Military operations by type

thumb|upright=1.35|British Army|British (red) and French (blue) armies begin engagement of the decisive [[Battle of Waterloo, with Prussian forces (gray) arriving from the northeast |alt=Overhead diagram of movement of forces at Battle of Waterloo]] According to one of the possible definitions, a battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a series of military engagements that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitm

Combat is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of self-defense or to impose one's will upon others. An instance of combat can be a standalone confrontation or part of a wider conflict, and its scale can range from a fight between individuals to a war between organized groups. Combat may also be benign and recreational, as in the cases of combat sports and mock combat.

thumb|upright=1.3|''Winfield Scott|Scott's great snake'', a cartoon map illustrating the Union blockade of the Confederacy during the [[American Civil War, known as the Anaconda Plan, illustrated by J.B. Elliott]] thumb|Douglas C-47 Skytrain|C47s unloading at [[Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, part of the airlift of supplies which broke the Soviet Union's 1948 land blockade of West Berlin]]

large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan

thumb|right|upright=1.3|French royalist rebels preparing an ambush during the War in the Vendée (The Ambush by [[Évariste Carpentier, 1889)]] thumb|General Edward Braddock|Braddock's troops ambushed and decimated by the French and Indians in 1755 thumb|Depiction of a Weenen massacre|Zulu attack on a [[Boer camp in February 1838]] thumb|1842 retreat from Kabul|Massacre of Elphinstone's army during the [[First Anglo-Afghan War in 1842]] thumb|Ambush of Polish Partisan (military)|partisans against Russian forces during the [[January Uprising, 1863]]

attack on friendly forces misidentified as hostile ones

military maneuver of abandoning territory and returning to a safer area

military tactic or operational warfare mission which has a specific purpose

attempts to mislead enemy forces during warfare

use of military forces applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with the policies or objectives of the political body controlling the military force

categorization of conflict

movement of armed forces and their logistical support infrastructure around the world

mission that is so dangerous that the people involved are not expected to survive

combat between two forces, neither larger than a division and not smaller than a company

military action taken without a declaration of war

legal or military operations conducted within a foreign country