Kahanistan
27-03-2007, 19:34
Great Big Guide to Guerrilla Warfare
This guide is intended to help NS'ers inexperienced with guerrilla warfare, insurgency, or other forms of asymmetrical warfare to develop knowledge in that area. It is intended to grow as NS knowledge of the subject matter grows, and is therefore open to new comments, questions, and suggestions. (Not flames.)
Much of my information comes from Wikipedia, I practically live there. If you have other information or ideas, please feel free to contribute.
1. What is Guerrilla Warfare?
Guerrilla warfare is the tactic of using lightly armed irregular militia to fight against a conventional military or government, generally aimed at the destruction of the government or the weakening of the opposing military through destruction of morale and political will.
2. When is Guerrilla Warfare Appropriate?
Guerrilla warfare is most appropriate when the local population opposes or is indifferent to the ruling regime. Guerrilla warfare depends on the willingness of the local population to support it with information, supplies, and recruits.
3. What do I Need to Wage Guerrilla Warfare?
The will to win is the single most important tool of the guerrilla, even more important than weapons and supplies. Without a vision of victory and a will stronger than that of your adversary, no amount of weapons will help you.
4. Kick Ass! How do I Start Guerrilla Warfare?
OK, I know you're eager to start infiltrating thousands of guerrillas into $insert_superpower_here armed with cheap pop guns and take over their government, but there are several important factors to consider when waging guerrilla warfare offensively.
1. How popular is the ruling regime with the people? If the people like their ruler, then they won't support foreign fighters coming in and trying to start trouble.
2. Even if they don't like their ruler, if your ideology (an important factor in any campaign, doubly so in a guerrilla war) is repugnant to the population, they will not support you. This is why our forests and jungles are not swarming with Al-Qa'ida guerrillas blowing stuff up.
3. Terrain. Guerrillas have a hard on for rugged terrain such as mountains, swamps, ravines, forests, and jungles, and so will you when you get deep into RP'ing them. Rugged terrain provides many locations to hide in and shoot from. Also, the enemy cannot usually deploy heavy vehicles such as APC's or tanks into rugged terrain, so it's forced to use helicopters and UAV's which are more easily seen, and generally less armored than a main battle tank, so can be downed by a rocket launcher or even an assault rifle in a pinch.
A subset of rugged terrain is urban warfare, which is my personal favourite. Urban warfare favours the combatant who can remain hidden the best, something which guerrillas are very experienced at. Furthermore, urban guerrillas have a civilian population base which they can blend into. Mao Tse-tung said that the guerrilla must become like the fish in the ocean of people, and that means that the guerrilla must blend in with the other types of fish, the civilian population. This also provides a human shield if the enemy plans an attack on the city and your support base, and fails only against an utterly ruthless military (the Syrian military destroyed the city of Hama in 1982 to eradicate Muslim extremists). There are a lot of such militaries on NS, but such an atrocity will rapidly turn world opinion against them.
5. OK, I'm waging a campaign. Now what?
Well, now you get to deal with enemy counter-insurgency programmes, or as the US military in 'Nam called it, WHAM (Winning Hearts and Minds.) At its core, guerrilla warfare is a political game (any war is an extension of politics) and politics is the struggle for hearts and minds. If the H&M of the population you are fighting amongst are very much against you, you're losing the campaign no matter how many you kill or which side you're on. "You can kill ten of my men for each one I kill of yours, but in the end, you will lose and I will win." - Ho Chi Minh
Counterinsurgency programmes work in several ways. One is to offer the locals protection, so molesting the civilian population is a great big no-no for any guerrilla. (It's good for international opinion, too. More on that later.)
Some work by giving something to the locals, for example, the USians gave the South Vietnamese aid to build schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure to win their hearts. To compete against this, some guerrilla organisations have also constructed infrastructure or conducted humanitarian missions, such as the construction in Palestine by Hamas, Hizbullah, and other organisations of schools, charities, hospitals, etc. to win hearts and minds.
Another is forced relocation of the population. This is intended to deny the guerrillas support from the locals. However, it does them two favours: First, it turns the population against the enemy, and second, there is no guarantee that the guerrillas, who blend in with the population, will not be moved along with the population. One variation of this is to split up the population and send them to different relocation sites, which has the effect of disrupting guerrilla cells if different members are sent to different sites.
