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Many military leaders in different eras considered him a talented strategic leader. Perhaps the testimony of the American General Norman Schwarzkopf, who said, “I learned a lot from Hannibal, as I applied his tactics in planning my campaign in Desert Storm.” Do not give him his right, as he is an outstanding leader with a clear vision and distinguished military thought.
Historical overview:
Hannibal lived during the period of tension that existed in the Mediterranean region when Rome tried to impose its hegemony on the great powers in the region at the time, of which Cartagena was one of them. land and sea.
Carthage or historic Carthage was in its position as one of the most important cities on the Mediterranean coast, and after the conquest of Carthage in the year 698 AD, a city close to it called Tunis became more important than it. In the south of the Liberian peninsula in the autonomous Spanish region of Murcia, it has a huge port and includes one of the most important Spanish naval bases. Because more than one city was named Cartagena, history narrators were keen to name this city Cartagena of Andalusia; Differentiated from her sister, who is in Tunisia.
Hannibal hated the Romans and thought that Carthage should occupy Rome, or else it would completely fail to achieve the security it aspired to and would be subject to colonization and destruction by the Romans.
In the spring of the year 216 BC, the commander Hannibal came out of the city of Cartagena at the head of a large army that numbered 90,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, along with 37 huge elephants and thousands of mules loaded with war materiel and silver chests to buy what the army needed during its march and to secure more supplies and equipment He was no more than twenty-six years old.
Hannibal crossed the Ebro River and subjugated the Iberian tribes of the Celts, which are characterized by their fierce anchorage, in a series of lightning and quick battles that astonished his soldiers and enemy soldiers alike. Hannibal had to secure his back before setting off north beyond the Pyrenees.
In what is today called France and on its land, the second round took place against the tribes of the Celts, and at the entrance to the Alps mountain ranges, the tribes prepared an ambush for him and attacked him under the leadership of their military leaders and experts from Rome, the Greeks and Marseille, where they managed to block the mountain outlets in his face and spread chaos in his ranks so that his elephants were intimidated and raging from The noise increased and began to throw itself into the valleys, but with all this Hannibal knew his way well, so he returned and withdrew his forces and marched them in side lanes in front of the astonishment of his opponents who knew well that these lanes were blocked, yes they were the ones who blocked them with huge rocky blocks that an army could not cross Of this kind, but Hannibal made his way into the rock (and this phrase is usually used to denote the difficulty of walking for anyone towards his goal, which is surrounded by difficulties), and this is what actually happened. The Alps, and here we must realize the genius of this feat of leader and pay respect to him and his unique ideas. When the fire raged, the rocks that blocked the paths were inflamed. Hannibal came forward and poured his share of wine on the burning rock, and so did his soldiers. Those who imitated him without knowing why he did this, they are accustomed to absolute obedience to their leader without any discussion, and sour wine did it in the burning rock, and the fumes rose in the valleys amid the burning tongues of fire, and the rocks began to crumble and fall apart in front of the mixture of wine and fire, and you can imagine the matter, if we imagine what happened To realize the horror of what happened, large quantities of wine for thousands of soldiers contain a high percentage of alcohol, which has a great ignition speed that produces a destructive fiery flame, and soon fire spreads in the wood and rock, and due to the high temperatures, the rocks collapse and open in front of Hannibal and his fleeing soldiers.
The army hurried across the lanes, and did cross the 12,000-foot-high Alps, circled around their enemies entrenched and lurking on the familiar path and swept them into the night in a decisive battle that seemed like a dream, and then stopped at the Rhone.
In front of the Rhone River, Hannibal faced a natural impediment that was difficult to penetrate without losses in his army equipment, as he needed his huge elephants to destroy the hostile cavalry battalions that awaited him. Elephants upon seeing the waves of the Rhone River and refused to enter the water, but the genius of Hannibal was also present this time, his rare ability to find a decisive and simple solution to problems that seemed insurmountable, he immediately ordered the construction of rafts, then placed the female elephants on top of them and began to drag them across the river. Her males only followed her, and at the same time, the army began to flow along the bank.
