Tactical Withdrawal: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Although this has been used as a euphemism for "legging it", this is not quite the same thing. This is a managed retreat rather than an all-out rout, with forces withdrawing in good order to fight another day. They may have actually done their job, i.e. a [[Delaying Action]].

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[The Third World War]]'', it is stated in the description of the first TV footage of Soviet and US forces clashing in Slovenia (smuggled out from the battlefield by a reporter) that a military observer would note the Soviets were performing a textbook withdrawal under fire.

* Almost every large-scale battle in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' involves the heroes doing this at some point when things are ready to progress to a later stage of the battle. A few times it even gets subverted into the withdrawal turning into an all-out rout.

* In the third book of the ''[[Sten]]'' series, it's shown that units of the Imperial Guards often stage simulations of military actions at big Imperial celebrations—and the one for the current year, rather unusually, is a fighting retreat. It's described as '''very''' well done and impressive ... including one special effect that leaves the Eternal Emperor wondering how anybody managed to simulate '''that''' sound without actually blowing things up.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* An option in the ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' games when it is clear that a division cannot win against an enemy force but still has enough organization to maintain contact. It is entirely reasonable to withdraw a defending division when attacked, as at the very least the enemy division will have to delay several days before its next attack, and is an essentialy element of setting up encirclement traps. Pulling an attacking division out of an assault that is clearly not working will save organization and manpower as well. This can also be pulled off as a tactical maneuver during battle by generals. It shortens the front, and gives the attacker an attack penalty and the defenders also a smaller penalty (which still ends in a net win for the defenders.)

* [[Fate/stay night]]'s Lancer has a C rank in the Disengage Personal Skill. While this may not sound like much, he's the only Servant in the Fifth War with that skill at all, meaning he'd be perfect for scouting if not for his [[Blood Knight]] personality, and his sense of honor. Unfortunately for him, {{spoiler|Kirei}} cares not one jot about Lancer's personality or honor, and Command Seals Lancer into acting as a scout, making him engage each Servant to test their strength before disengaging and stepping out of the War, leaving the other six to fight it out. While this normally would be a suicidal tactic in the Grail War, it helps that his Master also has access to the [[Game Breaker]] {{spoiler|[[Fate/Zero|Fourth War Servant]] [[The Epic of Gilgamesh|Gil]][[Superpower Lottery|ga]][[Hyperspace Arsenal|me]][[Story-Breaker Power|sh]].}}

== Other ==

* In ''[[Code Geass the Abridged Series]]'', Cornelia chooses not to retreat, but to "retake land that we've already conquered!"

* The (disastrous) retreat of the British from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass in 1842.

* Xenophon's Ten Thousand Mercenaries.

* Happened a couple of times in the Peninsular War (depicted in ''[[Sharpe]]''). At the Retreat to Corunna, the British expeditionary force retreated from the superior French army, giving battle before Corunna long enough for them to escape. Later, British troops retreated from another large French force by delaying them long enough to build the Lines of Torres Vedras, a massive series of fortifications protecting the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The French were left facing an impenetrable city and a huge army to try and feed with a country whose crops and livestock had deliberately been destroyed.

* During the early stages of the autumn campaign of 1813 [[Napoleonic Wars|Wars of Liberation]], the allied forces on the whole successfully pursued the strategy of executing tactical retreats when faced by armies led by Napoleon himself while attacking armies led by his marshals. They did lose the battle of Dresden against Napoleon himself, but this defeat was more than offset by the simultaneous victories of Großbeeren and the Katzbach, as well as the battle of Kulm where the defeated allied main army brought the pursuing French I Corps to grief.

* The Prussian army executed a good one after the battle of Ligny, which enabled them to decisively join the battle of Waterloo two days later. As an added bonus, they managed to do it in a way where the French lost contact with them so they had no idea where Blücher's men had gone.

* The British were able to spin the Dunkirk evacuation in [[World War Two]] as "The Miracle of Dunkirk," in which the British Expeditionary Force and some part of the French managed to escape the Nazis to fight another day.

 

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