ABSTRACT
Military actions may assume various forms—destruction and attrition, defense and offense, maneuver and position. Each of these forms has a substantial influence on a strategic line of behavior. A strategy of destruction is characterized by the unity of goal, time, place, and action. A strategy of destruction requires one more precondition: an extraordinary, immense victory. A geographic point may be the goal of an offensive of destruction only when the enemy's personnel become spectral. A strategy of attrition, just as a strategy of destruction, consists of searches for material superiority and the struggle for it but these quests are no longer limited to the striving to deploy superior forces on the decisive sector alone. The necessity for an extraordinary victory during destruction imposes special requirements in selecting the form of the operation. A destructive offensive under conditions which have become complicated is a series of successive operations which are in such internal connection that they merge into one giant operation.
