Front (military)

A military front or battlefront is a contested armed frontier between opposing forces. It can be a local or tactical front, or it can range to a theater. A typical front was the Western Front in France and Belgium in World War I.

• 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.
• Both the Soviet and Polish Armies used the term "front" to mean an army group during the Polish-Soviet War and World War II. The equivalent of the term established in the header was the "Theater of military operations".
• 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, the term was briefly referenced.
• The term "transferred to the front" is often used by soldiers or personnel when their position has been changed from other activities.

The Western Front in 1915–16