Charge Warfare: Strategies and Tactics in Modern Military Conflicts

By Fouad Sabry

What is Charge Warfare

A charge is an offensive maneuver in battle in which combatants advance towards their enemy at their best speed in an attempt to engage in a decisive close combat. The charge is the dominant shock attack and has been the key tactic and decisive moment of many battles throughout history. Modern charges usually involve small groups of fireteams equipped with weapons with a high rate of fire and striking against individual defensive positions, instead of large groups of combatants charging another group or a fortified line.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Charge (warfare)

Chapter 2: Cavalry

Chapter 3: Combined arms

Chapter 4: Frontal assault

Chapter 5: Polish cavalry

Chapter 6: Caracole

Chapter 7: Mounted infantry

Chapter 8: Pike square

Chapter 9: Shock troops

Chapter 10: Infantry square

(II) Answering the public top questions about charge warfare.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Charge Warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Charge (warfare)

A charge is an offensive movement in which soldiers approach at top speed towards their enemy in an effort to engage in decisive close combat. The charge is the most effective shock attack and has been the decisive tactic and moment in several battles throughout history. Modern charges typically employ small groups of fireteams armed with rapid-fire weapons and attacking individual defensive positions (such as a concertainer or bunker), as opposed to huge groups of warriors charging another group or a fortified line.

It may be presumed that the charge was utilized in prehistoric warfare, but definitive proof does not appear until the emergence of writing societies. The classical Greek phalanx employed an orderly approach march and a last charge to make contact.

Irish and Scottish forces around the end of the 16th century, in response to the arrival of guns, developed a tactic that combined a salvo of musketry with a transfer to fast hand-to-hand combat with melee weapons. It was initially successful, but discipline and the development of defensive bayonet techniques opposed it.

A term used by the Allies to describe the human wave and swarming attacks by Japanese infantry units armed with bayonets and swords.

This term came from the Japanese battle cry Tennōheika Banzai (天皇陛下万歳, Long live the Emperor!, abbreviated to banzai, referring especially to a strategy employed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War.

The introduction of the bayonet in the late 17th century led to the bayonet charge becoming the primary infantry charge technique throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Already in the nineteenth century, tactical scholars observed that the majority of bayonet charges did not result in close battle. Instead, one side typically flees before bayonet combat commences. It has been believed that attaching bayonets is mostly tied to morale, as it sends a clear signal to both friend and foe of a desire to kill at close range.

In cavalry tactics, the shock value of a charge attack has been particularly emphasized, both by armored knights and by lighter mounted infantry of earlier and later times. Historians such as John Keegan have demonstrated that cavalry charges frequently failed against infantry when properly prepared against (such as by improvising fortifications) and especially by holding steady in the face of the assault, with horses refusing to gallop into the dense mass of opponents. While it was not advised to continue a cavalry charge against unbroken infantry, charges remained a serious threat to heavy infantry. According to the writings of Anna Komnene, Parthian lancers required extremely dense formations of Roman legionaries to stop, while Frankish knights were much more difficult to stop. However, only highly trained horses would intentionally assault dense, unbroken enemy formations directly, and in order to be effective, a strong formation must be maintained; such powerful formations are the consequence of excellent training. Heavy cavalry lacking even a single element of this combination – consisting of high morale, excellent training, quality equipment, individual prowess, and collective discipline of both the warrior and the mount – would fail in a charge against unbroken heavy infantry, and only the best heavy cavalrymen (e.g., knights and cataphracts) throughout history would have possessed these in relation to their era and terrain.

In the Middle Ages, the cavalry charge was a key tactic. Although cavalry had charged before, the adoption of a frame saddle held in place by a breast-band, stirrups, and the method of couching the lance under the arm made it possible to utilize the momentum of the horse and rider in a previously unattainable manner. These innovations began in the seventh century but were not fully integrated until the eleventh century.

Nevertheless, from the beginning of the Hundred Years' War onward, the use of professional pikemen and longbowmen with strong morale and effective tactics meant that a knight would have to be cautious when leading a cavalry attack. Men wielding pike or halberd in formation, with high morale, could repel all but the best cavalry charges, whereas English archers with the longbow could unleash a hail of arrows capable of wreaking havoc, but not necessarily a massacre, upon the heads of heavy infantry and cavalry in unsuitable terrain. Knights gradually dismounted and fought as elite heavy infantry, but some continued to remain mounted during war. Although some conceptions of the knightly ideal frequently led to wild, undisciplined charges, the use of cavalry for flanking maneuvers grew more effective.

Cavalry could still charge dense, heavy infantry formations if the cavalrymen possessed a combination of specific characteristics. If they were in formation, collectively disciplined, highly competent, armed with the finest weapons and armor, and mounted on horses trained to withstand the physical and mental pressures of such charges, they had a good chance of victory. However, the majority of cavalry men lacked at least one of these characteristics, especially discipline, formations, and horses trained for frontal charges. Thus, the use of the head-on cavalry charge decreased, although Polish hussars, French Cuirassiers, and Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors were still capable of succeeding in such charges, typically due to their possession of the previously mentioned combination of characteristics required for success in such endeavors.

In the twentieth century, the cavalry charge was rarely employed, but it was occasionally successful.

On March 29, 1916, elements of the United States' 7th Cavalry Regiment engaged Villista forces during the Battle of Guerrero. The Americans won the combat, which took place in arid terrain near the Mexican city of Vicente Guerrero, Chihuahua.

Several charges were tried during World War II.

Poland's cavalry, Despite being primarily trained to act as quick infantry and more equipped than regular Polish infantry (more anti-tank weaponry and armored vehicles per capita), German cavalry executed up to 15 charges during the invasion of Poland.

The majority of charges were effective, and none were intended to target armored vehicles.

Some battles featured mutual charges by the Polish and German cavalry such as the Battle of Krasnobród (1939).

German cavalry scouts from the 4th Light Division rushed Polish infantry from the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade and were met by Polish tankettes moving from camouflaged positions at Zakliczyn.

In 17 November, 1941, during the Moscow Battle, Near Musino, the Soviet 44th Cavalry Division charged German positions, west of the city center.

German gunfire destroyed the Soviet mounted forces, then by automatic weapons.

The attack failed, The Germans claimed they killed 2,000 cavalrymen without suffering any losses.)

After World War II, the cavalry charge became obsolete and was no longer used; this did not prevent modern troops from using horses for transportation, and in countries with mounted police, similar (albeit unarmed) techniques to the cavalry charge are sometimes used to repel rioters and large crowds.

At the beginning of the United States' war in Afghanistan, a troop of Green Berets led by Captain Mark Nutsch launched a cavalry charge; their use of horses in the charge was depicted in the film 12 Strong. On the opposite side of the site of the former World Trade Center (1973–2001) is a memorial honoring the horse troopers who participated in the brave cavalry attack.

In the age of weapons, the fundamental criteria are rate (or effectiveness) of firing versus rate of advance. If the attackers advance faster than the defenders can kill or disable them, the assailants will eventually reach the defenders (though not necessarily without being greatly weakened in numbers). This comparison is complicated by numerous factors, including time, covering fire, organization, formation, and geography. A failed strike may leave the attackers susceptible to a counterattack.

In the previous 700 years or so, the pace of fire of armies has increased steadily, but while massed charges have been broken, they have also been effective. Since the middle of the 19th century, straight charges have grown less effective, particularly with the advent of repeating rifles, machine guns, and breech-loading