18th century total war

Chapter 42 Three Column Salvo Tactics
In addition, after the first shot, the loading speed of each soldier is different, which will greatly affect the orderliness of the second round of salvo.

If the psychological quality of the soldiers is not in place and they make mistakes when loading, it will also reduce the firepower density of the second salvo.

After every major war, stabs shot out by muskets can always be found on the battlefield. This is the result of those soldiers who made mistakes and shot the stabs together with the bullets under the pressure of life and death.

Therefore, after each round of salvo on the battlefield, the firepower density will decrease correspondingly. The more salvos are fired, the fewer lead bullets can be fired!
Many muskets even have problems such as explosion and jamming.

This is not necessarily a problem with the quality of the musket. It is likely that the soldier made a mistake in the operation under extremely tense conditions, which caused the musket to be damaged.

This is not difficult to understand, whoever faces the enemy in line to shoot, it is impossible to calm down!
Unless it is a desperate lunatic!
Therefore, many ordinary armies often require soldiers to shoot freely after the first round of salvo, and even if salvo is required, they will adopt alternate shooting tactics of changing formations.

Soldiers who have fired return to the back of the queue to load ammunition, which can eliminate inner fear to the greatest extent and reduce the chance of making mistakes.

Of course, doing so will also prevent many soldiers from firing at the same time, reducing their firepower density.

But nothing is perfect on the battlefield. The British's three-row salvo followed by a bayonet charge was considered a perfect tactic.

Lesarite, who is well aware of the importance of the first shot, naturally hopes to enter a closer distance before firing. However, when he crossed the 50-meter threshold, Lesarite found that the enemy on the opposite side still did not stop pace!
At this time, the corps under Lesarite's command could not bear it anymore, or in order to reduce the fear of the soldiers in the front row, the limit of Lesarite's Bavarian corps was 50 meters. After entering this distance, the front phalanx The officer immediately gave the order to stop.

The leading officer in the Bavarian regiment retreated to the side of his phalanx, raised his command knife and gave a loud order. Soon, the soldiers in the first row half-knelt on the ground and raised their muskets, while the soldiers in the second row stood up and raised their guns, forming two rows of guns. .

This is the standard volley tactic of the current era, and it is easier to alternate arrays with the soldiers in the back row.

The three-row salvo is an extreme situation, because when the three-row salvo is fired, the first row is half-kneeling, the second row is standing, and the third row needs to put the musket in the gap between the shoulders of the soldiers in the second row, which is equivalent to sealing Cover all gaps between soldiers!
In this way, after firing a round of guns, it will become very troublesome to step back and let the people behind come up.

Of course, the British are not without a solution. During the three-column salvo, each phalanx can be divided into three parts. After the three-column salvo is over, one part stands still and loads ammunition, and then the second part continues. Shoot until the third part of the salvo is over and the first part is almost out of ammunition.

It's just that this has higher requirements on the soldiers, and each part of the soldiers must complete the loading after two salvos!
If you want to do this, you must overcome your inner fear, and you must not shake your hands or feet when loading, or even make any operational mistakes!

This tactic is still very advanced, because the three rows of soldiers do not need to change formations when reloading, they can just stand on the spot and reload, which saves the reloading time to the greatest extent, and the three parts are fired in succession to form continuous firepower.

Even if the enemy rushes over madly, they will be destroyed by rounds of gunfire.

Even if it is not destroyed, because the overall three-column salvo formation has never changed, it is enough to use the bayonet directly when the enemy rushes to the front, and there is no need to worry about your own phalanx being broken through.

Of course, this tactical flaw is also obvious. When shooting in three salvos, the soldiers who have shot must stand in place to reload ammunition, which is equivalent to keeping them within the enemy's shooting range!

This is really standing upright and letting the enemy shoot him. If it weren't for the poor hit rate of the flintlock, no one would use this tactic at all.

In addition to this defect, this three-column salvo tactic is almost the most perfect shooting tactic of this era.

Soldiers don't need to change their formations frequently, so naturally there will be no confusion and mistakes in the formation. After the people in the front row fall down, the people in the fourth row behind can replace them.

This is why the British platoons often arrange four to five rows.

Not changing formation can also save the most time loading ammunition.

And the three-row salvo can let three rows of people shoot at the same time, even if it is cut into three parts, the firepower density is equivalent to that of a whole row of people.

The most important thing is that it is difficult to connect to the second round of guns after a single row of people shoots, but when a three-row salvo is fired, it is cut into three parts, which ensures that each part can be fired seamlessly, and only one command is required!
Naturally, continuous firepower was formed that was no less than a salvo of a whole row of soldiers.

Under such firepower coverage, any enemy force that can persist for several minutes without collapsing is an elite force!

If the terrain is favorable, on an undulating slope, a second or even a third three-row phalanx can also be formed to form a stepped firepower network.

There is no need to change the formation when shooting, which means that the space occupied is also narrow, and more square formations can naturally be placed.

It's a pity that this tactic not only requires extraordinary courage, but also skillful reloading techniques, otherwise the volleys will be inconsistent and it will easily lead to chaos.

This is the reason why Li Wei did not use this tactic. The basic line of infantry under his command is not good enough, and the speed of loading ammunition is not good either!
"Fire!"

Following the order after order, the Bavarian Corps, lined up in two rows of guns, pulled the trigger.

After the fight, these soldiers and officers immediately retreated from the gap between the soldiers in the back row, regardless of the results of the battle. The soldiers in the two rows behind took advantage of the trend, the first row half-kneeled, and the second row stood up and raised their guns.

Although the efficiency of this volley gun tactic is not as good as the three-column shooting tactic, it is the most common tactic in Europe.

Because this tactic does not require too much courage for soldiers, and the requirements for queue and loading speed are also average.

The retreating soldiers had plenty of time to reload and regroup, because there were still several rows ahead of them to fire.

As a matter of course, this made the Bavarian Corps have to line up more rows, resulting in the Bavarian Corps clearly having twice as many troops as Bolza's troops, but the cross-sectional length of the face-to-face battlefield was almost the same!

Lesarit also knew that his soldiers' tactics were not as good as the opponent's, but the three-volley tactic seemed simple, but not everyone could afford it!

Otherwise, the British would not have relied on this tactic to run rampant for so many years...

(End of this chapter)