Turning Movement

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Turning Movement

TURNING MOVEMENT. A wide (strategic) envelopment that avoids the enemy's main battle position and by threatening some vital point to his rear forces him to leave his original position either to defend that vital point or to take some other course of action. The term comes from its effect of turning the enemy out of his position, not because it is executed by one's turning around (enveloping) him. The term is employed in its correct sense in military works but is too esoteric for most popular writers, who incorrectly use it to mean any kind of envelopment, tactical or strategic. Howe's maneuver at Brandywine and Washington's at Princeton are examples of turning movements.

SEE ALSO Brandywine, Pennsylvania; Princeton, New Jersey.