Field craft - Definition and Overview

Field craft is a term used especially in British military circles to describe the basic military skills required to operate stealthily at day or night regardless of weather or terrain.

These skills include camouflage, concealment, understanding the difference between cover from view and cover from fire, use of the shape of the ground and its features to move undetected, the skills of moving across ground and crossing obstacles, the ability to select good fire positions, lying up positions, camping positions and the like, the ability to observe effectively, penetrating camouflage, and the ability to detect where enemy fire is coming from using a number of techniques.

Good field craft is especially important for the survival and effectiveness of infantry soldiers and special forces and in the more effective units a huge amount of attention to detail as well as much time and effort is devoted to making good field craft second nature.