Scorched earth

Kuwaiti oil fires set alight by retreating Iraqi forces in 1991

Part of a series on
War
History Prehistoric Ancient War in the Middle Ages (see Middle Ages) Early modern Late modern industrial fourth-generation
Battlespace Air/war above ground Sea Land Cold-region Desert Jungle Mountain Urban Subterranean Tunnel Cyber Information Space Airborne Amphibious Blue Brown Green Surface warfare Underwater
Weapons Artillery Biological Camouflage Cavalry Chemical Class Disinformation Drone Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Unconventional Armor Barrage Combined arms Conventional Cyber Denial Lawfare Loitering Music Lawfare Loitering Music
Tactics Battle Charge Counterattack Counter-rebellion (see Rebellion) Envelopment Guerrilla Siege Trench Withdrawal List of military tactics Aerial Cavalry Defeat in detail Foxhole Morale Rapid dominance Swarming Tactical objective Target saturation
Operational Blitzkrieg Expeditionary Deep operation Maneuver Operational manoeuvre group
Strategy Attrition Defence in depth Fabian Offensive Scorched earth List of military strategies and concepts Counter-offensive Culminating Mosaic Deception Defensive Depth Goal Naval
Grand strategy Containment Economic Limited Philosophy Political Religious Strategic Technology Theater Total war
Administrative Branch Policy Staff Training Service Sociology
Organization Chain of command Command and control Doctrine Engineers Intelligence Ranks Technology and equipment
Personnel Military recruitment Conscription Recruit training Military specialism Women in the military Children in the military Transgender people and military service Conscientious objector Counter-recruitment
Logistics Military–industrial complex Arms industry Materiel Supply-chain management Main operating base Forward operating base Outpost
Science Power projection Loss of Strength Gradient
Law Court-martial Justice Perfidy Martial law War crime
Theory Air supremacy Full-spectrum dominance Overmatch

A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy. The goal is to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy while the enemy is going through or running away from a place. Any useful things that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, for example food sources, water supplies, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the local people themselves.

The policy can be done by the military in enemy territory, or in its own home territory.

Notable historic examples of scorched-earth tactics include the Russian army's strategy during the failed Swedish invasion of Russia, the failed Napoleonic invasion of Russia, William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea in the American Civil War, colonel Kit Carson's subjugation of the American Navajo Indians, Lord Kitchener's advance against the Boers, the initial Soviet retreat commanded by Joseph Stalin during the German Army's invasion of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, the subsequent Nazi German retreat on the Eastern Front, and the burning 605-732 oil wells by retreating Iraqi military forces in the Gulf War.

Scorched Earth Media

• 

  Robert I (known as Robert the Bruce), 1274 - 1329. Earl of Carrick and Lord of Annandale. Reigned 1306 - 1329

• 

  Corfe Castle was slighted during the English Civil War so that its defences could not be reused.

• 

  The forces of Vlad the Impaler were associated with torches, particularly outside Târgoviște.

• 

  Napoleon's retreat from Moscow

• 

  William Tecumseh Sherman's troops destroying a railroad near Atlanta

• 

  The ruins of Richmond, Virginia after it was burned by retreating Confederate soldiers in April 1865.

• 

  Navajo on the "Long Walk"

• 

  Boer civilians watching British soldiers blow up their house with dynamite after they had been given 10 minutes to gather their belongings.

• 

  Ruins of the church of St. Jean in Péronne, blown up by the Germans in March 1917