What were the difference between a strategic and a tactical battle?

Question

With relations to the eastern front during WW2.

Answer 1

Tactics: The way an army gos about carrying out an objective.
Stratigy: A Plan for carrying out an objective.

Example: al-quada's objective is the reestablishment of Islam as a political force within the traditional Islamic world and ultimatly the domination (political) of the world. This is an objective (Accurate to the best of my understanding.)
al-quada now has to figuar out a way to translate their objective into reallity. To do this they will need a plan or stratigy like the following.
Al-quada dicides on the following:
"We believe that if we awake the Islamic world to the fact that the Christian's (Westerners-even atheists) are occuping Islamic lands in contrast to our religion then when all of Islam arises with religious furfor then Allah will help us to expell them from Islamic lands, help us requoncor former islamic lands, spain, Michigan and the like, and ultimatly Islamisize the world". Stratagy.>To do this we must stir up our own people by making our veiws known via the media.
Tactis: We will obtain this press via terrorist actions such as suisid bombings, 9/11 style attacks and the like.

Thus the difference beteen a Stratigic and Tactical battle is its outcome. The landing at Normandy was a stratigic battle becuase if it were lost the stratagy that required a foothold on the continent could not be continued. On the other hand when the Americans got the buts kicked at Casarein Pass it didn't ultimatly stop them from meeting their strateigic objective, which was the securing of the Metaterainian Sea and the suez cannal (Which was a very important logistical link for the British Empire.) in Allied Hand. Thus, it was only a tactical defeat.
anobium625 has got the idear, and perhaps has articulated it better.

Answer 2

The Eastern front in World War 2 was with Russia and their millions of soldier citizens. The tactics at first was to try and overpower the Nazi machine by throwing the millions of solders against the German forces. When that did not work the Russians used another tactic, a strategy of slowly retreating until winter arrived. The weather was what finally defeated the Juggernaut army of Germany.
The tactic was a frontal charge, the strategy was a plan to retreat until winter came.
Spartawo...

Answer 3

Essentially the difference between tactical and strategic is the scale of impact the battle has. For example if you attack a town and capture it from your enemy, that is a tactical victory. If that town is a critical rail road hub, then you have also won a strategic victory because you have denied your enemy access to this asset.

There are several instances where one side can win tactically, but lose strategically. For example early in the Pacific war the Japanese were trying to reinforce their positions on Guadalcanal. They sent their replacements by ship, but encountered US Navy ships in the night. During the battle, the US force was almost wiped out, and the Japanese did not suffer nearly as many losses. However, because of the delay the battle caused, the troops could not be delivered before daylight and had to be sent back. Tactically, the Japanese were victorious because the beat the enemy fleet. Strategically they lost because they did not succeed in their primary mission and left Guadalcanal without reinforcements.

Answer 4

Tactics are a local thing: which tanks should go where, what primary targets should be, when to bring in reserves, etc. Most tactics are decided by lower ranking officers.

Strategy has a much broader scope: where should we cross the river? Do we scavenge from the land, or treat the civilians with respect to gain local support? Should we attack now, or wait for the winter?

Sorry, I can't be specific about the German eastern front except to say that the German strategy was to attack in force and attempt to capture the Russian oil fields to solve their major fuel crisis. The Russian strategy was to fight a holding action, adopting a scorched earth policy, leaving nothing -- especially oil -- for the invading Germans until Russia's traditional ally–their terrible winter– came to their aid.

Answer 5

These are fine answers.
As far as WWII, Germany used Blitzkrieg tactics (pinpoint bombing combined with mechanized army attacks) to sweep opposition clear of mainland Europe (their strategy to create a "Fortress Europa" from Allied incursion). The allies countered by strategically using Britain as a staging base for troops and as a base to bomb Germany industry to bits. Allied amphibious landings surrounded Germany and used Germany's own Blitzkrieg tactics against them.

Answer 6

You should have been there.