Page 107 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

107
ActA
Achieving the impossible
Alexander’s Siege of Tyre, 332 Bce

Allon KLEBAnOFF

ew leaders have achieved the fame of Alexander the Great, one of history’s great-
F est soldiers. His campaigns and battles are taught and analyzed in universities and
military academies around the world. However, one of his greatest victories, achieved by
tooth-and-nail tenacity, tends to be overshadowed by the grandeur and swiftness of the
great land battles.
This is the world’s first fully recorded combined operation – the siege of Tyre, 332
BCE.
Alexander was born in 356 BCE as the son and heir of Phillip II, the bright and ruthless
monarch of Macedon. Ascending to the throne in 359 BCE, Phillip soon catapulted his
backward country into the power struggle in fragmented Greece. Phillip launched an am-
bitious program of military reforms, making the Macedonian army the most formidable
war machine on his side of the Aegean.
Philip created a uniquely flexible and effective army. By introducing military service
as a full-time occupation, he was able to drill his men regularly, ensuring unity and cohe-
sion in his ranks. In a remarkably short time, this led to the creation of one of the finest
military machines of the ancient world.
Tactical improvements included the latest developments in the deployment of the tra-
ditional Greek phalanx, made by men such as Epaminondas of Thebes and Iphicrates of
Athens. For the first time in Greek warfare, cavalry became a decisive arm in battle. The
Macedonian army perfected the co-ordination of different troop types, an early example
of combined arms tactics - the heavy infantry phalanx, skirmish infantry, archers, light
and heavy cavalry, and siege engines were all deployed in battle; each troop type being
used to its own particular advantage and creating a synergy of mutual support.
Phillip’s emphasis upon siege tactics and warfare was unprecedented in the Greek
world. For the first time, sieges were conducted successfully against strongly held fortified
positions. This was a dramatic shift from earlier warfare, where Greek armies had been
unable to conduct effective sieges, for lack of effective means to overcome fortifications.
For instance, during the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans were never able to take Ath-
ens, despite easily conquering her surrounding territory. Rare examples, such as the Sicil-
ian expedition of 415 BCE, which ended in total fiasco, dissuaded, rather than encouraged,
the Greek armies from conducting siege operations. The dramatic change in the abilities of
Phillip’s army to operate against fortifications owed much to the development of effective
artillery. Having begun its development around 400 BCE in Syracuse under Dionysius I,
by Phillip’s time, tension-powered artillery was in use. Tension artillery is comprised ba-
sically of different types of large bows, designed to launch projectiles of varying shapes,
forms and weights. The relative lack of clarity of the ancient sources leaves room for a