Column (formation)
A military column is a
The line formation offers a substantially larger musket frontage than the column, allowing for greater shooting capability, but requires extensive training to allow the unit to move over ground as one while retaining the line.
It is also applied by modern armies to vehicles, troops and naval vessels.
Napoleonic Wars
During the early stages of the
The military historian James R. Arnold argues that all armies of the period used column formations at times on the battlefield; the military historian Sir Charles Oman is credited with developing the theory that the French practically always attacked in heavy columns, and it is only now that this theory has been questioned by more recent experts.[6][7]
Column of companies
During the
Korean War
The column formation was extensively used by Chinese infantry during the Korean War.[9] When attacking, the Chinese would form their assault units into deep columns of platoons or squads, and drove such formations into the weak points of the enemy's defenses.[9] The rationale for such a tactic was that repeated assaults conducted by squad- or platoon-sized skirmish parties would eventually penetrate enemy lines through sheer attrition.[9] This utilization of column formation also give birth to the term human wave attack.[10]
See also
- Line (formation)
- Mixed order
- Flying wedge
- Svinfylking
- Flying column
Notes
- ^ Arnold, James R. "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War", The Napoleon Series, August 2004. See the section "Why the French Failed".
- Beresfordin dispatches.
- ^ Arnold, James R. "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War" , The Napoleon Series, August 2004. See the section "A Row of Columns of the Heaviest Sort".
- ^ Lord Montagu of Beaulieu speaking in the House of Lords Hansard: 24 Apr 1996 : Column 1172 Archived 15 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, paragraph 4
- ^ Infantry Tactics and Combat during the Napoleonic Wars ~ Part 3 ~ Columns
- ^ Arnold, James R. "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War Oman and Historiography", The Napoleon Series, August 2004.
- Journal of the Society for Army Historical ResearchLX no. 244 (Winter 1982): pp. 196-208.
- ^ Urban, p.105.
- ^ a b c Appleman 1990, p. 363.
- ^ Appleman 1989, p. 353.
References
- Appleman, Roy (1989), Disaster in Korea: The Chinese Confront MacArthur, College Station, TX: Texas A and M University Military History Series, 11, ISBN 978-1-60344-128-5
- Appleman, Roy (1990), Escaping the Trap: The US Army X Corps in Northeast Korea, 1950, College Station, TX: Texas A and M University Military History Series, 14, ISBN 0-89096-395-9
- Arnold, James R. "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War Oman and Historiography", The Napoleon Series, August 2004.
- Arnold, James R. "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Napoleonic Wars" Journal of the Society for Army Historical ResearchLX no. 244 (Winter 1982): pp. 196-208.
- Lord Montagu of Beaulieu The Parliament of United Kingdom, The House of Lords, Hansard: 24 Apr 1996, Column 1172
- Urban, Mark; Rifles: Six years with Wellington's legendary sharpshooters; Faber and Faber (2004) ISBN 0-571-21680-3
Further reading
- Haythornthwaite, Philip (2012). British Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815. Osprey Publishing. p. 29–30. ISBN 9781780967547.
- United States War Department (1820). Rules and regulations for the field exercise and manoeuvres of infantry (4 ed.). W.A. Mercein.