Rms and Armor from to World War I
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-'^S^. nfiRIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY 311110Q2888327 RMS AND ARMOR FROM THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV TO WORLD WAR I \ History ol War and Weapons, 1660 to 1918 •-'^O-' Arms and Armor from the age of Louis XIV to World War I The evolution of arms and armor, from the founding of the first modern armies by soldier kings of the seventeenth century to the formation of great armies of citizen soldiers in the twentieth, is skillfully portrayed in this work, a sequel to A History C: of War and Weapons, 449 to 1660. Featuring 170 exceptionally handsome and authentically detailed line drawings, this book focuses on the ordinary soldier in the ranks and the weapons he has used through the centuries. The author shows ''i^ how new inventions in weaponry have influenced the tactics of their day and helped to determine the course of world history. Alongside descriptions of weapons of all kinds, from bayonet, saber, and musket to machine gun, tank, and Zeppelin, are accounts of great commanders, how they trained their Loops, and the key i :i battles they fought. The history begins at a time when the golden age of cavalry and pikemen was giving way to artillery and musketeers. The contributions of Sweden's King Gustavus Adolphus, who established the first truly modern army; of Oliver Cromwell, who reorganized England's military forces; and of Sebastian de Vauban, who designed or rebuilt more than one hundred fifty fortresses for Louis XIV (one of which held out for fourteen days against the Germans in 1914), are described and assessed. Here, too, are Maurice de Saxe, Marshal of France, the first general to train his troops to march in step; Louis XIV's Inspector General of the Infantry, Jean Martinet, whose name became a byword for the enforcement of strict discipline; Frederick the Great; the Duke of Marlborough; and Napoleon. There (continued on back flap) A HISTORY OF WAR AND WEAPONS 1660 to 1918 A HISTORY OF WAR AND WEAPONS 1660 to 1918 Arms and Armour from the Age of Louis XIV to World War I G. A. Shepperd Thomas Y. Crowell Company New York Estabhshed 1834 First published in the United States of America in 1972. Originally published in Great Britain under the title Arms and Armour 1660-1918. Copyright © 1971 by G. A. Shepperd All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Printed in Great Britain L.C. Card 78-158711 ISBN 0-690-39367-9 Contents 1 The Soldier King 7 2 Rise of National Armies 17 3 Great Captains 43 4 Lessons from the New World 66 5 Nations in Arms 90 6 From Waterloo to the Crimea 110 7 The First Modern Wars 129 8 A Time for Change 148 9 Total War and Stalemate 172 10 The Return of Armour 202 Glossary 219 Index 222 To my Grandsons Alastair and James Chapter One The Soldier King The saying 'a man's home is his castle' reminds us that in feudal times the castle, with its garrison of men-at- arms and stores of weapons, food and water, provided the ultimate defensive stronghold and refuge for the whole community against aggression. On the battlefield heavy cavalry, exemplified by the knight protected from head to toe in elaborate and often costly armour, had dominated the scene for over three centuries. As late as the sixteenth century, riding into battle encased in several hundred pounds of steel, they had remained largely immune from the elementary weapons of the foot soldiers, whether it be the bolt from the crossbow, the long-shafted arrows of the English archers, or the almost universal halberd or pike. Today, in an age which in some twenty-five years has seen the development of rockets that can carry men on journeys of thousands of miles into outer space, it seems strange that 200 years should have passed between the discovery of gunpowder, recorded by Francis Bacon in 1249, and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the Turkish artillery successfully breached the most formidable fortifications in Europe in forty days. A few years before this latter date the French guns of Charles VII had forced the surrender of sixty English strongholds in Normandy 7 The Soldier King Gun versus Castle ; sixteenth century in a single year. Before the development of siege cannon each of these fortresses would have taken up to twelve months to reduce by assault or starvation. Towering walls of stone no longer gave protection to the garrison, and fortifications soon became adapted to resist the solid shot of the siege batteries. Broad earthworks with low ramparts, protected from direct assault by a wide ditch often filled by diverting the waters of a nearby stream, were built with embrasures for fortress guns sited to cover the approaches and keep the enemy at a respectful distance. Meanwhile the increasing efficiency of firearms, in the form of the arquebus and later the musket, slowly but inevitably changed the whole pattern of warfare. The common foot soldier now had a weapon that could penetrate the heaviest armour that man and horse could carry. The day of the knight in armour was ended and a golden age of cavalry was passing. These developments, improved firearms and more mobile artillery, soon brought changes in military organisations and tactics. The most revolutionary of the changes were due to the genius of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and creator of the first modem army. The innovations which he introduced are of particular interest because they were soon adopted by many other countries and changed the whole pattern of conventional warfare. 8 The Soldier King Musketeer versus Horseman In the early part of the seventeenth century cavalry were still the most important and numerous part of an army, and the only one capable of manoeuvre in battle. The wearing of heavy armour had virtually been abandoned and mounted men had adopted fire- arms as their principal weapon. Shock tactics were now rarely used by the cavalry except when the musketeers were re-loading. In battle array, bodies of musketeers were generally placed at the corners of a dense phalanx of pikemen, as each was dependent on the other, but this mass of foot soldiers often lacked training and discipline, and was incapable of man- oeuvre, or of proper defence, except to their immediate front. The ponderous cannon employed in the field, whether for the siege of a fortress or in a set-piece battle, were served by civilian artisans, who often belonged to a special guild of cannoneers and were engaged for the duration of the campaign. When an army was drawn up in battle-order the guns were usually massed in the centre and out in front. The cavalry and infantry of European armies were made up 9 The Soldier King of mercenaries who were enrolled into what were called trained bands. Their loyalty depended on regular pay rather than on any national allegiance or religious scruple. The soldiers were accompanied by hordes of camp followers, with whole families following the fortunes of the men-at-arms; and sutlers, who were itinerant tradesmen, went from camp to camp. No attempt was made to set up magazines or stores, and the whole army, including the numerous hangers-on, lived by indiscriminate pillage. Strategy thus depended more on the capture of a well-stocked town or the occupation of a rich agricultural district than on the movements of the enemy. The move of an army into winter quarters often resulted in the unfortunate local population being reduced to starvation point through the seizure of all their crops and livestock. When Gustavus went to the aid of the German Protestants in 1630, during the Thirty Years' War, he was only thirty-five years old, but he had been cam- paigning in defence of his country since he was seven- teen. To defend its frontiers he had been forced to fight on foreign soil and advance first into Poland and then into Germany. Against the Poles, who had many mounted men, he had learned the value of mobility. But Sweden was a poor country that could neither raise nor afford a large cavalry force. So Gustavus saw that he must create a new kind of army with cavalry, infantry and artillery moving and fighting as one force. He decided that the mobility of the whole army depended on training and discipline and that discipline depended on good administration. Gustavus introduced a system of conscription. Any man with no settled occupation was automatically enlisted and ten per cent of the male population of Sweden between the ages of eighteen and thirty were chosen by lot for national service as foot soldiers. This raised about 15,000 men, but the nobility and their personal servants, who were exempt from service as 10 The Soldier King Wheel-lock Paper Cartridge foot soldiers, provided the nucleus of the mounted regiments. Such was Gustavus's reputation and success that within two years of marching to the aid of the Pikeman ; early German Protestants he was commanding a force of seventeenth 50,000 men. The Swedish national army now contained century many foreign recruits and half of the King's infantry consisted of Scottish and German contingents. The army received regular pay and in enemy territory supplies were obtained through a properly regulated levy on the civilian population.