greatspywar Posted 15 December , 2009 Share Posted 15 December , 2009 Hi all again, Whilst making a database of the events of the Great War (still work in progress) I came across a chronological summery of the campaign in Mesopotamia 1914-1918. What do they mean with these words? affair? action? operation? pursuit? battle? attack? advance? What is the difference? Is an affair a skermish and how can one see the difference between battle and action? I hope the pals can help me out, once a again. Thank you, Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wroclaw Posted 15 December , 2009 Share Posted 15 December , 2009 Hi all again, Whilst making a database of the events of the Great War (still work in progress) I came across a chronological summery of the campaign in Mesopotamia 1914-1918. What do they mean with these words? affair? action? operation? pursuit? battle? attack? advance? What is the difference? Is an affair a skermish and how can one see the difference between battle and action? I hope the pals can help me out, once a again. Thank you, Jan I am not sure there is a clear line dividing between affair/action/battle (obviously the first cannot be mixed with the 3rd…) but from the reading I did I noticed that a "battle" involving a brigade or battalion, fully engaged with the enemy for a period of few hours: 2,3,4 hours) was named "action". "Affair" description was granted mostly for interactions with the enemy that did not involve more then a rather short time, few maneuvers and limited forces (like a Brigade on advance being halted for an hour by enemy positions with certain element of the brigade wiping out the obstacle). A battle would usually involve more of the above all, or part of the elements that make "action" be one. Another aspect: within a general piece of history, covering the general chain of events (like the War Official Histories) some "battle" might be regarded as "action" or even "affair" while the same incident would be called "battle" in the regimental official history. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 15 December , 2009 Share Posted 15 December , 2009 This question or something similar has arisen previously https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/87360-haritan/ but as far as I can recall, without a clear cut answer on this forum. My guess is that these things were decided by the Battles Nomenclature Committee which sat in 1921. This from the UNSW web-site The Great War posed a considerable challenge for the Battles Nomenclature Committee, as battles in the sense of previous wars were hard to define. The committee divided the war into campaigns, the campaigns into battles and in some cases the battles into actions. Hansard has this in a reply from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 14Feb1922 A Committee called the Battle Nomenclature Committee was appointed, which reported on what were officially the actions of the war and what were the geographical and chronological limits of those actions and their relative importance. This Report was published last year If anyone can trace a copy of that report then it might prove useful. As perhaps might a volume titled Principle Events produced by the Committee of Imperial Defence and published by HMSO in 1922, which is listed together with Official Histories regards Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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