of the weak" against an opponent who is militarily superior, especially in terms of military technology. The prerequisite for guerrilla warfare is the lack of hope on the part of the population to achieve their political and social demands by political and legal means, as is the case in a dictatorship or a country occupied or dominated by a foreign power. Crucial to the success of the guerrilla is the simultaneous political struggle, equivalent to the military struggle. In an open field battle, the guerrilla force would necessarily be defeated because it lacks the equipment of a conventional army and its fighters usually do not have sufficient military training.

Features

A defining characteristic of guerrillas is their high mobility and flexibility, often combined with the lack of identifiability as a "legitimate combatant". Guerrilla units are in constant movement to evade the militarily superior opponent. Their success depends on their ability to retain control over where, when, and under what conditions the military confrontation with the enemy takes place. The classic land guerrilla force usually operates out of the mountains or jungle areas, both of which provide optimal areas of retreat.

The guerrilla movement typically relies on the support of the rural population to provide it with food and information. When the reason for the guerrilla's struggle is political or social grievances that affect a large portion or majority of the population, their support is usually voluntary. Mao Zedong summed this up with the phrase "The revolutionary swims in the people like a fish in water." In the better-known guerrilla wars of the 20th century, this was usually the case - where popular support was not forthcoming, even an attempt at guerrilla warfare was usually quickly doomed to failure. Thus, when Che Guevara attempted to carry the revolution to Bolivia in 1966, he found little support from the indigenous population. The project ended with the almost complete destruction of the guerrillas and finally his capture and execution by government troops. Exceptions include guerrilla armies that experience strong support from another country, such as the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam ("Vietcong") by North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, or the U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the Contra War against the leftist government of Nicaragua beginning around 1980.

Typical characteristics are considered in political science:

• The unity of guerrillas and parts of the civilian population. The population approves of the guerrilla war, supports it or actively participates in it.
• A close link between political and military objectives.
• The procurement of weapons mainly from the stocks of the military enemy.
• The base and main bases are mostly rural areas. Cities are only included in combat operations at an advanced stage of the guerrilla war.
• Traditional forms of fighting by regular armed forces remain largely ineffective. Therefore, guerrillas can also be a match for an enemy that is superior in numbers and weapons.

Typical stages of escalation

Guerrilla wars usually go through the following phases:

• Guerrilla warfare begins as an insurgency, that is, with little or no armament of its own. Typically, guerrillas in this phase have only small arms such as pistols, carbines or assault rifles, hand grenades and light grenade launchers, i.e. infantry weapons carried by foot troops. Weapons are usually obtained by raiding enemy military units or facilities, buying weapons from corrupt officials of the opposing government forces, or in some cases, through shipments from abroad - the latter especially when the guerrilla is supported by another state, such as the Contra rebels in Nicaragua by the US, or since 2011, the rebels in the Syrian Civil War. The fighters are not soldiers and often do not even have military training. They are part of the civilian population and are supported by them because of their political goals. In this phase, guerrilla units cannot achieve strategic successes, such as permanently occupying strategically important areas, but must always withdraw again.
• Without the support of the population, the guerrilla is doomed to fail. This distinguishes guerrillas from terrorism, which also manages without popular support.
• In case of regional, but then only stationary successes, the transformation to a warlord system is possible.
• The offensive phase of guerrilla warfare is characterized by the fact that the enemy's mobility is limited. The government or occupying forces now only have strategically important fortified bases and can only move outside these to a limited extent. In this phase, the guerrilla movement takes the initiative and typically organizes itself into larger combat units with a fixed structure.
• To achieve strategic goals, guerrilla units must take the form of a centrally directed army. They thus enter from the tactical, defensive phase into a strategically offensive phase. A revolutionary army is created.

