Decisive Battle

a concept current in the art of war from the 18th to the early 20th century, which was understood to be the armed clash between the main forces of the belligerent sides that decided the course of a war or campaign or that caused a radical turning in the course of military action. Examples of this were the battle of Austerlitz of 1805 and the battle of Jena and Auerstädt of 1806, in which almost all the manpower of the armies of the belligerent sides participated and which decided the outcome of the whole war. In earlier times similar battles were called by special names indicating intensity of battle, for instance, the Battle (poboishche) on the Ice of 1242 or the Battle (bitva) of Kulikovo of 1380. In the early 20th century, with a great increase in the size of the armies, the enlargement of the geographical scale of military action and the emergence of a new form of combat—the operation as the sum total of engagements and battles of one or several armies—the concept of decisive battle lost its meaning.