Guerrilla Warfare: Guerrilla Warfare: Tactics and Strategies in Unconventional Combat

By Fouad Sabry

What is Guerrilla Warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians including recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism, raids, petty warfare or hit-and-run tactics in a rebellion, in a violent conflict, in a war or in a civil war to fight against regular military, police or rival insurgent forces.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Guerrilla warfare

Chapter 2: Asymmetric warfare

Chapter 3: Resistance movement

Chapter 4: Hit-and-run tactics

Chapter 5: People's war

Chapter 6: Low-intensity conflict

Chapter 7: Unconventional warfare

Chapter 8: Insurgency

Chapter 9: Jungle warfare

Chapter 10: Fourth-generation warfare

(II) Answering the public top questions about guerrilla warfare.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Guerrilla Warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 27, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a type of irregular warfare wherein small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary members, armed civilians, or irregulars, employ military techniques like ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to battle a more powerful and immobile traditional military.

Although the phrase guerrilla warfare was first used in relation to the Peninsular War in the 19th century, the tactical strategies have been in use for a very long time. Sun Tzu suggested the employment of guerrilla-style tactics in The Art of War in the sixth century BC. Many guerilla warfare techniques are assigned to the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, who developed what is now known as the Fabian strategy. Throughout history, guerrilla warfare has been employed by a variety of groups. It is notably connected to revolutionary movements and public resistance to occupying or encroaching armies.

Due to often weaker weapons or forces, guerrilla tactics emphasize avoiding direct clashes with enemy armies in favor of small-scale battles intended to wear down foes and force them to withdraw. Guerrilla techniques are therefore typically only employed for defense. Organized guerrilla groups frequently rely on funding from the local populace or from supporters abroad who share their objectives.

The Spanish word for guerrilla is guerra, which is short for war.; hence, ‘little war’.

During the Peninsular War in the early 19th century, the phrase gained popularity, when, after their regular armies were routed, The guerilla tactic was used by the Spanish and Portuguese people to effectively revolt against the Napoleonic forces and thwart a much stronger army.

Using proper Spanish, a person who is a member of a guerrilla unit is a guerrillero ([geriˈʎeɾo]) if male, or a guerrillera ([geriˈʎeɾa]) if female.

As early as 1809, the term guerrilla was used in English to refer to both individual warriors (e.g., The town was taken by the guerrillas) as well as groups or bands of such fighters. The term guerrilla still refers to a certain kind of warfare in the majority of languages. The diminutive evokes the disparities between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state in terms of size, breadth, and composition.

Tribal fighters in the prehistoric era probably used guerrilla strategies to combat rival tribes. Contrarily, the first signs of conventional combat did not appear in Egypt and Mesopotamia until 3100 BC. One of the first to advocate the use of guerilla warfare was the Chinese military and strategist Sun Tzu, who did so in his work The Art of War (6th century BC).

Guerrilla warfare was utilized against the Normans during their many invasions into Wales. The Normans were unfamiliar with the area's mountains, so the Welsh used them to launch surprise attacks.

Ideologies like nationalism, liberalism, socialism, and religious fundamentalism have all contributed significantly to molding insurgencies and guerrilla warfare since the Enlightenment.

Between 1790 and 1805, Kerala Varma (also known as Pazhassi Raja) waged guerrilla warfare in India against the British East India Company. In 1809, Arthur Wellesley translated the Spanish word guerrilla into English, The Moroccan military leader Abd el-Krim (c. 1883 – 1963) and his father unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during the Rif War in 1920.

first time ever in history, Tunnel warfare was combined with contemporary guerrilla techniques, It severely wounded both of the colonial armies in Morocco.

engaged British soldiers in significant combat, often for 10 to 30 minutes.

Barry's flying columns are best known for their role in the Kilmichael Ambush in November 1920 and the Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921, both of which resulted in significant casualties for the opposing forces.

A small group of Algerian militants launched the 1954 Algerian Revolution. The insurgents fought the French for more than eight years with simple weapons. This still serves as a model for contemporary forms of asymmetric warfare, terrorism, torture, and insurgency and counterinsurgency.

The Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তিবাহিনী, literally means freedom fighters, Liberation Army, etc.), additionally known as Bangladesh Forces, was the Bangladeshi military's guerilla resistance movement, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, which turned East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971, paramilitaries and civilians.

Mukti Fauj, a previous name, was also employed.

Asymmetric warfare, or struggle between adversaries of different strength levels, includes guerrilla warfare. Guerrillas, if successful, wear down their adversary through attrition, eventually forcing them to retreat.

Guerrillas typically avoid major units and formations of enemy soldiers and instead hunt down and target smaller pockets of enemy personnel and supplies to progressively weaken the opposition while minimizing their own casualties. The guerilla favors mobility, stealth, and surprise; it forms tiny units and uses difficult-to-access terrain to its advantage. For instance, Mao Zedong described fundamental guerrilla strategies as follows at the start of the Chinese Civil War:

When the adversary approaches, we flee; when they camp, we stalk; when they tire, we attack; and when they flee, we pursue.

Guerrilla organizations may also use improvised explosive devices to destroy infrastructure in addition to more conventional combat tactics. They frequently embed themselves within it (using the populace as a human shield), rely on logistical and political support from the local population and foreign benefactors, and many guerrilla groups are skilled at persuading the public through propaganda and use of force. All citizens could start to look like potential guerilla supporters to the opposing army. Today's guerrilla forces frequently use kids as fighters, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other capacities.

Theoretical writings on guerilla warfare served as inspiration for the growth of guerrilla warfare in the 20th century, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by Matías Ramón Mella written in the 19th century and, more recently, On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Zedong, Guerrilla Warfare under Che Guevara, and the same-titled text by Lenin, all published following the effective revolutions they carried out in China, Russia and Cuba, respectively.

These writings described the guerilla warfare strategy as, according to the text of Che Guevara, being employed by the side that has the backing of the majority but has a considerably lower number of weapons for use in defense against oppression.

The guerilla warrior fights for what reasons? We must accept the unavoidable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms in response to the angry outcry of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to alter the social structure that keeps all of his unarmed brothers in humiliation and misery.

— Che Guevara

Around 1960, In his book Guerrilla Warfare, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara established the foco (Spanish: foquismo) doctrine of revolution, based on his memories of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

This theory was later formalised as focal-ism by Régis Debray.

Its main tenet is that vanguardism by small groups of people, Fast-moving paramilitary organizations can serve as a focal point for public unrest against an existing regime, and start a widespread uprising as a result.

Although the first plan called for gathering troops and attacking from rural areas, Urban guerilla warfare movements adopted several foco concepts.

No agreed definition of terrorism exists,

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement) refers to a style of conflict involving belligerents with considerably different levels of relative military strength, strategies, or tactics. Insurgents or militias from resistance movements who may be considered unlawful combatants use