Successful guerrilla wars

Guerrilla warfare is considered a form of struggle by liberation movements. Successful examples are cited in political science:

• China (1927-1949, cf. Chinese Civil War)
• Indonesia (1945-1949, cf. Indonesian War of Independence)
• Algeria (1954-1962, cf. Algerian War)
• Cuba (1956-1959, cf. Cuban Revolution)
• Vietnam (1946-1975, cf. Indochina War and Vietnam War)
• Nicaragua (1961-1979, cf. Nicaraguan Revolution)
• Afghanistan (1979-1988, cf. Soviet intervention in Afghanistan)
• Eritrea (1961-1991, cf. Eritrean War of Independence)
• Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1994-1996, cf. First Chechen War)

Other examples of guerrilla fighting

Europe

• For a very long time, the successful struggle of the Geuse as Dutch freedom fighters against Spanish rule in the Eighty Years War (1568-1648) was a guerrilla.
• The Swedish Snapphanar (Danish: Snaphaner) fought in the 17th century in the originally Danish areas of what is now southern Sweden with guerrilla tactics against the royal Swedish army. They were especially successful in the Nordic War (1674-1679) (also called the Schonian War). On July 26/27, 1676, the entire war chest of Charles XI, worth 50,000 riksdaler, fell into the hands of rebellious peasants and irregulars in the so-called "Loshult Coup" near the village of the same name. This consisted of about 250 wagons with valuable metal coins, the so-called copper notes.
• Struggle of the Spaniards during the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula from 1809 to 1812
• Southern Italy in the 19th century: The brigands initially supported the free-armies under Giuseppe Garibaldi in their fight against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (in addition to their raids against large landowners and landlords). Afterwards, disappointed with the new Italian monarchy, they also turned against the Italian army. Known for his guerrilla tactics was the legendary leader Carmine Crocco. At times he controlled up to 40 gangs of impoverished and mostly landless former small farmers and farm workers.
• In the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921): the IRA's struggle against British domination of Ireland.
• In the Irish Civil War (1922/23): the struggle of the anti-treaty IRA against the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the forces of the new Southern Irish Free State.
• In the Northern Ireland conflict (1969-1998): the struggle of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other Irish republican groups for the secession of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and the reunification of Ireland into an independent republic.
• Yugoslavia (1996-1999): Fighting by the UÇK (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës) against units of the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian police units.

Asia

• The Huks fought in the Philippines first against the Japanese occupation and after the Second World War until 1954 for radical agrarian reforms.
• The war of the Việt Minh against Japanese occupation, French colonial power and later against US occupation forces 1941-1975 ended with the establishment of a socialist state
• The guerrilla struggle of the LTTE group around Tamil Eelam, lasted from 1986 to 2009.
• The guerrilla war of the Nepalese Maoists began in 1996 and has been suspended for the time being since 2006.
• In India, guerrilla actions by the Maoist-oriented Naxalites have been taking place since the 1960s. They operate mostly in rural areas, but now only with sporadic attacks. Similar guerrilla tactics are pursued by the separatist organization United Liberation Front of Asom, which advocates an independent Assam.
• The Lebanese organization Hezbollah carried out paramilitary combat operations close to guerrilla warfare, as in the 2006 Lebanon War.
• The Kurdish guerrilla movement, also known as the PKK, is fighting the Turkish army.

America

• During the final phase of the Indian Wars in the United States (early 1860s to mid-1880s): In particular, groups of Chiricahua Apaches in Arizona Territory and northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora), first under Cochise and finally under Geronimo, engaged the superior U.S. Army in a grueling but ultimately futile guerrilla war.
• The 30-year struggle for independence of the Cuban Mambises against Spanish colonial rule 1868-1898 was guerrilla warfare in its military phases and ended with the occupation of Cuba by the United States.
• The oldest guerrilla movement still active today is the FARC in Colombia.
• The struggle of the EZLN for indigenous rights in Mexico, since 1994.
• The guerrilla struggle of Che Guevara's group in Bolivia failed in 1967 because of the lack of popular support.
• From 1967 to 1973, the communist guerrillas of Araguaia existed in northeastern Brazil and were completely crushed by the Brazilian armed forces.
• The struggle of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso cost the lives of almost 70,000 people in Peru.
• The struggle of the FMLN (El Salvador) and the guerrilla groups in Guatemala ended with peace agreements.