The final counterinsurgency method is state terrorism against the civilian population, aimed at forcing guerrillas to surrender under threat of civilian massacres; many guerrillas will have family members among that civilian population they will be unwilling to sacrifice for the greater goal. Like relocation, this turns domestic and world opinion against the enemy. However, most of the population will be successfully terrorised and unwilling to openly support the guerrillas.
6. Now when do we get... the freaking GUNS?
Weapons used by insurgents and guerrillas can come from numerous sources. Armia Krajowa (Polish for "Home Army"), the largest Polish resistance group during World War II, unearthed numerous arms caches that had been buried by the Polish military when defeat loomed. However, these weapons suffered water and other damage during several years of interment, and only about 30% were usable.
If your guerrillas are a resistance to a foreign occupier, you may have many of these caches (hopefully better made and better protected than the Poles') scattered throughout the country. If they are a terrorist group trying to seize power, or a group of foreign fighters trying to destabilize another government, you will not have this option, which leads to the next option: procuring weapons.
Weapons can be procured in many ways: they can be bought from corrupt or disgruntled enemy soldiers, captured from slain enemies, raided from enemy supply trains or depots... or even bought over the counter if local law permits it. Other weapons can be imported from sympathetic regimes, or neutrals ignnorant of the true purpose of the weapons. Failing even that, your guerrillas can make their own weapons. The Polish Resistance made a very simple 32-round, 9mmx19mm submachine gun in the 1940's, called the Blyskawica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php/Blyskawica), and even an armoured car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubuś), which, by the way, I do NOT recommend; in most cases it's probably easier (though still not easy by any stretch) to capture an enemy armoured car or even main battle tank.
7. Fighting a Guerrilla War
I've explained counterinsurgency programmes earlier on. Now, I'll talk about the political, strategic, and to a lesser extent, tactical, implications in waging a guerrila war.
Politically, having the population on your side is a must. I've said this many times; I can't repeat it enough. What I have held back on is mentioning the importance of having the world on your side; this will determine your future significantly. If you win, it will determine your new order's foreign relations. You may even want to establish a provisional government, a set of guerrilla officials who will take key posts in a new government, to minimise strife following the displacement of the old order.
If you are losing, world support may open a new source of weapons, supplies, or foreign fighters. Appealing to an ideology, especially a religion, will recruit many foreign fighters, especially if the enemy is one hated in your part of the world (think Al-Qa'ida in Iraq and the thousands of foreign fighters of dozens of nationalities joining) and widespread support among adherents to your espoused ideology. In large enough numbers a new infusion of troops and weapons can turn the tide of a losing battle decisively in your favour.
Your strategic goals should vary depending on your enemy. If your enemy is pure evil, the populace already knows it and the question boils down to tactics. If you are a democratic movement opposing the tide of dictatorship, there will likely be a lot of "enemy" soldiers who think the same way, assuming they haven't been brainwashed. You may choose a strategy of capturing and turning enemy soldiers, which can give you a valuable source of intelligence as well.
If your enemy is a democracy, their people will likely lose interest if you simply drag out the conflict; this is how the US lost in 'Nam. Maimed and dead enemy soldiers and grieving mothers lobbying the government will hurt a war effort a lot worse than nuking the enemy capital (and likely hardening their resolve and getting nuked back) and you're far closer to victory.
Tactics to use as a guerrilla include the ever-popular and time-honoured ambush (of course); one popular variant is to shoot the first person in a patrol (Castro's forces used this against Batista. None of Batista's troops wanted to walk point. This harmed morale in his army.) or the rear in a patrol, which has a similar effect.
One sniper can pin down entire squads and medical personnel for hours while the enemy hunts them down. Make good use of snipers in any guerrilla force, but make sure they're capable of holding their own in a firefight when they are hunted down (a carbine or SMG is good for this in addition to the sniper rifle) and putting them in teams is a good idea; consider the idea of using entire teams of three to six snipers to really wreak havoc. Having your snipers retreat after each shot to reappear in another location makes them hellishly difficult to track, and can erode enemy morale extremely rapidly unless your opponent is fanatical.
