Talk:Pitched battle
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[edit] Skirmish?
There are multiple references (and a link) to the term skirmish, but how it is being used has nothing to do with how it is defined on the linked page. It seems to me that meeting engagement more closely matches in meaning how the word "skirmish" is being used in this article (as in "a chance encounter").
REggert (talk) 21:03, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
The word skirmish existed long before skirmishers the first reference is 1374 and the most recent reference the OED has is 1601 and a definition of "An irregular engagement between two small bodies of troops, esp. detached or outlying portions of opposing armies; a petty fight or encounter. Also occas. without article, as a mode of fighting." --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 23:42, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] 18 November 2008
I made a large edit a relatively large edit to this article today.
These edits were made for a number of reasons.
- I put back the wording of the original sentence because the wording is IMHO more elegant and says the same thing.
- I removed "and are sometimes referred to as duels on a larger scale. " because I don't know who would call them a duel but is a metaphoric and not a literal meaning. The battle of Warterloo may have been a dual between Napoleon and Wellington but although Wellington did fight a duel but it was on Battersea Park not down the road at Waterloo Station.
- "Pitched battles are noted for lack of the element of surprise, ability to manoeuvre and lack of initiative available to either side." Well sometimes, but there are many many examples of where initiative, surprising tactics and ability to manoeuvre have won pitched battles.
- "In military theory pitched battles are to be avoided, particularly by those troops that depend on the on the three above mentioned factors, such as insurgents." Well only if one things that pitched battles never involve initiative, surprising tactics and ability to manoeuvre. Also with insurgents it depends on the size of the insurgency.
- "Pitched battles were however the preferred method of resolving a military campaign during the Renaissance and until the Franco-Prussian War because of the prevailing thinking that a decisive battle is to be sought as soon as possible." Yes it was the preferred method of some of the outstanding generals of history notably Marlborough and Napoleon, but one of the things that highlights Marlborough's career is that he was doing this during a time when most military campaigns were based on siege warfare.
