Reply To: Some good viewing for Napolenonic fans…

[elessar2590 18207xp 1]

Very interesting I’ll have to watch it later.

One reason the British were so efficient with their musketry is that they were the only army in Europe to train with live ammunition. They trained to the point that loading became instinct. The British were also the masters of Platoon Firing, essentially you wouldn’t just fire and reload as a whole but each Battalion would be divided in platoons (usually of half companies) and they would fire one after the other so the enemy was constantly under controlled fire.

So you’re a French Conscript in Spain, you’ve been in a handful of battles so you know what you’re doing but it’s still very scary. You and your Battalion sire a three rank volley and then you start to reload but the entire time you’re reloading small, aimed and controlled volleys fired by the best Musket Armed Soldiers in the world are coming at you, they never stop and people around you are getting hit, now you’re trying to reload this musket that you’ve only ever fired maybe a dozen times in your career which means you’re slow and clumsy with it.

Meanwhile the British can load and fire in relative peace, going through the well practiced drills they’ve done hundreds of times in the past year alone. They only have to take fire maybe twice a minute and chances are they’ll be zoned out focusing on reloading to be too phased.

Infantry tended not to brake from firepower alone, it was when the enemy charged that men normally fled.

The British were also the only purely volunteer army of the period, all the men that were enlisted wanted to be there or it was their only/best chance to find employment. A lot of them were also Veterans of India as opposed to the raw French Conscripts or Russian peasants.

Cavalry rarely ever galloped at full speed when charging, there’s quite a few accounts of Cavalry Charging at a fast walk to maintain their formation.

Sharp Practice Campaigns do Light Cavalry Properly, they can screen or harass the enemy rather than actually fight.

he’s right about the Greatcoats, we have stories from the Crimea of British Troops wearing Greatcoats being resistant to Sabre Cuts.