Talk:Attrition warfare

Strategic considerations

This section seems to confuse attrition warfare with Fabian strategy. Attrition warfare is a component of Fabian strategy, but it's a broader concept. I reworded part of it, but it probably needs a further rework. TheWhiteGuar (talk) 05:47, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

I follow this definition https://www.militaryfactory.com/dictionary/military-terms-defined.asp?term_id=575 saying "The reduction of the effectiveness of a force caused by loss of personnel and materiel. (US DoD)". I will add "by any means, including scorched earth, delayed operation, battles, guerrilla war, people's war and so on...What is not attrition warfare for me? Anything connected with "Blitzkrieg". I will slightly adjust your wording in this direction.Ruedi33a (talk) 06:47, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

List of wars

I feel like every entry on this list needs a citation to some RS referring to it as a war of attrition. I was going to add cn tags, until I saw that basically the entire list is uncited. Valereee (talk) 15:31, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Been almost ten months, I've added those tags. Valereee (talk) 16:25, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Clausewitz

Von Krieg is cited twice (note 5, chapter 1.7 and not 7, chapter 8.8) and is included in the references but the word 'attrition' simply does not appear in the book. Chapter 1.7 is about friction and 8.8 about defence in general. I didn't want to delete the mentions of Clausewitz outright but I'm doubtful he is an appropriate source for the assertions made in this article. Civmil (talk) 05:41, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

The word 'attrition' does not appear as the original was written in German. Attrition warfare is Abnutzungskrieg in German. Let us have a look at the original 'Vom Krieg'. 1.Buch 7. Kapitel. Friktion im Kriege. Friktion means Reibung, Widerstand, Verzoegerung. 6.Buch 8.Kapitel Widerstandsarten. Methods of resistance: This was the case in the year 1812. In that celebrated campaign such a number of bloody encounters took place as might, under other circumstances, have sufficed for a most complete decision by the sword; nevertheless, there is hardly any campaign in which we can so plainly see how the aggressor may be ruined by his own efforts. Of the 300,000 men composing the French centre only about 90,000 reached Moscow; not more than 13,000 were detached; consequently there had been a loss of 197,000 men, and certainly not a third of that loss can be put to account of battles.Ruedi33a (talk) 07:09, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

There is no doubt Clausewitz talks about concepts and events relevant to attrition warfare, nor that he would easily understand it if explained by a 20th or 21st century theorist. But he never explicitly uses that phrase. Can he be then said to describe "the strategy [of attrition warfare]" in paragraph 2? Can he be used as a source for a concept he never actually uses? Civmil (talk) 15:52, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Yes, he was an eye-witness of how the combined power of Fabian Strategy, Scorched Earth, Guerrilla Warfare and People's War destroyed Napoleon's Grande armee. So he is a pioneer in describing attrition warfare. Ruedi33a (talk) 16:29, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Again, it's not that he has nothing to do with attrition warfare or that he can't appear in this article. It is simply that the sentence "As Clausewitz described, it (attrition warfare) is a strategy of exhausting the adversary’s will and capability to fight" is simply false. Clausewitz uses that phrasing to describe the object(ive) of defense. Civmil (talk) 21:59, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Attrition warfare can be part of defense or offense. Attrition can be used on both sides of a war. Attrition is part of every war. Ruedi33a (talk) 16:39, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

The "exhausting" sentence was inserted as part of the AI rewrite mentioned below. Gnomingstuff (talk) 19:54, 29 June 2026 (UTC)

AI flag

Flgged for AI, details: This April 15 rewrite, one of many AI edits by user; note WP:AISIGNS e.g. superficial analyses/editorializing, vocab distro typical of LLM output, AI edit summary, etc' Gnomingstuff (talk) 19:54, 29 June 2026 (UTC)