The picture shows linear tactics. In the era of single-shot muskets, the key to the competition between the two parties was: who dared to stand at a closer distance before firing the first shot.
muzzleloading rifle
After gunpowder was invented in China, it was quickly used in warfare. At first, it was mainly used in projectile weapons. Among tubular firearms, short handguns first appeared, and on this basis longer shooting firearms were developed. This is a rifle, and early rifles were also called "muskets." Before the middle of the 19th century, rifles in the family were distinguished by different shooting devices. There used to be fire door guns, matchlock guns, flintlocks and other varieties. Rifles could also be divided into smoothbore guns by whether they had threads on the inner wall of the barrel. and rifles (or rifled guns).
The world's earliest muskets appeared in China, the hometown of gunpowder. In 1132, Chen Gui of the Southern Song Dynasty created a firearm with gunpowder inside a long bamboo pole to spray fire to kill enemies. In 1259, based on the traditional invention, the Shouchun people of Anhui Province created a tubular firearm called the "Sudden Fire Gun". The blast gun ejects projectiles with the help of gases produced by burning gunpowder. Because it was made of bamboo, it was easily scorched by fire and had a short service life. Later, the Chinese gradually switched to metal materials. By the Yuan Dynasty, they were basically made of copper, and thus the early fire blunderbuss was formed.
Due to the great exchange of Eastern and Western cultures during the Mongol conquest period, Europeans knew how to use gunpowder through the spread of Arabs around 1250. In the 14th century, black powder was used in warfare in Europe, and Europeans began to manufacture firearms. The earliest musket in Europe was the portal gun, which consisted of a barrel, a gun frame, a medicine chamber, a firing device and other components. The musketeer directly ignites the gunpowder in the powder chamber when firing, and shoots stone pellets or metal pellets. Usually the musketeer holds the back of the barrel with his left hand, clamps the butt of the gun with his left arm and body, and uses the other hand to light the gun, either with the butt on the ground or on a fork-shaped stand. The shooting accuracy of the fire gate gun is very low, because the shooter must always keep his eyes on the fire gate of the gun when shooting, and cannot observe the target to be shot, so he cannot aim. In addition, the fire door gun uses fire directly to ignite the gunpowder, which is also very unsafe. But even so, the emerging fire portal gun still showed its power on the battlefield. In 1331, the Teutonic Knights in Germany used fire portal guns to defeat the French heavily armored knights who were difficult to defeat at the time.
In fact, the efficiency of using muskets in the early days was not as good as the bows and arrows, the traditional weapons of infantry at that time, but the use of muskets was relatively simple, and infantry could master it after a short period of training, making it easy to form large armies in the free towns that were popping up in Europe at that time; on the contrary, bows and horses were required To be proficient and become an excellent archer, it will take months or even years of hard training. Over the centuries, muskets gradually replaced traditional infantry weapons such as spears and bows. Western European countries officially adopted muskets as the main weapons of infantry in the 16th century.
In the 15th century, someone invented the "match rope", a safer ignition device for muskets. This overcomes the disadvantage that the musketeer needs to hold the gun in one hand and the firearm in the other hand, so that he cannot aim at the target, and can shoot more accurately. A matchrope is a piece of rope or tightly twisted cloth soaked in a special combustion-supporting solvent (sometimes human urine) and then left to dry, which burns and ignites gunpowder. Each musketeer carried one section and hung it on his belt. After loading gunpowder into the barrel during battle, the gunman inserts the lit end of the match rope into the steel mouth of the gun. After firing, the end of the steel mouth with the live wire comes into contact with the gunpowder in the powder chamber, causing the gunpowder to explode and launch the bullet. . The butt has also been improved to a curved wooden butt, so that the shooter can hold the gun body with one hand in front and the butt with the other hand, which can stabilize the matchlock and improve shooting accuracy. However, the matchlock gun also had the fatal shortcoming of early muskets. It could only be used when the weather was dry and could not be used on rainy days. In addition, the match rope must always be smoldering during battle, which is inconvenient.
