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{{short description|Military term with several meanings}}
{{redirect|Battlefront}}
[[Image:Western front 1915-16.jpg|250px|right|thumb|The Western Front in 1915–16]]
In a military context, the term '''front''' can have several meanings. According to official [[US Department of Defense]] and [[NATO]] definitions, a front can be "the line of contact of two opposing forces."<ref name=DOD>Leonard, B. (2011). Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms: As Amended Through April 2010. (n.p.): DIANE Publishing Company. p. 193</ref> This [[front line]] can be a local or [[military tactic|tactical]] front, or it can range to a [[Theater (warfare)|theater]]. An example of the latter was the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in [[France]] and [[Belgium]] in [[World War I]].

Relatedly, front can refer to the direction of the enemy or, in the absence of combat, the direction towards which a [[military unit]] is facing.<ref name=DOD/> Conversely, the term "[[home front]]" has been used to denote conditions in the civilian sector of a country at war, including those involved in the production of [[matériel]].

Front can also refer to the lateral space occupied by a military unit as measured from the extremity of one [[Flanking maneuver|flank]] to the other.<ref name=DOD/> The amount of front occupied by a unit depends on many factors, including time period and available technology. For example, under the military doctrine of the [[Soviet Army]] and those which copied it, the amount front occupied by an attacking unit depended on its size. A [[Division (military)|division]] attacking with three [[regiment]]s in the first echelon would maintain an attack zone of 15 to 25 kilometers wide. A regiment's front was typically 4 to 5 kilometers wide, but could vary between 3 and 8 kilometers. This frontage decreased with each smaller unit involved: 2 to 3 kilometers for a [[battalion]], 500 to 800 meters for a [[company (military unit)|company]], and 100 to 200 meters for a [[platoon (military unit)|platoon]].<ref>FM 5-34 Engineer Field Data. Department of the Army. 30 August 1999. Threat 2-11</ref>

Additionally, the Soviet Army used the term "[[Front (Soviet Army)|front]]" to mean an [[army group]]; the [[Polish Army|Polish Armies]] used the same terminology during the [[Polish-Soviet War]] and [[World War II]].

The term "front line city" was used by the Germans during their long retreat from Moscow/Stalingrad to refer to metropolitan centres that had become disputed by the two combatants. Designation of a city as such resulted in administrative changes (largely the imposition of martial law). In the film ''[[Downfall (2004 film)|Downfall]]'', the term was briefly referenced.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

==See also==
*[[Rear (military)]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Military organization]]
[[Category:Military geography]]

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Front (military) - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article