Scorched earth

This article is about the military strategy. See Scorched Earth (computer game) for the computer game.

A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. The term refers to the practice of burning crops to deny the enemy food sources, although it is by no means limited to food stocks, and can include shelter, transportation, communications and industrial resources, which are often of equal or greater military value in modern warfare, as modern armies generally carry their own food supplies. The practice may be carried out by an army in enemy territory, or by an army in its own home territory.

Military usages

Roman era

Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded both happened in the Gallic Wars. The first, ironically, was used against their own: The Celtic Helvetii were forced to evacuate their homes in Southern Germany and Switzerland due to unfriendly Germanic tribes. To add incentive to the march, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not bring. After these Germans were defeated by a combined Roman-Gallic force; the Helvetii were forced to rebuild themselves on the shattered German and Swiss plains they themselves destroyed.

The second case shows actual military value: during the "Great Gallic War" the Gauls under Vercingetorix planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap and obliterate them. To this end; they ravaged the countryside of what are now the Benelux countries and France. This did cause immense problems for the Romans, but Roman military triumphs over the Gallic alliance showed that this alone was not enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome.

During the Second Punic War in 218-202 BC, the Carthaginians used this tactic while storming through Italy.

Early Modern Era

Vlad Ţepes also used such tactics to great effect in 1462 during the Turks' invasion of Wallachia.

British use of scorched earth policies in war was seen as early as the sixteenth century in Ireland where it was used by English commanders such as Walter Devereux and Richard Bingham. Its most infamous use was by Humphrey Gilbert during the wars against the native Irish in Munster in the 1560s and 1570s, actions which earned the praise of the poet Edmund Spenser in his A View of the Present State of Ireland in 1596.

19th Century

During the Napoleonic Wars, scorched earth policies were successfully employed in both Spain (see Peninsular War) and Russia (see Napoleon's invasion of Russia).

In the American Civil War, General Sherman utilized this policy during his March to the Sea.

Boer War

Lord Kitchener applied this policy during the later part of the Second Boer War when the British failed to get the better of the Boers on the battlefield. This took the form of the destruction of farms in order to prevent the fighting Boers from obtaining food and supplies, and to demoralise them by leaving their women and children homeless and starving in the open. When this proved unsuccessful, they hoarded the Boer women and children into concentration camps where conditions were appalling and disease and death was rife.

Indian wars (America)

During the wars with Native American tribes of the American West, under Carleton's direction, Kit Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes, and stealing or killing their livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes.The Navajo were forced to surrender due to the destruction of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this “The Long Walk.” Many died along the way or during the next four years of imprisonment.

Sino-Japanese War

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese soldiers destroyed dams and levees in an attempt to flood the land to slow down the advancement of Japanese soldiers. This policy resulted in the 1938 Huang He flood. The Japanese also adopted a scorched-earth policy in China during the war, known as "Sanko sakusen".

World War II

At the close of the World War II the Finns, who had joined the Allies, were required to fight to free their lands of German forces. Finnish forces, under the leadership of general Hjalmar Siilasvuo, struck aggressively and by October and November 1944 drove the Germans out of most of northern Finland. Hard battles were fought as the Germans made a stand to cover their retreat towards Norway. In their retreat the German forces devastated large areas of northern Finland using scorched earth tactics. More than one-third of the dwellings in that area were destroyed, and the provincial capital of Rovaniemi was burned to the ground. All but two bridges in Lapland were blown up and roads minedSee Lapland War. When Northern Norway was invaded by (mainly Finnish) Allied forces from Finland in pursuit of the retreating German army in 1944, the Germans continued their scorched earth policy, destroying every building that could offer shelter, thus interposing a belt of "scorched earth" between themselves and the allies.

In 1945, Adolf Hitler, desperately attempting to save Nazi Germany from the Allies and the Soviet Union, ordered Albert Speer, his armaments minister, to carry out the scorched earth policy. Speer refused the order and left Berlin.

Gulf War

During the Gulf War in 1990 when Iraqi forces were driven out of Kuwait they set oil wells on fire and mined areas near the wells.

Recent uses

Indonesia and pro-Indonesia militias used this tactic in their Timor-Leste Scorched Earth campaign around the time of East Timor's referendum for independence in 1999.

Business

The scorched-earth defense is a form of risk arbitrage and anti-takeover strategy. When a target firm implements this provision, it will make an effort to make it unattractive to the hostile bidder. For example, a company may agree to liquidate or destroy all valuable assets, also called "crown jewels", or schedule debt repayment to be due immediately following a hostile takeover. In some cases, a scorched-earth defense may develop into an extreme anti-takeover defense called a "suicide pill".

Science fiction

In many science fiction scenarios, scorched earth is a battle tactic taken to its most literal extreme—in order to ensure that the Earth, or other inhabited planet, is not taken in an alien invasion, an individual or group possessing the requisite technology will obliterate the planet's surface or the entire planet in total or at least make it inhospitable for as long as possible.

References

Military tactics | Mergers and acquisitions

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