Rome's spies watched what happened and rushed through the forests to convey the news of Hannibal crossing the river in a desperate attempt to stop the African advance. At the Tisino River near Pavia, the first large-scale military confrontation between Europe and Africa took place on European soil. In this historical battle, the Roman army was defeated in a war Wilderness for the first time in front of the leader Hannibal.
His greatest achievement was when he marched his huge army from Iberia through the Pyrenees and the Alps to northern Italy and achieved several exciting victories in the battles of Trebia, Trasmania and Cannae. During a period of 15 years Hannibal occupied most of Italy, but he was forced to return to North Africa to face the Roman invasion again.
Battle of Kannae:
The Battle of Kannae is one of the great battles that took place on the land of the Romans.
By the end of the year 217 BC, Rome had gained the time it needed to delay Hannibal and rebuild its armed forces to a point that would allow it to engage in a new fight on the war front.
In the early spring of the following year, the news of the arrival of African forces spread, and the Roman Senate was shaken, and its members decided to abandon all their military plans and mobilize every soldier to defend Rome. The most famous battle in the history of the ancient world, and that was what Hannibal really wanted.
The early preparation for this battle began by Hannibal and his forces in the year 216 BC, after they took a great deal of rest after the first battles in which they had the victory and victory over their enemy and over his land, with high training and continuous maneuvers over months, after which he decided to pass to a plan to lure The enemy created all the conditions to enter into a decisive battle. He decides its timing and chooses very carefully its field, which made the enemy move mighty forces, which are the largest force that Rome mobilized at the time to Cannae, numbering about 86 thousand soldiers, consisting of 50 thousand infantrymen and 20 thousand knights and many more The units that launch the catapult are armed with different types of weapons such as long spears, axes, bows and rectangular shields that hide the body of the warrior to protect him.
The leadership of this army was divided between the consuls Paulus, who was known for his caution and his reservations on one day, and the consul Vero, who was in complete contrast to his companion, who was known for his inclination to adventure the next day.
On the other side, the commander Hannibal stood examining the formations of the Romans, as the clever player examines the chessboard with clever looks, drawing up his ingenious plan, which was to line up his forces in a long front in a wide format with little width, that is, with great confrontation and less depth, placing his infantry of the strong Libyan fighters on both sides, leaving them to implement the most important stage In his plan for their fierce loyalty and their high level of combat, and he placed the Spanish and Gaul infantry in the center in the face of the main mass of the Roman army, meaning that he assigned them to confront the main effort of the enemy, in order to confine them in the middle for fear that they would escape from the front row when facing the enemy, and he chose to have his place among them until he was honored himself on the task, as he divided the cavalry into two groups, the Libyan cavalry to the right of the army, and the Gaul and Spanish cavalry to his left.
The course of the battle:
Hannibal gave the order to start the battle for the catapults who suddenly appeared at the front of the army and showered the Romans with a barrage of very hard flint stones that were flying at high speed towards the enemy and the result was early, as one of them hit the Consul Paulus personally, who was by virtue of his position as the commander of the Roman army advancing in his skull wounding him fatal, but he kept moving forward.
Then Hannibal carried out a raid carried out by the Libyan cavalry in the light of ghosts on the Roman forces, the Romans successfully repelled them and the cavalry retreated, showing their defeat an increase in the deception, so that the consuls decided to pursue the success they believed they had achieved by tracking the cavalry and chasing them, the cavalry headed across the river to the open plain of Canai and there Hannibal began to implement The most important part of the plan, as he began to drag the Gauls and the Spaniards back a few hundred meters across the plain in the most difficult part of the battle, as he did not trust them enough to hold out to the next stage, and personally supervised the execution of this part of the plan, it was an adventure to pull them back. It is impossible to accurately calculate its results, but Hannibal, as usual, and with the skill of the clever fighter, did the best work and did not leave room for chance, and therefore he did not err in his calculations.
Hannibal's soldiers were receiving orders from him from afar by means of signals that had not been used before, and the means were bundles of herbs that lit on fire, emitting loud smoke, and each number of smoke flares meant switching to carry out a specific command.