The Spanish once developed a heavy matchlock gun, the Mushket musket, which was used in actual combat in the 1530s. It had a long barrel and fired heavy projectiles that could penetrate the heavy plate armor worn by knights at that time and block cavalry charges. Extending the barrel allows the projectile to have a higher velocity and a longer range. Spain used this musket as its main weapon and built the world's earliest musket team. But this kind of musket is quite bulky and requires an iron fork as a shooting support. When shooting, the soldiers mounted the gun on an iron fork and most of the time required two people to operate it, so the mobility on the battlefield was extremely poor.
Between 1610 and 1615, the Frenchman Mahan invented the world's first flintlock gun. The shooting principle of this gun is to ignite the gunpowder by striking a fire. The igniter of a flintlock gun is connected to a fast iron piece. When shooting, the musketeer pulls the trigger, causing the flint to strike the iron piece, causing sparks to ignite the gunpowder in the powder tank. The flintlock gun overcomes the shortcomings of the matchlock gun and can be used regardless of weather conditions.
Early muskets had poor accuracy, short range, low firing rate, and were inconvenient to use. In the 1570s, a shooter who could fire two bullets per minute was already quite good. Due to these shortcomings, for a long time muskets were not used by individual soldiers, but were used to fire dense volleys against enemies in formation, in order to always have some bullets that could hit the enemy in the hail of bullets. When firing intensive salvos at close range, gun accuracy becomes less important. The guns at this time were unable to fire continuously due to their short range, and could not effectively withstand the rapid impact of large groups of cavalry.
These matchlocks and flintlocks were muskets with smooth inner barrels, and later rifles appeared. Legend has it that it was invented by the Austrian Korner. The difference between a rifle and a smoothbore gun is that the inner wall of the barrel is carved with spiral grooves, called rifle lines, and the gun gets its name. This spiral groove causes the fired bullet to rotate so that the bullet's trajectory does not deviate randomly, thereby increasing accuracy and range. But the rifle also has shortcomings: the cost is high, because when shooting, a wooden hammer is used to knock the bullet into the barrel, loading is time-consuming, and the firing speed is slow.
The first people to use rifles on a large scale were the residents of the North American colonies. Before the American Revolution, Pennsylvania craftsmen mass-produced flintlock rifles that were mistakenly called "Kentucky rifles." This kind of gun is light, flexible and accurate, and is purchased by local residents for self-defense. During the North American Revolutionary War, thousands of local residents brought their own rifles to join the Continental Army in fighting against the British. During the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, rifles played a key role. On October 7, British General Fraser led 1,600 British troops equipped with smoothbore flintlock muskets to attack the Continental Army. As they entered a farm clearing, they were attacked by the Virginia Rifles of the Continental Army. The British soldiers stood on the open ground without cover and fired volleys with muskets, while the soldiers of the rifle regiment hid behind the trees and calmly aimed and fired. The range of a rifle is five times that of a rifle, so the British army soon suffered heavy casualties. Fraser was hit by several bullets and fell to the ground, and the British soldiers fled one after another. The riflemen took the opportunity to charge and won.
However, the rifles at this time were only muzzle-loading guns loaded with gunpowder and fired projectiles. Around the middle of the 19th century, breech-loading guns that fired conical bullets came out. Rifles became more powerful, ushering in a new era of weapons.
Marching in Line – Tactics from the Black Powder Era
Linear formations in horizontal formations were developed from the infantry phalanx. The reason for forming horizontal lines is mainly due to changes in infantry weapons. What soldiers hold in their hands are no longer cold weapons such as swords, spears, swords and halberds, but muskets that fire projectiles. In the early days, muskets had limited damage, and it was not easy to hit the enemy. Soldiers lined up in horizontal lines and fired volleys to strengthen the firepower and increase the power of the battle. In Europe, the earliest musketeer lines appeared in the Spanish infantry phalanx in the 16th century.
