Night combat

Night combat is combat that occurs during the hours of darkness. It is distinguished from daytime combat by lower visibility and its reversed relation to the Circadian cycle. Typically combat at night is favorable to the attacker, with offensive tactics being focused on exploiting the advantages to maximum effect. Defensive night tactics mainly focus on negating the advantages given by the night to the attacker.

Effects of night

The most obvious effect of is reduced visibility. This affects a soldier's ability to observe friendly troop movements, understand terrain, and especially impacts perception of enemy movements and position. Officers find that darkness hampers many aspects of command, including their ability to preserve control, execute movement, firing, maintenance of direction, reconnaissance, security, and mutual support. A U.S. Army report on historic Japanese warfare described an instance of this confusion:

Indeed, a side effect of the reduced visibility is heightened audibility, as soldiers focus more on what they can hear. There are many instances of soldiers losing their bearings at night due to flashes from guns or enemy searchlights. The difficulties of perception lend themselves to fear of the unknown. Soldiers under fire can't tell from where the fire originates and can't devise appropriate countermeasures. Such uncertainty is associated with feelings of loneliness and helplessness, and creates a tendency in men to over estimate enemy strength or be excessively pessimistic of the combat situation.