Introduction The Contestado War (Portuguese: Guerra do Contestado), broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazilian state’s police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916. It was fought in an inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba… Read More
Introduction Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separate sovereign states for the rebelling nationality. From a different point of view,… Read More
Introduction An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well-equipped, regular military force state adversary. Due to this asymmetry, insurgents avoid large-scale direct battles, opting instead to… Read More
Introduction The main strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to involve the use of a small attacking, mobile force against a large, unwieldy force. The guerrilla force is largely or entirely organised in small units that are dependent on the support of the local population. Tactically, the guerrilla army makes the repetitive attacks far… Read More
Introduction Werwolf (German for “werewolf”) was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany, in parallel with the Wehrmacht fighting in front of the lines (refer to World War II). It is widely misconstrued as having been intended… Read More
Introduction The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known alternatively as the “Forest Brothers”, the “Brothers of the Wood” and the “Forest Friars” (Estonian: metsavennad, Latvian: mežabrāļi, Lithuanian: žaliukai), these partisans fought against Soviet forces during their… Read More
Introduction Special reconnaissance (SR) is conducted by small units, such as a reconnaissance (recon) team, made up of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units and/or military intelligence organisations. Special reconnaissance teams operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detection by the enemy. As a role, SR is distinct from commando operations,… Read More
Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute 