| The base of XVII century infantry was formed by soldiers who were armed with lances, had armor and were skilled in hand-to-hand fighting,
and shooters armed with muskets. They formed tight arrays 6 ranks deep. Musketeers usually took up the flank position, and retreated to seek the pikemen
protection when under the threat of attack. The pikemen moved forward to form the continuous line with adjoining detachments. The first pikemen row
rested the pike against the ground, holding it back with the left hand, and taking the sword into the right one.
The musketeers' role grew significant at this time, while the pikemen were losing their offensive function with the firearms development. Under the
general scrutiny of infantry history we see the Antiquity and Medieval shooters as skirmishers by their nature. Although English archers were numerous
and influential in battles, the bow was not powerful enough to make archers the key battle force. Firearms appeared to be the milestone of
groundbreaking accomplishment in battle tactics. A musket had enough power (a heavy fuse gun compared to the earlier harquebus; 1,25 m long, about 7 kg
in weight, 17 - 20 mm in caliber) to pierce the knight's amour. One could produce aimed fire at a distance of more than 200 steps. Low rate of fire was
outweighed by great formation depth. Having fired a shot the first row retreated to recharge the gun. Such fire tactics was called caracole (snail),
because it resembled the slow snail movements. In this case the formation depth could attain 12 ranks. As firearms developed such tactics disappeared
giving way to 6-rank musketeer formations. It is already under Gustav Adolph (1590 - 1632, from 1611 to 1632 the King of Sweden) when the lighter
muskets were introduced. They allowed shooting without resting the gun against a prop. Paper cartridges appeared allowing to increase the rate of fire
and to lessen the formation depth. Yet all this was not enough to give the shooters a chance to stand in the open field against cavalry or even cold
steel infantry without the pikemen's support. Only with a bayonet and flint gunlock introduced the pikemen were given a "throw out." |
