Genuine question. How big of a problem is friendly fire? I know people that have gone into the military, and I wouldn’t wanna be bunched up like that while they are holding guns
From the same unit? Not very large to my knowledge. Everyone is setting up and firing at the same time, and at the same target(s), so there’s less of a ‘panic moment’ (at least insofar as aiming and firing is concerned), and you’re close enough that your musket would be hard to get into position to shoot the guy directly in front of you.
From other units? MASSIVE. In Gettysburg in the US Civil War (admittedly a bit after the Napoleonic-era Brits there) there were numerous incidents in which soldiers from the same side fired on each other because of uniform misidentification.
That’s part of the reason they are bunched up like that.
Although, they started in formations like that not so people wouldn’t shoot each-other, but so that all the spears were pointed in the right direction.
But, you take the basic spear formation, switch to guns, and you don’t have to make too many modifications (especially since the early guns were a lot like spears, they were very long, very solid, and had a bayonet on the end). The line infantry tactics did have people shoulder-to-shoulder, but the lines were only between 2-4 soldiers deep. You were always shooting perpendicular to the line, so even though everybody’s all bunched up, nobody except the enemy is on the other side of the barrel.
If everybody’s all spread out, the odds of a friendly fire incident are higher. If everybody is all bunched up in straight lines, all you have to worry about is the one or two guys in front of you. And, the end of your barrel goes past their positions anyhow.
Genuine question. How big of a problem is friendly fire? I know people that have gone into the military, and I wouldn’t wanna be bunched up like that while they are holding guns
From the same unit? Not very large to my knowledge. Everyone is setting up and firing at the same time, and at the same target(s), so there’s less of a ‘panic moment’ (at least insofar as aiming and firing is concerned), and you’re close enough that your musket would be hard to get into position to shoot the guy directly in front of you.
From other units? MASSIVE. In Gettysburg in the US Civil War (admittedly a bit after the Napoleonic-era Brits there) there were numerous incidents in which soldiers from the same side fired on each other because of uniform misidentification.
That’s part of the reason they are bunched up like that.
Although, they started in formations like that not so people wouldn’t shoot each-other, but so that all the spears were pointed in the right direction.
But, you take the basic spear formation, switch to guns, and you don’t have to make too many modifications (especially since the early guns were a lot like spears, they were very long, very solid, and had a bayonet on the end). The line infantry tactics did have people shoulder-to-shoulder, but the lines were only between 2-4 soldiers deep. You were always shooting perpendicular to the line, so even though everybody’s all bunched up, nobody except the enemy is on the other side of the barrel.
If everybody’s all spread out, the odds of a friendly fire incident are higher. If everybody is all bunched up in straight lines, all you have to worry about is the one or two guys in front of you. And, the end of your barrel goes past their positions anyhow.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_friendly_fire_incidents
I hope this doesn’t become a tough read. Damn my morbid curiosity
Edit:
Narrator: It did
It can be an issue. There’s a lot of moving pieces on the modern battlefield. You have some general rules to avoid it but there’s no guarantee.