Paul Revere

Paul Revere was the name given to a special tactical maneuver first executed by Admiral Honor Harrington during the Second Battle of Marsh. Later the basic principle was used by other fleet commanders, too, and then given other names.
== Details ==
Paul RevereIt was named for the American revolutionary of the same name. was a complex ambush maneuver originally intended for use by a superior defense force to trap an attacker: The defending forces detatch some of their units and station them near the hyper limit of the star system they are defending where they hide in hyper space. When the attackers are inside the system deep enough a vessel held in readiness translates into hyper and signals the detachment to translate back. When this happens, the attackers are trapped between the original defending force and the surprise reinforcements.
== History ==
The maneuver was invented and executed for the first time by Admiral Harrington when Second Fleet attacked the Marsh System during the beginning of the Second Havenite-Manticoran War. Admiral Harrington had expected that either the Imperial Andermani Navy or the new Republic of Haven Navy would attack her and prepared by positioning the Protector's Own Squadron in readiness. Paul Revere led to the only true Havenite defeat in Operation Thunderbolt. ()
Later, Admiral Javier Giscard adopted this tactic in response to the allied successes of Operation Cutworm I and II. During the Battle of Solon, he managed to ambush Admiral Harrington's Task Force 82 and defeated the attackers. Some time later, the tactic was used unsuccessfully by Giscard, and successfully by Harrington, in the Battle of Lovat.
This originally defensive maneuver was used offensively during Operation Beatrice, the attack on the Manticore System. Lester Tourville held Fifth Fleet back during the first attack by his Second Fleet and sent her the signal to come in when RMN's Third Fleet was trapped between them. ()
The tactic was used by Rear Admiral Luis Rozsak at the Battle of Torch. ()
Paul Revere was part of Vice Admiral Gold Peak's battle plan for the Battle of Spindle. On this occasion, the maneuver was referred to by its original name. When Admiral Sandra Crandall's Task Force 496 made its turnover, Gold Peak's Battlecruiser Squadron 106 and Rear Admiral Oversteegen's Battlecruiser Squadron 108 translated from hyperspace four and a half light-minutes behind the Solarian League Navy's force and thereby trapped it. However, in the RMN's battle plan, Paul Revere was a mere backup plan from the beginning and had no effect on the outcome of this battle. Task Force 496 did not change its course and Admiral Gold Peak's forces did not fire a single shot, because the remains of Task Force 496 surrendered after the Spindle system defence missile pods under control of Commodore Aivars Terekhov destroyed a third of Task Force 496's ships in the first salvo. ()
The tactic was once more used by Admiral Harrington in the Second Battle of Manticore when she employed HMS Cantata as a relay to Admiral Lester Tourville's restored Second Fleet. With the updated tactical data provided by Cantata, Tourville was able to drop his fleet out of hyperspace behind Fleet Admiral Massimo Filareta's Eleventh Fleet, trapping it between him and the rest of Grand Fleet. ()
== References ==
Category:Military
Category:Military of Manticore