In the early 16th century, King Charles I of Spain carried out military reforms and organized musketeers and spearmen into an infantry square – the Spanish Grand Square. In actual combat, the musketeers in the phalanx created a new tactic – the retreat reloading technique. After firing a volley, the musketeers in the front row retreated in rows to the rear row to reload in the gaps between rows. In this way, if there are more than 10 rows of muskets, the firepower can be maintained uninterrupted. The advantages of this kind of musket fighting in horizontal lines were quickly demonstrated in the war. In 1525, King Francis I of France led his army to fight the Spanish Habsburg army in Italy. The French army suffered a disastrous defeat and Francis I himself was captured. The French suffered 8,000 casualties and the Spanish suffered less than 1,000 casualties. Most of the French casualties were hit by a barrage of musketry bullets.
At the end of the 16th century, the famous Duke Maurice of the Netherlands also reformed the infantry team. He reduced the depth of the musketeers' ranks and widened the width of each column to 250 meters. This battle formation was named "Morris Line" after him. He attaches great importance to military training and requires soldiers to quickly form formations and perform formation changes in complex terrain. Morris' reforms greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the army. He has a small number of troops, usually less than 10,000 men. But many battles were won. These were primitive line formations. Decades later, with the improvement of Western firearms, a large number of musketeers in the army generally used horizontal line formations to fight.
At the beginning of the 18th century, firearms technology in Europe developed rapidly. Cold weapons such as swords, spears, swords and halberds in the past had basically been eliminated. Infantrymen were equipped with front-loaded flintlock guns with bayonets. The firing range of firearms is 200-300 meters for rifles and 600-800 meters for front-loading smoothbore guns, with a rate of fire of 1 to 2 rounds per minute. This has a greater attack range than cold weapons, and soldiers can kill each other without engaging in close combat. In order to effectively unleash the power of firearms, armies generally fought in linear formations. At first, the depth of this queue was up to 10, and later as ammunition loading speed increased, it was gradually reduced to 3 to 4 rows. When approaching the enemy's position, the soldiers in the first row should take a kneeling position, and the soldiers in the second row should take a standing position. They should fire a volley according to the unified command, and then load the ammunition in the opposite direction. Then the soldiers in the next two rows who have been prepared will advance in sequence and fire a volley. . While firing volleys, the entire queue advanced at a slow speed, and finally used bayonets to decide the outcome with the enemy.
The reason why this kind of queue combat was adopted at that time was because it took a certain amount of time to reload the flintlock guns used by the soldiers, and the shooting accuracy was not high. In order to increase combat firepower and ensure that the commander can effectively control the troops, soldiers need to line up in horizontal formations and fire volleys in accordance with unified orders. The outcome of this kind of battle is almost entirely determined by a single horizontal attack. In September 1759, during the battle between Britain and France for the North American colony of Quebec, the British and French armies fought in parallel lines. The British troops wearing scarlet uniforms first took up their positions, waiting for the French troops, who were also lined up in horizontal lines, to attack. When the French troops with bayonets lined up in three columns and rushed to a place where the two sides were only 50 meters apart, the British troops suddenly fired a volley, causing the French soldiers to stop in shock. The British column took a few steps forward, and then there was another fierce volley… The battle was over soon, and Quebec was transferred from French hands to the British.
In order to ensure that the horizontal lines are arranged neatly and uniformly, the soldiers must be trained formally. Therefore, the parade ground took on a more important role from this time on. Every soldier was trained all day long to march at a uniform pace, holding the weapon at the same angle, and every step of shooting was completed at the same time. It is said that it takes 5 years to train such an army. This also formed the characteristics of European military operations in the 18th century: mechanical rigidity, emphasis on form, adherence to rules, and lack of originality.
