A
raid (also called
depredation) is a
military tactic or
operational warfare mission which requires the execution of a plan where
surprise is the principal desired outcome of the attack.
The largest of raids in history can be considered that of the series of raids during and following the
Mongol invasion of Central Asia, while at lower level raids had been staged by the
Cossacks of the
Zaporizhian Sich, the
Grande Armee, and the cavalry raids during the
American Civil War such as the
Morgan's Raid, and numerous examples of
small group raids behind enemy lines from all periods in military history.
Within a tactical mission, a raiding group may consist of personnel specially trained in this tactic (such as
commandos or
guerrilla fighters), regular soldiers, or any organized group of combatants. Raids have a specific purpose and are not normally intended to capture and hold terrain, but instead finish with the raiding force quickly retreating to a previous defended position prior to the enemy forces being able to respond in a co-ordinated manner or formulate a counter-attack.
The purposes of a raid may include:
- to demoralize, confuse, or exhaust an enemy
- to ransack or pillage a location
- to obtain property or capture people
- to destroy goods or other things with an economic value
- to kill or capture specific people
In the
operational level of war, raids were the precursors in the development of the
Operational Manoeuvre Groups in the Soviet Army as early as 1930s.
The
Royal Air Force first used the term "raid" in the
Second World War when referring to an
air attack. It included those by one aircraft or many
squadrons, against all manner of targets on the ground and the targets defending aircraft. "Raid" was different than "battle", which was used for land, sea, or amphibious conflict. An aircraft "raid" was always planned ahead of time. Aircraft
patrols (against
U-Boats) and defensive launches of carrier aircraft (against recently detected enemy ships) are differentiated from raids.
See also