Urban guerrilla warfare follows different rules. First off, a guerrilla can return home every day and the wife (husband?) doesn't even have to know their S.O. is a guerrilla. This is loads better than living in a cave or a V.C. style tunnel complex for years subsisting on cold rice balls and rotted fish heads. Second, large cities are more resistant to forced removal of the population (ever tried to relocate New York City halfway across the country to some relocation camp network in the desert? Any idea how many logistics personnel that would tie up?)
On the other hand, there are a lot of cameras and police around, so even if you aren't caught by the enemy, they may know if you do something in a public place (be careful about assassinations of collaborators, enemy officials, and the like). Try to avoid public places and hold meetings in private homes whenever possible.
Another opportunity available to the urban guerrilla is the ability to mix with the enemy. One can gain an enemy perspective on their ideology (it is always best to know how one's enemy thinks) and even manipulate them (that cute girl some enemy officer picked up might be a guerrilla in disguise, trying to extract information) and social-engineer other, possibly even classified, information.
Regardless of what kind of guerrilla you are, some principles of guerrilla warfare are universal.
1. Decentralisation. Keep information limited to as few people as possible. You want to limit the ability of a captured guerrilla to expose others. Operations should be known only to those taking part and their commanders.
2. Inconspicuousness. By day, Superman is Clark Kent, a mild-mannered librarian. Nobody could tell from looking at him who he really is. By day, your guerrillas should be ordinary truck drivers, teachers, barbers, college students, lifeguards, night watchmen / women, etc., etc.
3. Commitment. The last thing you want is someone spilling their guts as soon as the electrodes go on. They should be willing to lay down their lives for their cause if necessary, but not be keen to die, e.g. suicide bombers. A self-preservation instinct is good as long as, like anything else, it's in moderation.
4. Ingenuity. The enemy just imposed a curfew? Attack in broad daylight from a hidden position. Confiscated all your weapons? Well, we do have another Blyskawica factory across town that's opening up next week they don't know about. Bugged you? Learn sign language and teach it to other guerrillas. (Now you can do something with that sign language class you took in high school. :))
Good luck, and happy guerrilla warfare!
This guide is intended to help NS'ers inexperienced with guerrilla warfare, insurgency, or other forms of asymmetrical warfare to develop knowledge in that area. It is intended to grow as NS knowledge of the subject matter grows, and is therefore open to new comments, questions, and suggestions. (Not flames.)
Much of my information comes from Wikipedia, I practically live there. If you have other information or ideas, please feel free to contribute.
1. What is Guerrilla Warfare?
Guerrilla warfare is the tactic of using lightly armed irregular militia to fight against a conventional military or government, generally aimed at the destruction of the government or the weakening of the opposing military through destruction of morale and political will.
2. When is Guerrilla Warfare Appropriate?
Guerrilla warfare is most appropriate when the local population opposes or is indifferent to the ruling regime. Guerrilla warfare depends on the willingness of the local population to support it with information, supplies, and recruits.
3. What do I Need to Wage Guerrilla Warfare?
The will to win is the single most important tool of the guerrilla, even more important than weapons and supplies. Without a vision of victory and a will stronger than that of your adversary, no amount of weapons will help you.
4. Kick Ass! How do I Start Guerrilla Warfare?
OK, I know you're eager to start infiltrating thousands of guerrillas into $insert_superpower_here armed with cheap pop guns and take over their government, but there are several important factors to consider when waging guerrilla warfare offensively.
1. How popular is the ruling regime with the people? If the people like their ruler, then they won't support foreign fighters coming in and trying to start trouble.
2. Even if they don't like their ruler, if your ideology (an important factor in any campaign, doubly so in a guerrilla war) is repugnant to the population, they will not support you. This is why our forests and jungles are not swarming with Al-Qa'ida guerrillas blowing stuff up.
3. Terrain. Guerrillas have a hard on for rugged terrain such as mountains, swamps, ravines, forests, and jungles, and so will you when you get deep into RP'ing them. Rugged terrain provides many locations to hide in and shoot from. Also, the enemy cannot usually deploy heavy vehicles such as APC's or tanks into rugged terrain, so it's forced to use helicopters and UAV's which are more easily seen, and generally less armored than a main battle tank, so can be downed by a rocket launcher or even an assault rifle in a pinch.
