Battle Studies; Ancient and Modern Battle Part 22

Let us consider, in the study of any kind of fire, a succinct history of small arms; let us see what kind of fire is used with each weapon, attempting at the same time to separate that which has actually happened from the written account.

2. Succinct History of the Development of Small Arms, from the Arquebus to Our Rifle

The arquebus in use before the invention of powder gave the general design to fire arms. The arquebus marks then the transition from the mechanically thrown missile to the bullet.

The tube was kept to direct the projectile, and the bow and string were replaced by a powder chamber and ignition apparatus.

This made a weapon, very simple, light and easy to charge; but the small caliber ball thrown from a very short barrel, gave penetration only at short distances.

The barrel was lengthened, the caliber increased, and a more efficient, but a less convenient arm resulted. It was indeed impossible to hold the weapon in aiming position and withstand the recoil at the moment of firing.

To lessen recoil there was attached to the bottom of the barrel a hook to catch on a fixed object at the moment of discharge. This was called a hook arquebus.

But the hook could only be used under certain circ.u.mstances. To give the arm a point of support on the body, the stock was lengthened and inclined to permit sighting. This was the petrinal or poitrinal. The soldier had in addition a forked support for the barrel.

In the musket, which followed, the stock was again modified and held against the shoulder. Further the firing mechanism was improved.

The arm had been fired by a lighted match; but with the musket, the arm becoming lighter and more portable, there came the serpentine lock, the match-lock, then the wheel-lock, finally the Spanish lock and the flint-lock.

The adoption of the flint-lock and the bayonet produced the rifle, which Napoleon regarded as the most powerful weapon that man possesses.

But the rifle in its primitive state had defects. Loading was slow; it was inaccurate, and under some circ.u.mstances it could not be fired.

How were these defects remedied?

As to the loading weakness, Gustavus Adolphus, understanding the influence on morale of rapid loading and the greater destruction caused by the more rapid fire, invented the cartridge for muskets.

Frederick, or some one of his time, the name marks the period, replaced wooden by cylindrical iron ramrods. To prime more quickly a conical funnel allowed the powder to pa.s.s from the barrel into the firing-pan.

These two last improvements saved time in two ways, in priming and in loading. But it was the adoption of the breech-loader that brought the greatest increase in rapidity of fire.

These successive improvements of the weapon, all tending to increase the rapidity of fire, mark the most remarkable military periods of modern times:

cartridges--Gustavus Adolphus iron ramrod--Frederick improved vent (adopted by the soldiers if not prescribed by competent orders)--wars of the Republic and of the Empire breech-loading--Sadowa.

Accuracy was sacrificed to rapidity of fire. This will be explained later. Only in our day has the general use of rifling and of elongated projectiles brought accuracy to the highest point. In our times, also, the use of fulminate has a.s.sured fire under all conditions.

We have noted briefly the successive improvements in fire arms, from the arquebus to the rifle.

Have the methods of employment made the same progress?

3. Progressive Introduction of Fire-Arms Into the Armament of the Infantryman

The revolution brought about by powder, not in the art of war but in that of combat, came gradually. It developed along with the improvement of fire arms. Those arms gradually became those of the infantryman.

Thus, under Francis I, the proportion of infantrymen carrying fire arms to those armed with pikes was one to three or four.

At the time of the wars of religion arquebusiers and pikemen were about equal in number.

Under Louis XIII, in 1643, there were two fire-arms to one pike; in the war of 1688, four to one; finally pikes disappeared.

At first men with fire-arms were independent of other combatants, and functioned like light troops in earlier days.

Later the pikes and the muskets were united in const.i.tuent elements of army corps.

The most usual formation was pikes in the center, muskets on the wings.

Sometimes the pikemen were in the center of their respective companies, which were abreast.

Or, half the musketeers might be in front of the pikemen, half behind.

Or again, all the musketeers might be behind the kneeling pikemen. In these last two cases fire covered the whole front.

Finally pike and musket might alternate.

These combinations are found in treatises on tactics. But we do not know, by actual examples, how they worked in battle, nor even whether all were actually employed.

4. The Cla.s.ses of Fire Employed With Each Weapon

When originally some of the infantry were armed with the long and heavy arquebus in its primitive state, the feebleness of their fire caused Montaigne to say, certainly on military authority, "The arms have so little effect, except on the ears, that their use will be discontinued." Research is necessary to find any mention of their use in the battles of that period. [47]

However we find a valuable piece of information in Brantome, writing of the battle of Pavia.

"The Marquis de Pescani won the battle of Pavia with Spanish arquebusiers, in an irregular defiance of all regulation and tradition by employing a new formation. Fifteen hundred arquebusiers, the ablest, the most experienced, the cleverest, above all the most agile and devoted, were selected by the Marquis de Pescani, instructed by him on new lines, and practiced for a long time. They scattered by squads over the battlefield, turning, leaping from one place to another with great speed, and thus escaped the cavalry charge. By this new method of fighting, unusual, astonishing, cruel and unworthy, these arquebusiers greatly hampered the operations of the French cavalry, who were completely lost. For they, joined together and in ma.s.s, were brought to earth by these few brave and able arquebusiers.

This irregular and new method of fighting is more easily imagined than described. Any one who can try it out will find it is good and useful; but it is necessary that the arquebusiers be good troops, very much on the jump (as the saying is) and above all reliable."

It should be borne in mind, in noting the preceding, that there is always a great difference between what actually occurred, and the description thereof (made often by men who were not there, and G.o.d knows on what authority). Nevertheless, there appears in these lines of Brantome a first example of the most destructive use of the rifle, in the hands of skirmishers.

During the religious wars, which consisted of skirmishes and taking and retaking garrisoned posts, the fire of arquebusiers was executed without order and individually, as above.

The soldier carried the powder charges in little metal boxes hung from a bandoleer. A finer, priming, powder was contained in a powder horn; the b.a.l.l.s were carried in a pouch. At the onset the soldier had to load his piece. It was thus that he had to fight with the match arquebus. This was still far from fire at command.

However this presently appeared. Gustavus Adolphus was the first who tried to introduce method and coordination into infantry fire. Others, eager for innovations, followed in his path. There appeared successively, fire by rank, in two ranks, by subdivision, section, platoon, company, battalion, file fire, parapet fire, a formal fire at will, and so many others that we can be sure that all combinations were tried at this time.

Fire by ranks was undoubtedly the first of these; it will give us a line on the others.

Infantry was formed six deep. To execute fire by rank all ranks except the last knelt. The last rank fired and reloaded. The rank in front of it then rose and did the same thing, as did all other ranks successively. The whole operation was then recommenced.

Thus the first group firing was executed successively by ranks.

Montecuculli said, "The musketeers are ranged six deep, so that the last rank has reloaded by the time the first has fired, and takes up the fire again, so that the enemy has to face continuous fire."

However, under Conde and Turenne, we see the French army use only fire at will.

It is true that at this time fire was regarded only as an accessory.

The infantry of the line which, since the exploit of the Flemish, the Swiss and the Spaniards, had seen their influence grow daily, was required for the charge and the advance and consequently was armed with pikes.

In the most celebrated battles of these times, Rocroi, Nordlingen, Lens, Rethel and the Dunes, we see the infantry work in this way. The two armies, in straight lines, commenced by bombarding each other, charged with their cavalry wings, and advanced with their infantry in the center. The bravest or best disciplined infantry drove back the other, and often, if one of its wings was victorious, finished by routing it. No marked influence of fire is found at this time. The tradition of Pescani was lost.