| Language: | English | Abstract: | North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) considers Advance to contact and Meeting engagement part of Enabling activities that link, support or create the conditions for Offensive, Defensive and Stability activities. Other forms of Enabling activities are Reconnaissance, Security, Link-up, Withdrawal, Retirement, Relief of troops, Crossing and Breaching of obstacles and March. Advance to contact is a tactical enabling activity that aims to gain or re-establish contact with the enemy, while Meeting engagement is a tactical enabling activity / combat action that occurs when a moving force, incompletely deployed for battle, engages an enemy at an unexpected time and place. The main topic of this thesis is the research of Advance to contact and Meeting engagement characteristics. Both before mentioned tactical activities are distinguished by fast situation development, short fighting period, fast development from travelling formation into attack formation, determination of weak points in disposition of enemy%s forces, initiative, and intensive use of maneuver to gain superior disposition of forces and exploitation of success. The terms and concepts of NATO%s Advance to contact and Meeting engagement are analyzed and compared to those of the Slovenian Armed Forces, the United States Army, the Ground forces of the Russian Federation and of the former Yugoslav People%s Army. The focus of research throughout the thesis is on tactical principles and forms of maneuver. The theoretical concepts are verified on two Meeting engagement examples: Battle at Jelenov Žleb in 1943 as an example of Meeting engagement between a battalion of Italian Army and two brigades of Slovenian Partisans, and Battle at Prohorovka in 1943 between the German Second SS Armoured Corps and the Soviet Fifth Guards Tank Army. Later on, author develops a model of Advance to contact of a contemporary brigade and analyses a model of Meeting engagement battle. The analysis answers the question what determines the effectiveness in Meeting engagement battle. A significant part of the thesis is composed of Annexes. They include many tactical sketches, which are extremely beneficial to the overall understanding of Meeting engagement battle. | Keywords: | advance to contact, meeting engagement, brigade, tactics, combat operations |
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