As a result of the presence of the large gap left by the front of the army, the Romans rushed back, streaming like a flood, into the vast gap that opened in front of them in the middle of the front, until they all gathered in it. Unfortunately for them, none of them knew that it was a great trap leading to inevitable destruction.
Their ranks coalesced inside the gap, and they crowded each other, as the number was very large, and the rush towards the gap was fast, until they thought that victory had been achieved for them. The cavalry on both sides to harvest the Romans like ears in a battle similar to the harvest season.
In the middle of the day, the Roman battalions were piled on each other in a huge mass of human beings, and they were trying to get out of the gap under pressure, no matter what the cost. To die Hannibal pondered this huge human wave and echoed in the euphoria of the victorious leader the commandment of his father Hamilcar Barca (Let the earth fight for you) Hannibal left to the leaders of his forces the order to implement the rest of his plan and annihilated most of the huge Roman army and Rome lost on that day 50 thousand fighters and Rome's armed forces were destroyed at the hands of the leader The Carthaginian Hannibal, who wisely realized that the Romans are at their best when they fight on the land of their enemy, and for this reason decided to take his bold step, conveying the war to them in their own home, imposing on them the place and time of the battle, which are two main factors in achieving victory. He was able to use all resources and tactics to achieve victory without It leaves to chance the slightest interference.
In Rome, his appearance seemed frightening and terrifying to the extent that Roman mothers chanted, and still today, in the ears of their children until they go to sleep “Hannibal Opports” and this word means a lot to adults before children, it means that the devil stands behind the door and the devil in their eyes was only Hannibal and they had to They live the ordeal of successive defeats for the next fifteen years, during which Hannibal recorded his military glory as one of the greatest leaders of armies in the ancient world.
Lessons learned:
Hannibal changed all the concepts of war that prevailed at the time and established new principles that had great importance throughout history, especially if we knew that Hannibal took a daring adventure by all standards and landed his forces in the enemy’s land and behind his lines, which formed a thunderbolt surprise for the Romans in a process that historians considered a difficult and deadly adventure, but He succeeded in this with the skill and foresight of the commander, with the courage, patience and loyalty of his soldiers.
Among the most important points that distinguished and distinguished Hannibal's campaign, the Great Battle of Kannai and its victorious leader in the struggle with his enemy, which can be taken as lessons learned, are the following:
Hannibal transferred the battle to the enemy's land and forced him to fight in a place that did not suit him and in a way that did not suit him, carefully choosing the place and time of the battle. The principle of transferring the battle to the opponent's land was one of the most important concepts, but rather the most important of all, until this principle became an inspiring rule for military and political leaders throughout time and different nations.
Hannibal carried out a long march with a deliberate and planned move with the aim of reaching a specific place in a specific time, bypassing many obstacles and difficulties with unique ideas he invented to reach his goal. which was prevalent at the time.
Hannibal used the tactic of maneuvering and quick withdrawal and retreat in front of the Romans, taking advantage of this in the success of re-attack with force and violence in a daring maneuver that we call today in the military mobilization “the maneuver by striking the flank”, and thus was able to paralyze the ability of his enemy and put him in the trap he set for him.
Hannibal presented a new lesson in the use of elephants as a heavy weapon for the first time with which he supported his army during its war on the Romans, which achieved qualitative superiority in strength and ability and achieved the principle of surprising the enemy and terrorizing it with a weapon that he was not accustomed to and had not witnessed before.
He harnessed the factors and nature of the earth to be a natural weapon to fight on his side.
Counter the enemy's large, heavy, and relatively slow-moving units with light, fast-moving units capable of lightning strikes.
One of the most important problems that faced Hannibal was the problem of supply and the length of his lines of communication, so that he kept sending his envoys to Carthage to request supplies, which he realized with his wisdom that they would never arrive and was the most important reason for stopping the campaign and returning to the south, which caused a far-reaching imbalance in his forces.
The Great Battle of Kannae became a historical battle that was managed with a distinguished military thought immortalized by history, and it was and still is considered one of the greatest war actions throughout the ages. 2000 years as an inspiring and courageous historical leader.
Source: Brigadier General Salah Al-Din Al-Zaydani Al-Ansari
