Why don't soldiers fear?

**visser300** · February 06, 2009, 04:37 AM

I admire 18th soldiers!!! They match and have no fear about the cannon and guns which are aiming them.

I watched some movies these day and see that a battle likes an execution. You stay there waiting for your enemy put a hole on your body and as if you lucky enough, you can shoot back!!!

If I was them, I will

out of my pant and run away like a chicken.

How was the training those days?

**Gaius Julius Civilis** · February 06, 2009, 04:43 AM

Drilling till ya don't think anymore, I s'pose.

**R4nd0M** · February 06, 2009, 04:44 AM

I'm no expert on the period but as far as I have read the training for line infantry was specifically focused on military and musket drill. Marching in formation and practicing reloading the musket until it became instilled in muscle memory - able to be executed quickly under battle conditions. Still, nothing as physically intensive as what you'd expect training for modern armed forces.

You have to admire the guts of the combatants in this period. Many, of course, were either pressed into service or signed up because they had nothing better to do (or were criminals) and as a result had no idea what the face of war was like. Surely standing in the open during a pitched battle with the enemy less than a stone's throw ahead of you, ready to open fire at any moment would be a truly harrowing experience.

It's little wonder that quite often units (often the lesser experienced and trained ones, even the experienced ones for example Napoleon's Old Guard at Waterloo) would break quite quickly under sufficient fire. It's quite accurate to assume individual units would perhaps rout quicker in this period than in say, the middle ages or ancient times.

**Londoneye** · February 06, 2009, 04:57 AM

Especially the Prussians were known for their ruthless drill.

Like Frederick the Great said: "The prussian soldier has to fear his own officer more than the enemy"

**Emperor of Europe** · February 06, 2009, 05:01 AM

What makes you think they weren't afraid?

For an interesting perspective, I'd recommend John Keegan's The Face of Battle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-Battle-.../dp/0712650903

rgds/EoE

**Ojf** · February 06, 2009, 05:01 AM

If you ran, you would face a worse dishonourable death by your own countries hand.
In this era it reminds me of the Roman Legions, where most generals believed that a legionary should fear his centurion/commanding officer more than his enemy,

**Cinnead** · February 06, 2009, 05:55 AM

nationalism ??? For England !!! anyone
i can't really picture the soldiers of our time screaming "for 'insert country here'" unless they have a death wish ...

**gettoman** · February 06, 2009, 01:50 PM

They didn't know fear because they knew the wonderfoul properties of ALCOHOL. Just look how alcohol works on peoples behavior.

**Xerrop** · February 06, 2009, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by visser300

I admire 18th soldiers!!! They match and have no fear about the cannon and guns which are aiming them.

Who say´s they have no fear.
O.K. As long as you only march and are not under direct fire there´s no great problem.

But a single and destructive volley from the enemy has often led to an fleeing unit.

Originally Posted by gettoman

They didn't know fear because they knew the wonderfoul properties of ALCOHOL. Just look how alcohol works on peoples behavior.

That´s maybe the reason why a sailor´s ration was two litres of wine per day.
But that´s the navy, don´t know how the army handled alcohol ?

**cenkiss** · February 06, 2009, 02:15 PM

No they are afraid every second but treason means death and he is going to die anyway he thinks maybe? he can survive the battle i guess.

**gettoman** · February 06, 2009, 02:31 PM

When I used to go to High school my "preparation for defence" teacher (in polish - przysposobienie obronne) - who was a retired colonel said that throughout the ages all armies used alcohol to booster the soldiers courage. The only distinction was the waffen ss - they used the amphetamine. Probably the "magic potion" from asterix and obelix is allso a metaphore of a drug.

**Marcus Licinius** · February 06, 2009, 02:40 PM

only the British, as i understand it, practiced live, everyone else used the 18th Century version of Blanks

**Franz Von G** · February 06, 2009, 04:51 PM

"Let us accompany the novice to the battle-field. As we approach, the thunder of the cannon becoming plainer and plainer is soon followed by the howling of shot, which attracts the attention of the inexperienced. Balls begin to strike the ground close to us, before and behind. We hasten to the hill where stands the General and his numerous Staff. Here the close striking of the cannon balls and the bursting of shells is so frequent that the seriousness of life makes itself visible through the youthful picture of imagination. Suddenly some one known to us falls—a shell makes its way into the crowd and causes some involuntary movements; we begin to feel that we are no longer perfectly at ease and collected, even the bravest is at least to some degree confused. Now, a step further into the battle which is raging before us like a scene in a theatre, we get to the nearest General of Division; here ball follows ball, and the noise of our own guns increases the confusion. From the General of Division to the Brigadier. He a man of acknowledged bravery, keeps carefully behind a rising ground, a house, or a tree—a sure sign of increasing danger. Grape rattles on the roofs of the houses and in the fields; cannon balls howl over us, and plough the air in all directions, and soon there is a frequent whistling of musket balls; a step further towards the troops, to that sturdy Infantry which for hours has maintained its firmness under this heavy fire; here the air is filled with the hissing of balls which announce their proximity by a short sharp noise as they pass within an inch of the ear, the head, or the breast.
To add to all this, compassion strikes the beating heart with pity, at the sight of the maimed and fallen. The young soldier cannot reach any of these different strata of danger, without feeling that the light of reason does not move here in the same medium, that it is not refracted in the same manner as in speculative contemplation. Indeed, he must be a very extraordinary man who, under these impressions for the first time, does not lose the power of making any instantaneous decisions. It is true that habit soon blunts such impressions; in half-an-hour we begin to be more or less indifferent to all that is going on around us: but an ordinary character never attains to complete coolness, and the natural elasticity of mind; and so we perceive that here, again, ordinary qualities will not suffice; a thing which gains truth, the wider the sphere of activity which is to be filled. Enthusiastic, stoical, natural bravery, great ambition, or also long familiarity with danger, much of all this there must be if all the effects produced in this resistant medium are not to fall far short of that which, in the student's chamber, may appear only the ordinary standard."

from "On War", by General Carl von Clausewitz, Book I, Chap. IV, "Of Danger in War"

**Fordcortinamk3** · February 07, 2009, 05:47 PM

I'm sure they did fear. But as others have said, desert and face dealth, or stay and fight and have a chance of living.

In big battles the people at the front must have known that they will get shot to pieces and then trampled on. Yet they continue to march at fast pace into heavy fire. Legendary bravery

**MekongFisher** · February 08, 2009, 01:03 AM

They did fear. And that's whey they lost battles.

Usually, in this era, the victor was decided by the capacity of the soldiery's testicles to face walking into the cloud of lead bullets and grape shots.