Nevertheless, the Prussian army made its own contribution to the development of line queues in the early 18th century. Among the armies of various European countries, the Prussian army has the strictest requirements for soldiers, especially formation training, which requires soldiers to maintain precise steps while marching. When many troops are fighting together, they are also required to maintain a linear formation while marching. In order for the battalions to march side by side and maintain a line, the order stipulated that the formation should march at 75 steps per minute. The Prussian army placed the soldiers in each column side by side and marched step by step on the battlefield. The formation must be strong enough to withstand the impact of the cavalry. In 1740, Frederick became King of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. He often visited the troops at 4 o'clock in the morning and trained the soldiers himself. A Frenchman described seeing him training each battalion in the barracks: "There was heavy snowfall in the sky, but this did not affect the training of the whole battalion at all. They continued to train as usual as if it was good weather." Strict training created The Prussian army's line formation was strict and could quickly form a battle formation. In October 1757, Frederick led the Prussian army to fight against the Austrian army. When the two armies met, the distance between the Prussian platoons was exactly the same as the width of the front of each row. Under the unified command of the officers, each row of the two columns turned 90 degrees to the left at the same time. Facing the Austrian column, all Prussian troops suddenly formed a battle formation. The Prussian army used the traditional alternating shooting method to rush into the flank of the Austrian army, causing the Austrian army to completely collapse. It can be said that Frederick was a military strategist who applied line formation tactics to the extreme.
After long-term battle testing, the shortcomings of the linear queue were also clearly exposed. Its horizontal lines are shallow in depth, relatively thin, and easily broken; its front is too wide, and its long and narrow lines can only adapt to flat and open terrain; its wings are weak and unable to carry out maneuver operations. Therefore, soldiers lined up in horizontal lines could not pursue the enemy after winning, and could only defeat the enemy in a rout.
breech loading rifle
There is no definite year when modern weapons appeared, but it can be roughly dated to the mid-19th century. The development of weapons away from the black powder era is first reflected in the changes in gunpowder. In 1846, Italian Sobrero invented a method of using nitroglycerin to make high explosives. However, because nitroglycerin was unstable and could explode at any time, it was difficult to use in the military. In 1867, the Swiss Nobel discovered that diatomaceous earth could be used as a stabilizer to make nitroglycerine a safe explosive. Since then, the power of gunpowder has greatly increased, laying the foundation for weapons to enter modern times.
Almost at the same time as the changes in gunpowder, the design of guns began to change from front-loading to breech-loading. Mine pumps and conical warheads that could be used for impact ignition also appeared, which formed the basic style of guns used today. . The American Civil War from 1861 to 1865 was a war in the transition period of weapons. Both front-loading guns and breech-loading guns were used. The disastrous defeat of the Confederate army at the Battle of Gettysburg reflected such a trend. With the increase in gunfire power, it was no longer appropriate to continue to use the linear formations of the past in battle. Due to the greater lethality of firearms, skirmish formations were inevitably used extensively.
Converting from a muzzle-loading gun to a breech-loading gun not only increases the power, but also makes it easier to use. For example, to load a breech-loading gun, you no longer need to raise the gun body, but only need to open the tail of the barrel. The reloading speed and firing speed are greatly accelerated. The earliest breech-loading gun was invented by British officer Sir Alex Ferguson. In 1777, Ferguson took 100 breech-loading guns he designed to the North American colonies to participate in suppressing local anti-British uprisings. This kind of gun can load 6 to 8 rounds per minute, which is much faster than other rifles. In 1780, Ferguson was killed in a battle. Strangely, the British army never continued to use this breech-loading gun.
The subsequent emergence of striker breech-loaded guns revolutionized firearms. In 1835, Prussian Daur Reiser invented the striker breech-loading gun. This kind of gun has a bolt machine. The head of the bolt machine is closely connected to the tail of the barrel. The gunpowder gas will not leak when shooting. This increases the gun speed and improves the hit accuracy. Soon, conical bullets appeared, integrating the flash cap, cartridge case, and warhead into one body, and fired through the impact of the firing pin.
But when the breech-loading gun first appeared, some people hindered its use and promotion in the army. It is said that a Prussian general hated breech-loading guns and left a last word before his death that when he was buried in his cemetery, the muzzle-loading guns should be fired, otherwise he would not die in peace. On another occasion, a Swiss military delegation visited Prussia. One of the generals inspected the troops equipped with breech-loading guns and said: "It is noble to eat with your mouth (referring to the muzzle-loading guns). The Swiss will not use enemas loaded from behind." Guns to shoot”. But the reality on the battlefield is the most telling.
