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Picky, picky, picky...
A few years ago I picked up The Future of War by George and Meredith Freeman. I'd never gotten around to reading it until today.
Imagine my feelings when I found not one, but two gross historical errors in the first few pages of the first chapter!
The first whopper is comment about the conquistadores "revolutionizing" warfare with their "primitive guns." By the time the Spanish were tap-dancing all over Mesoamerica, guns had been the staple of European war for almost 150 years.
Then the authors declare that guns came to dominate the battlefield because of their superior range. Bollocks! Any good bow or crossbow outranged early guns! A lonqbow is accurate and deadly out to several hundred feet, a distance not matched by guns until the late 19th century. Guns became dominant for one reason: it is far easier to train a musketman than it is to train a bowman.
I'll keep reading, but so far I'm unimpressed.
Imagine my feelings when I found not one, but two gross historical errors in the first few pages of the first chapter!
The first whopper is comment about the conquistadores "revolutionizing" warfare with their "primitive guns." By the time the Spanish were tap-dancing all over Mesoamerica, guns had been the staple of European war for almost 150 years.
Then the authors declare that guns came to dominate the battlefield because of their superior range. Bollocks! Any good bow or crossbow outranged early guns! A lonqbow is accurate and deadly out to several hundred feet, a distance not matched by guns until the late 19th century. Guns became dominant for one reason: it is far easier to train a musketman than it is to train a bowman.
I'll keep reading, but so far I'm unimpressed.
no subject
Arrows require skillage at point-of-use, only some of which can be pushed off to manufacture. (If an archer can't fix a arrow fletching, he's not much of an archer.)
Gunpowder requires actual technology to manufacture -- charcoal, saltpeter, a grinding mill, and some brave guys wearing slippers -- but after being made, it only needs to be kept dry and poured when needed.
My understanding was that rifles were precision, virtually hand-made weapons for quite a long time, and therefore too expensive to use for large units. However, "skirmishers" were often equipped with them, at least in small quantities.
Of course, "Guns" in the "artillery" sense have arrows beat all hollow. A few artillery pieces in the right spot may not do that much actual killing, but can devastate enemy morale and turn the tide of battle. This may be what the authors were trying to get at with the conquistadores.
no subject
I'm looking for the earliest military use of rifles, and the dates keep getting pushed farther back. Industrial limitations prevented them from being used enmass earlier than about 1870.