Battles of Beleriand

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Following the example of a thread by Rumil discussing battles of the
late Third Age I thought I'd start one on other battles. The general
guidelines to that thread:
"In each case I'd like to discuss the 'facts' we have, and speculate on terrain, size and armament of forces and the course of the battle. Obviously this is easier in some cases than others due to lack of information!"
seem a good guide for this one.

So what of the First Battle of Beleriand (which actually merges with the
Second Battle (Dagor-nuin-Giliath), but can initially be considered seperately.

This is an interesting battle, showing Thingol in an active light, and which
goes to explain some of his resentment to the elvish "newcomers" since he
did a good bit in blunting Morgoth's first aggressions. It's helpful to
consult not only the Silmarillion and its maps but also The Atlas of Middle-earth , By Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Morgoth sent two strong forces around Menegroth. The Eastern force was
caught in an elvish pincer movement (showing Thingol's ability in both military
and diplomatic ability in involving Denethor's elves). Presumably neither side
had cavalry(?). Had Morgoth suceeded on both fronts and there had been no
Noldor intervention, he would presumably have virtually seized control of
Beleriand, and most of Middle-earth(?).

Note that the silvan elves don't seem to learn from their military mistakes,
unpreparedness, since at the much later War of the Last Alliance they were
also relatively militarily inferior to other good guys, and bad guys.

Was Morgoth also militarily an amateur here? Why would the orcish forces
have been taken by surprise by Thingols forces? Fonstad suggests: "The Orcs, beset on two fronts, must have turned back-to-back to counter" [attacks by Tingol and the Green Elves].

Even though Thingol was successful in the east, might a better strategy have
been for the Green Elves to withdraw to the Ossiriand rivers and the Taur-im-Duinath (reminiscent of the Russian use of the Pripet Marshes in World War II), with Thingol also harassing the orcs with sorties from Menegroth,
while Thingol sent the bulk of his forces west to help Cirdan?