In 1866, war broke out between Prussia and Austria. The Austrian army was equipped with muzzle-loading guns, which were slow to load and had much worse firepower than the Prussian army equipped with breech-loading guns. As a result, the Austrian army was defeated at the Battle of Sadowa. After this war, Austria, France, Switzerland and other countries quickly eliminated muzzle-loading guns. Russia had a dispute over whether to equip breech-loading guns. After seeing the power of breech-loading guns, Minister of War Milyutin immediately wrote to the Tsar, saying: "If there is any hesitation in the determination to adopt breech-loading guns, the consequences will be disastrous." The Tsar then asked him to The Ministry of War sent people to study abroad. After Major Golov returned to the United States for inspection, he praised the advantages of breech-loading guns for their powerful firepower. In the face of the facts, all Russian troops switched to breech-loading guns.
In 1865, German firearms designer Mauser designed a breech-loaded single-shot rifle that fired metal bullets. In 1872, this gun was designated as the standard equipment of the German Army. This is the world's first machine-grip rifle to use metal case bullets. In 1880, Mauser added a magazine for 8 bullets under the barrel. The shooter could push and pull the handle one after another to fire until all the bullets were fired. In 1888, Mauser made further improvements to his rifle. Use a box magazine to hold 5 rounds of bullets and fire the newly invented smokeless powder bullets. Many countries have imitated this rifle. In 1893, China's Hanyang Arsenal began to produce a rifle commonly known as the "old sleeve", which is this kind of Mauser.
In the 1880s, the U.S. military solicited bids from arms dealers from various countries for rifles used by the army. As a result, the winning bid was the Craig rifle produced in Northern Europe. The performance of this gun was far inferior to that of the Mauser. In the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Craig rifles used by American soldiers were no match for the Mauser guns used by Spanish soldiers. Thanks to the U.S. military's numerical superiority and the use of Gatling guns, the Spanish army was defeated. Afterwards, the Springfield Arsenal in the United States simply imitated the Mauser and produced an improved rifle to equip the US military. At the end of the 19th century, various countries successively adopted pointed streamlined bullets with low resistance, and the bullets were basically finalized.
Skirmishers everywhere – tactics in the age of breech-loading guns
In the West, throughout the 18th century infantry basically fought in line formations. But at this time, the shortcomings of this standard formation were also exposed. Its rigid and rigid formation was neither flexible nor easy to expose itself to enemy fire. In order to correct these shortcomings, soldiers fighting on the battlefield at that time spontaneously tried to replace the linear queue with a new queue. As early as the War of Austrian Succession in the 18th century, the Croats serving in the Austrian army did not use linear formations, but were scattered on the battlefield, making it difficult for the Turks fighting them to cope.
In the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, the quality of soldiers and weapons and equipment of the North American rebels could not be compared with the well-trained and well-armed British army. Therefore, it was impossible for the rebels to defeat the line battles with regular tactics. of British troops. However, the rebels also had advantages. They were familiar with the terrain and had the enthusiasm to fight, so they instinctively adopted skirmishing tactics. The so-called skirmisher group is a formation of three or five individual soldiers who are separated from each other and fight separately. Militiamen often led British troops to fight in areas with complex terrain such as farms and forests. There, skirmishers with poor training but flexible movements can find cover to block the enemy's intensive firepower, flexibly change positions, and attack the enemy. The British troops lined up in horizontal lines had difficulty maintaining their formation and were easily exposed to enemy fire. For example, in the Battle of Bunker Mountain in June 1775, 1,500 North American militiamen used the favorable terrain of the mountains and forests to block 3,000 British soldiers who were lined up side by side in a scattered formation.
