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The scorched-earth policy is sometimes used by a military when retreating from an area. Basically, it means to destroy anything that might help your advancing enemy. A prime example of the scorched-earth policy (and its most common form by far) would be buring crops before leaving an area.

The '''scorched earth policy''' is a military tactic which involves destroying anything your adversary may find useful before retreating from the battlefield. Originally, this entailed burning food [[crops]] and killing [[livestock]], to deny the enemy supplies. In modern warfare, this tactic has been successfully applied to airfields, [[Ammo dump|ammo dumps]], and [[Fuel depot|fuel depots]]. [[Russia]] has applied the scorched earth policy twice, to great effect.<ref>http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p-91_Sanning.html</ref> The first time, Tsarist Russia employed a scorched earth campaign against [[Le Grand Armee]] of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], during his disastrous invasion of Russia. The [[Soviet Union]] applied a very successful scorched earth campaign during [[World War II]], effectively depriving [[Nazi Germany]] from supplies for their invasion. Both of these campaigns were instrumental in defeating the opposing forces. During the [[Gulf War]], Iraqi forces set oil wells alight as they retreated from [[Kuwait]]. [[France]] has never employed scorched earth.  

 

[[Category:Military]]

[[Category:Military]]