A subset of rugged terrain is urban warfare, which is my personal favourite. Urban warfare favours the combatant who can remain hidden the best, something which guerrillas are very experienced at. Furthermore, urban guerrillas have a civilian population base which they can blend into. Mao Tse-tung said that the guerrilla must become like the fish in the ocean of people, and that means that the guerrilla must blend in with the other types of fish, the civilian population. This also provides a human shield if the enemy plans an attack on the city and your support base, and fails only against an utterly ruthless military (the Syrian military destroyed the city of Hama in 1982 to eradicate Muslim extremists). There are a lot of such militaries on NS, but such an atrocity will rapidly turn world opinion against them.
5. OK, I'm waging a campaign. Now what?
Well, now you get to deal with enemy counter-insurgency programmes, or as the US military in 'Nam called it, WHAM (Winning Hearts and Minds.) At its core, guerrilla warfare is a political game (any war is an extension of politics) and politics is the struggle for hearts and minds. If the H&M of the population you are fighting amongst are very much against you, you're losing the campaign no matter how many you kill or which side you're on. "You can kill ten of my men for each one I kill of yours, but in the end, you will lose and I will win." - Ho Chi Minh
Counterinsurgency programmes work in several ways. One is to offer the locals protection, so molesting the civilian population is a great big no-no for any guerrilla. (It's good for international opinion, too. More on that later.)
Some work by giving something to the locals, for example, the USians gave the South Vietnamese aid to build schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure to win their hearts. To compete against this, some guerrilla organisations have also constructed infrastructure or conducted humanitarian missions, such as the construction in Palestine by Hamas, Hizbullah, and other organisations of schools, charities, hospitals, etc. to win hearts and minds.
Another is forced relocation of the population. This is intended to deny the guerrillas support from the locals. However, it does them two favours: First, it turns the population against the enemy, and second, there is no guarantee that the guerrillas, who blend in with the population, will not be moved along with the population. One variation of this is to split up the population and send them to different relocation sites, which has the effect of disrupting guerrilla cells if different members are sent to different sites.
The final counterinsurgency method is state terrorism against the civilian population, aimed at forcing guerrillas to surrender under threat of civilian massacres; many guerrillas will have family members among that civilian population they will be unwilling to sacrifice for the greater goal. Like relocation, this turns domestic and world opinion against the enemy. However, most of the population will be successfully terrorised and unwilling to openly support the guerrillas.
6. Now when do we get... the freaking GUNS?
Weapons used by insurgents and guerrillas can come from numerous sources. Armia Krajowa (Polish for "Home Army"), the largest Polish resistance group during World War II, unearthed numerous arms caches that had been buried by the Polish military when defeat loomed. However, these weapons suffered water and other damage during several years of interment, and only about 30% were usable.
If your guerrillas are a resistance to a foreign occupier, you may have many of these caches (hopefully better made and better protected than the Poles') scattered throughout the country. If they are a terrorist group trying to seize power, or a group of foreign fighters trying to destabilize another government, you will not have this option, which leads to the next option: procuring weapons.
Weapons can be procured in many ways: they can be bought from corrupt or disgruntled enemy soldiers, captured from slain enemies, raided from enemy supply trains or depots... or even bought over the counter if local law permits it. Other weapons can be imported from sympathetic regimes, or neutrals ignnorant of the true purpose of the weapons. Failing even that, your guerrillas can make their own weapons. The Polish Resistance made a very simple 32-round, 9mmx19mm submachine gun in the 1940's, called the Blyskawica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php/Blyskawica), and even an armoured car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubuś), which, by the way, I do NOT recommend; in most cases it's probably easier (though still not easy by any stretch) to capture an enemy armoured car or even main battle tank.
7. Fighting a Guerrilla War
I've explained counterinsurgency programmes earlier on. Now, I'll talk about the political, strategic, and to a lesser extent, tactical, implications in waging a guerrila war.
Politically, having the population on your side is a must. I've said this many times; I can't repeat it enough. What I have held back on is mentioning the importance of having the world on your side; this will determine your future significantly. If you win, it will determine your new order's foreign relations. You may even want to establish a provisional government, a set of guerrilla officials who will take key posts in a new government, to minimise strife following the displacement of the old order.
