Draft:Turan tactic

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The Turan tactic (Turan taktiği), also known in Turkish sources as the crescent tactic (hilal taktiği) and wolf game (kurt oyunu), is a term used in Turkish military historiography for a method of warfare in which mobile troops harass an enemy at a distance, induce pursuit through a feigned retreat, and then ambush and envelop the pursuing force. The method is associated particularly with mounted troops and horse archers, whose mobility and ability to attack from a distance facilitate the successive stages of harassment, withdrawal, ambush and envelopment.

A fifteenth-century depiction of a Turkish mounted archer. Mounted archery is one of the elements associated with the Turan tactic in Turkish military-historical writing.

Studies of warfare on the Eurasian Steppe discuss mounted archery, feigned retreat, flanking attacks and encirclement as related but distinct maneuvers that were used in different combinations by the Huns, Turkic peoples, the Mongols and other medieval armies.

Terminology

In Turkish-language sources, the terms Turan taktiği and kurt oyunu are used for a method based on an initial attack followed by a deliberate withdrawal intended to draw the opposing force toward troops waiting in ambush. Hilal taktiği, literally "crescent tactic", is another name used for the same method.

Eda Durmuş relates the name kurt oyunu ("wolf game") to the behaviour of a wolf that attacks its prey, withdraws and then surrounds it when conditions are favourable. Mesut Uyar and Edward J. Erickson likewise discuss the names "crescent" and "wolf game" in connection with the characteristic battlefield practices and communal hunting traditions of steppe armies.

Method

Harassment and attrition

In the initial stage, mobile troops, commonly horse archers, approach the opposing force without committing themselves to close combat. Missile attacks are used to inflict losses and provoke a response while the mobility of the cavalry allows the attackers to decide when to establish or break contact.

The purpose of this phase is not necessarily to decide the battle by itself. It can instead prepare the conditions for the following maneuver by encouraging the opposing troops to leave their formation and pursue the withdrawing force.

Feigned retreat

During the feigned retreat, a body of troops deliberately withdraws while giving the impression that it has been defeated. The purpose is to draw the enemy out of its position and induce a pursuit in which its formation may become extended and the links between its units weakened.

An early-seventeenth-century Mughal battle scene from a manuscript of the Shahnameh. The LACMA identifies the fleeing troops at upper left as performing the Parthian shot, turning in the saddle to shoot at their pursuers.

Horse archers can continue to shoot at their pursuers while withdrawing by turning their upper bodies in the saddle and shooting to the rear. This technique is conventionally known in English as the Parthian shot. It became particularly associated with the Parthians through their use of mounted archery against Roman forces, although evidence for rearward shooting from horseback predates the Parthian period.

A successful feigned retreat requires the withdrawing troops to maintain control while making the movement appear convincing. The coordination and communication required to conduct a planned withdrawal without allowing it to become a genuine rout make the maneuver difficult to execute.

Ambush and envelopment

When the pursuing force reaches the area selected in advance, the withdrawing troops turn and attack again while concealed forces move against the enemy's flanks or rear. The objective is to restrict the pursuers' freedom of movement and attack them from several directions.

Terrain can play an important part in the maneuver. Ground that conceals troops and channels the movement of the pursuing force can be used for the ambush, while sufficiently open terrain is needed for the cavalry conducting the withdrawal.

Requirements and training

The execution of the tactic depends on more than cavalry mobility. Reconnaissance, timing, command and coordination between separated bodies of troops are also important, particularly when a withdrawing force must act together with troops concealed on the flanks.

Communal hunting has been discussed as one means by which steppe armies practised encirclement and coordinated movement. Timothy May describes the Mongol nerge, a large-scale hunt in which mounted participants formed a broad ring around animals and gradually contracted it. The exercise also served as military training by testing the ability of troops to maintain formation and the ability of commanders to control them.

Historical use

Mounted archery and feigned retreat were recurring features of warfare on the Eurasian steppe from antiquity until the widespread adoption of firearms. Steppe armies capable of operating over long distances used missile attacks, withdrawal and flanking maneuvers in varying combinations rather than relying exclusively on close combat.

Feigned retreat was not exclusive to steppe armies. Medieval accounts describe versions of the stratagem being used by different forces, including the Huns, Visigoths and Normans. Historians have also noted that determining whether a withdrawal described in a narrative source was genuinely planned as a deception can be difficult.

Battle of Manzikert

The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 is discussed in Turkish military history in connection with this method. In Ali Sevim's account of the battle, Alp Arslan placed part of his army in ambush in a valley. The withdrawal of the Seljuk centre drew the Byzantine advance toward the ambush, after which both the concealed cavalry and the returning Seljuk troops attacked.

Mongol warfare

Mongol armies also employed mounted archery, feigned retreats, flanking attacks and encirclement as parts of larger military operations. Their decimal military organization, systems of communication and collective training enabled separated bodies of troops to withdraw and regroup in a coordinated manner.

See also

• Ambush
• Feigned retreat
• Military deception
• Mounted archery
• Parthian shot
• Pincer movement

References

Bibliography

• Colburn, Henry P. (2021). "A Parthian Shot of Potential Arsacid Date". Dabir. 8: 35–40. doi:10.1163/29497833-00801004.

• Dokur, İbrahim Doğukan (2019). "Uzaktan Gelip Uzaktan Savaşanlar, Turan Taktiğinin İktisadi Açıdan Değerlendirilmesi" [Those Coming from Afar and Fighting at a Distance: An Economic Assessment of the Turan Tactic]. Türk Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi (in Turkish). 4 (2): 147–173.

• Durmuş, Eda (2021). "Eski Türklerin Savaş Taktikleri ve Savaş Alanındaki Uygulamaları" [Military Tactics of the Ancient Turks and Their Application on the Battlefield]. Gazi Akademik Bakış (in Turkish). 15 (29): 243–262. doi:10.19060/gav.1035519.

• May, Timothy (2006). "The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre-Modern Period". The Journal of Military History. 70 (3): 617–635. doi:10.1353/jmh.2006.0179.

• May, Timothy (28 March 2018). "Nomadic Warfare before Firearms". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.4.

• Sevim, Ali (2003). "Malazgirt Muharebesi" [Battle of Manzikert]. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Vol. 27. TDV İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi. pp. 481–483.

• Titterton, James (2022). "The Feigned Flight". Deception in Medieval Warfare: Trickery and Cunning in the Central Middle Ages. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 72–87. doi:10.1017/9781800104747.006.

• Uyar, Mesut; Erickson, Edward J. (2009). A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk. Praeger Security International. ISBN 9780275988760.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

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Categories:

• Maneuver tactics
• Military deception