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- For the Victoria University of Wellington student publication, see Salient (magazine).
In military terms, a salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. Therefore, the salient is surrounded by the enemy on three sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. The enemy's line facing a salient is referred to as a re-entrant (an angle pointing inwards). A deep salient is vulnerable to being "pinched out" across the base, forming a pocket, in which the defenders of the salient become isolated.
Salient
Salients can be formed in a number of ways. An attacker can produce a salient in the defender's line by either intentionally making a pincer movement around the flanks of a strong point, which becomes the tip of the salient, or by making a broad, frontal attack which is held up in the centre but advances on the flanks. An attacker would usually produce a salient in his own line by making a broad, frontal attack that is successful only in the centre, which becomes the tip of the salient.
In trench warfare, salients are distinctly defined by the opposing lines of trenches and they were commonly formed by the failure of a broad, frontal attack. The static nature of the trenches meant that forming a pocket was difficult but the vulnerable nature of salients meant that they were often the focus of attrition battles.
Examples of salients
- In World War I, the British occupied a large salient at Ypres for most of the war. Formed as a result of the First Battle of Ypres, it became one of the most bloody sectors of the Western Front. So enduring was the feature and so dreadful its reputation that when British infantry spoke of "The Salient", it was understood that they were referring to Ypres.
- In World War I, the Germans occupied a small salient in front of Fromelles called the Sugarloaf due to its distinctive shape. Being small it provided advantage to the occupiers by allowing them to enfilade the stretches of no man's land on either flank.
- In World War II, the Soviet Union occupied a massive, 150 km deep, salient at Kursk that became the site of the largest tank battle in history.
- During the Turkish military intervention on the island of Cyprus in 1974, Turkish Forces reached as far south as the Turkish Cypriot village of Louroujina. The cease-fire line dividing Cyprus into Greek and Turkish controlled sectors put Louroujina in a salient — accessible from the rest of Turkish Cypriot-controlled Cyprus by a single road.
In mobile warfare, such as the German Blitzkrieg, salients were more likely to be made into pockets which became the focus of annihilation battles.
A pocket carries connotations that the encircled forces have not allowed themselves to be encircled intentionaly, as they may, when defending a fortified position which is usually called a siege. This is similar to the distinction to that made between a skirmish and pitched battle.
Examples of pockets
- During Operation Barbarossa, 230,000 Soviet troops were captured in a pocket at Smolensk when isolated by the Panzer forces of General Heinz Guderian on July 20, 1941.
- In 1944, following the D-Day landings, the German Seventh Army was trapped in the Falaise pocket.
- In 1945, 325,000 German troops were isolated and captured by advancing American armies in the Ruhr pocket.
- In the Yugoslav wars the Medak Pocket was a Serb populated area in Croatia that was invaded by Croatians in September 1993.
Kessel
In German word Kessel (literally a cauldron) is commonly used to refer to an encircled military force. The term is sometimes borrowed for use in English texts about World War II. Another use of Kessel is to refer to Kessel fever, the panic and hopelessness felt by any troops who were surrounded with little or no chance of escape. Examples of Kessel battles are:
- Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43
- Velikiye Luki Pocket 1942-1943
- Korsun Pocket, 1944
- Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket 1944 (aka Hube's Pocket)
- Siege of Memel, 1945
- Battle of Halbe, 1945
- Battle of Berlin, 1945
Also, during the Battle of Arnhem, the Germans referred to the pocket of trapped British Paratroops as the Hexenkessel (lit. The Witches' Cauldron).
See also
"Salients, re-entrants and pockets"