By the 1770s, European infantry weapons had been greatly improved. The straight butt of the rifle, which had strong recoil and was inconvenient for aiming, was changed to a curved butt; the heavy gun mount was changed to a lighter and stronger gun mount. With the improvement of weapons, the Russian army also made reforms in its formation tactics. The Russian generals Rumyantsev and Suvorov consciously organized the infantry into spread out formations during the battle and used them in conjunction with column formations. In the Battle of Borodino in 1812, when the Russian army fought Napoleon's army, they had already used infantry columns and skirmisher formations quite skillfully. The characteristics of this battle formation are: a skirmish line in the front, a dense column in the back, and additionally equipped with cavalry and artillery. At the beginning of the battle, they first bombarded with artillery fire, then attacked with skirmishers, and then attacked with cavalry. After several rounds of attacks like this, the infantry column went into attack again and launched the Russian army's famous "hand-to-hand assault" to annihilate the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
After the 19th century, military technology, especially infantry weapons, underwent revolutionary changes. Rifled guns replaced smoothbore guns, breech-loaded guns replaced muzzle-loading guns, and continuous firing replaced single-shot firing. This series of changes made rifles more powerful than artillery. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, rifles caused approximately 10 times more casualties than artillery. In the past, infantry shooting started from a distance of 50 to 100 meters from the enemy, but now it starts from a distance of 400 meters. In the face of this type of infantry weapon with increased range, improved accuracy, and accelerated rate of fire, if the rigid linear formation is followed, it will only result in heavy casualties and end in failure.
In the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856, the Russian army fought against the British and French forces. During the war, in addition to having superior weapons to their opponents, the coalition forces also began to undergo changes and improvements in their formation tactics. The coalition tried to use skirmishing tactics, that is, the infantry moved in a sparse formation when engaging the enemy. When they reached the range of the rifle, they divided into skirmishing lines. While shooting, they used terrain cover to advance, and they reunited when they arrived at the starting point of the attack. Finally, under the cover of superior firepower, they charged towards the enemy. In actual combat, the Russian army also discovered the value of this skirmishing tactic and quickly followed suit. In the Battle of Inkelmann in November 1854, the Russian army faced the enemy's superior firepower. During the attack, it dispersed its infantry columns into skirmish lines and passed through the enemy's fire control zone with minimal losses. , charge when approaching the enemy and destroy the enemy with the bayonet. However, this new tactic did not receive the attention of the military of various countries at the time. For a long time, this skirmishing tactic was ridiculed by the military of various countries as an act of cowardice.
A similar situation occurred during the American Civil War. In the early days of the war, the formally trained Northern Army soldiers still mechanically followed the infantry drill regulations in the open field, maintaining the pace and forming a dense linear formation. As a result, they became living targets for the Southern Army soldiers to shoot. The irregular Confederate soldiers dispersed into small groups during the battle, with a certain distance between each two soldiers. When the officer waved his saber and gave the order to charge, all the soldiers moved forward quickly. Although the team was neither neat nor orderly, the effect was very good. Later, he also learned to use skirmishing tactics and dealt a heavy blow to the Confederate Army in a dignified formation. The disastrous defeat of the Confederate Army in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 was related to this change in the tactical formation.
This kind of skirmishing tactics was officially recognized in the Turkish-Russian War of 1877-1878. The specific method of skirmishing tactics is: when the infantry meets the enemy within the range of enemy artillery fire, it moves in a spread-out formation; when it reaches the enemy's rifle When the fire was within range, they spread out into skirmish lines of small groups. The skirmishers fired while using the terrain to leap forward. After the soldiers in the front arrived at the starting position for the attack, the artillery behind them prepared firepower by overtaking the artillery bombardment. Then the infantry jumped out of the position and charged the enemy with bayonets in hand. During the charge, the infantry used intensive rifle fire to cover themselves and kill the enemy. But at this time, there were also many conservative generals who opposed skirmishing tactics, emphasizing that standing up straight and charging was a brave act, while crawling with a low body was a cowardly act. However, their prejudices only resulted in unnecessary sacrifices of soldiers. Skirmishing tactics gradually became the basic style of army combat formations in the following decades.