If you are losing, world support may open a new source of weapons, supplies, or foreign fighters. Appealing to an ideology, especially a religion, will recruit many foreign fighters, especially if the enemy is one hated in your part of the world (think Al-Qa'ida in Iraq and the thousands of foreign fighters of dozens of nationalities joining) and widespread support among adherents to your espoused ideology. In large enough numbers a new infusion of troops and weapons can turn the tide of a losing battle decisively in your favour.
Your strategic goals should vary depending on your enemy. If your enemy is pure evil, the populace already knows it and the question boils down to tactics. If you are a democratic movement opposing the tide of dictatorship, there will likely be a lot of "enemy" soldiers who think the same way, assuming they haven't been brainwashed. You may choose a strategy of capturing and turning enemy soldiers, which can give you a valuable source of intelligence as well.
If your enemy is a democracy, their people will likely lose interest if you simply drag out the conflict; this is how the US lost in 'Nam. Maimed and dead enemy soldiers and grieving mothers lobbying the government will hurt a war effort a lot worse than nuking the enemy capital (and likely hardening their resolve and getting nuked back) and you're far closer to victory.
Tactics to use as a guerrilla include the ever-popular and time-honoured ambush (of course); one popular variant is to shoot the first person in a patrol (Castro's forces used this against Batista. None of Batista's troops wanted to walk point. This harmed morale in his army.) or the rear in a patrol, which has a similar effect.
One sniper can pin down entire squads and medical personnel for hours while the enemy hunts them down. Make good use of snipers in any guerrilla force, but make sure they're capable of holding their own in a firefight when they are hunted down (a carbine or SMG is good for this in addition to the sniper rifle) and putting them in teams is a good idea; consider the idea of using entire teams of three to six snipers to really wreak havoc. Having your snipers retreat after each shot to reappear in another location makes them hellishly difficult to track, and can erode enemy morale extremely rapidly unless your opponent is fanatical.
Urban guerrilla warfare follows different rules. First off, a guerrilla can return home every day and the wife (husband?) doesn't even have to know their S.O. is a guerrilla. This is loads better than living in a cave or a V.C. style tunnel complex for years subsisting on cold rice balls and rotted fish heads. Second, large cities are more resistant to forced removal of the population (ever tried to relocate New York City halfway across the country to some relocation camp network in the desert? Any idea how many logistics personnel that would tie up?)
On the other hand, there are a lot of cameras and police around, so even if you aren't caught by the enemy, they may know if you do something in a public place (be careful about assassinations of collaborators, enemy officials, and the like). Try to avoid public places and hold meetings in private homes whenever possible.
Another opportunity available to the urban guerrilla is the ability to mix with the enemy. One can gain an enemy perspective on their ideology (it is always best to know how one's enemy thinks) and even manipulate them (that cute girl some enemy officer picked up might be a guerrilla in disguise, trying to extract information) and social-engineer other, possibly even classified, information.
Regardless of what kind of guerrilla you are, some principles of guerrilla warfare are universal.
1. Decentralisation. Keep information limited to as few people as possible. You want to limit the ability of a captured guerrilla to expose others. Operations should be known only to those taking part and their commanders.
2. Inconspicuousness. By day, Superman is Clark Kent, a mild-mannered librarian. Nobody could tell from looking at him who he really is. By day, your guerrillas should be ordinary truck drivers, teachers, barbers, college students, lifeguards, night watchmen / women, etc., etc.
3. Commitment. The last thing you want is someone spilling their guts as soon as the electrodes go on. They should be willing to lay down their lives for their cause if necessary, but not be keen to die, e.g. suicide bombers. A self-preservation instinct is good as long as, like anything else, it's in moderation.
4. Ingenuity. The enemy just imposed a curfew? Attack in broad daylight from a hidden position. Confiscated all your weapons? Well, we do have another Blyskawica factory across town that's opening up next week they don't know about. Bugged you? Learn sign language and teach it to other guerrillas. (Now you can do something with that sign language class you took in high school. :))
Good luck, and happy guerrilla warfare!