The Hammer and Anvil tactic is a military tactic used since the beginning of organized warfare. It was used mostly in the ancient world, including by Alexander the Great.

The procedure

The hammer and anvil is a relatively simple maneuver. It begins with two infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 forces of varying strengths engaging in a frontal assault

Frontal assault

The military tactic of frontal assault is a direct, hostile movement of forces toward the front of an enemy force . By targeting the enemy's front, the attackers are subjecting themselves to the maximum defensive power of the enemy...

. While the infantry lines are fixed in the engagement, a cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 force maneuvers around the enemy and attacks from behind, sandwiching it into the friendly infantry. Generally, the force attempting the maneuver needs to have a superior amount of cavalry to be successful. This military maneuver was popular in a number of battles throughout the Classical Period. In addition to being used in many of Alexander the Great's battles, this tactic was also used during the Second Punic Wars, specifically the Battle of Cannae

Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...

 and the Battle of Zama

Battle of Zama

The Battle of Zama, fought around October 19, 202 BC, marked the final and decisive end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus defeated a Carthaginian force led by the legendary commander Hannibal...

.

The maneuver's origins are Hellenistic, therefore it often relied on light cavalry

Light cavalry

Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...

. The tactic also worked well however, with the heavy cataphract

Cataphract

A cataphract was a form of armored heavy cavalry utilised in ancient warfare by a number of peoples in Western Eurasia and the Eurasian Steppe....

s of the Eastern world

Eastern world

__FORCETOC__The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various cultures or social structures and philosophical systems of Eastern Asia or geographically the Eastern Culture...

.

Many generals have used the tactic of a "hopping" hammer and anvil. This requires the cavalry to be a "hit-and-run", relying on the impact. This "hopping" maneuver relied on the cavalry hitting an extreme left or right flank

Flanking maneuver

In military tactics, a flanking maneuver, also called a flank attack, is an attack on the sides of an opposing force. If a flanking maneuver succeeds, the opposing force would be surrounded from two or more directions, which significantly reduces the maneuverability of the outflanked force and its...

, then hammer-and-anvilling towards the center of the infantry. This would weaken and rout

Rout

A rout is commonly defined as a chaotic and disorderly retreat or withdrawal of troops from a battlefield, resulting in the victory of the opposing party, or following defeat, a collapse of discipline, or poor morale. A routed army often degenerates into a sense of "every man for himself" as the...

 the entire flank, leaving the remaining forces to run down

Coup de grâce

The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...

the scattering enemies.