Africa

• Hendrik Witboi led several guerrilla wars against German colonial rule in German South-West Africa from 1895 to 1905, most recently in the Herero and Nama uprising, in which James Morenga also took part.
• Second Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa: Although the Dutch Boers lost to the British, they were able to inflict three times their own losses on them and thus force a peace that was favourable to them.
• Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974): liberation struggles for Angola, Moçambique and Guinea-Bissau.
• SWAPO's liberation struggle against South African foreign rule in Namibia led to independence in 1989/90. Namibia has been ruled by SWAPO ever since.
• The liberation struggle of the FRENTE POLISARIO against the Spanish colonial power and subsequently against the Moroccan occupying forces (since 1991 ceasefire under UN mediation).

History of the "little war

Carl von Clausewitz, as well as others before him, defined "small war" as the use of light troops on the flanks and in the rear of the enemy - thus the hussars were used not only for reconnaissance, but also to disrupt enemy supplies. In the infantry, the Croats and the Hunters were used for dispersed combat. Especially the units formed from marginal peoples of the great European empires, such as the Croats or Bosniaks, found this small-scale warfare, which was familiar to them, convenient as a means of combat. They had gained experience especially in the fight against the Turks. The Turkish army used the Akıncı as light troops behind the enemy lines.

In the American War of Independence (1776-1783), the "small war" mode of combat first developed not only as resistance operations by small armed militias against superior conventional armies, but as a comprehensive strategic response by a belligerent party. British troops fighting tactically in open formation were engaged in a gruelling war of attrition, which they eventually lost. Since then, small-scale warfare has become established as an asymmetric response to the strength of conventional forces.

The Spanish War of Independence against the French occupying forces from 1807 to 1814, which expanded into a people's war, is considered to be the first armed conflict with a guerrilla character and with this name. Although the regular Spanish-British troops decided the war, irregular irregulars or guerrilleros contributed significantly to the defeat of the French. This was mainly due to the good organization of the resistance and the topography of the mountainous areas, which offered good hiding places and were favorable for small-scale warfare. In open terrain, on the other hand, the guerrilla force was unable to hold its own against conventional troops.

Conventional troops at that time were primarily focused on intense engagements and battles in the "big war" (line tactics). However, they later adopted the guerrilla way of fighting, which was characterized by raids, ambushes and attacks on supply lines in the rear of the actual warfare. Thus, guerrilla warfare became a tactical variant, for which units with specially trained soldiers (mostly so-called hunters) were also used, because they were more flexible and mobile than conventional line troops. Characteristic of small-scale warfare were military engagements in which numerically small detachments undertook operations to weaken the enemy, but without being able to bring about a decision. It could be conducted alongside major operations of the main army. Typical examples are the use of the Freikorps of the coalition forces in 1813 and the Franc-tireurs in 1870. Popular support for the resistance war of irregular troops and gangs also played an important role, as was shown, for example, in the Tyrolean uprising under Andreas Hofer.

The Polish Uprising in 1863 and the Boer War in 1901 were also fought using guerrilla tactics.

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Imperial Russian Army fought off the Japanese invasion of Sakhalin in planned guerrilla actions.

Legal assessment

The guerrillas' fighting style is referred to as unconventional warfare with regard to the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare. These international treaties regulate the legal basis of armed conflicts between states. In its formative stages, guerrilla warfare is more akin to the concept of levée en masse as defined in the Hague Land Warfare Regulations (hence "people's war"). Only when the guerrilla has taken the final step towards becoming a liberation army do its fighters count as part of a military command structure, as combatants under the Hague Land Warfare Regulations. As long as it lacks alignment with a state government, however, guerrilla fighters are considered non-combatants and are usually treated as insurgents and/or criminalized (e.g., by being charged with theft, robbery, or other crimes).

This includes the establishment of actual or apparent political-democratic structures (Asamblea de Guaímaro in the Cuban War of Independence or the parliament of the Palestinian PLO) as well as political foreign representations in supporting states or in international organizations such as the UN. The introduction of clear command structures, a hierarchical military order with the associated ranks, is intended to emphasize the equivalence of the guerrilla to the conventional opposing army, especially in the final phase, in the development into a revolutionary army. Only when the enemy feels compelled to negotiate officially with the guerrillas is recognition as a belligerent established, the so-called "Belligerency". Political recognition by states of international importance or recognition as a negotiating party by the adversary forms the basis for the achievement of political goals by the guerrillas (see the discussion on the recognition of the Palestinian PLO). Only as a belligerent party can guerrilla fighters claim prisoner-of-war status after capture.