[csmkersh]

Always remember that today, St. Crispin's Day, in 1415, the Battle of Agincourt was won.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

 

[stand watie]

sgmkersh,

Fwiw, when I was in HS >50 years ago, we had to memorize that speech from Henry V.

IF my research is correct, a member of our family was AT the Battle of Agincourt as an English longbowman.

yours, sw

 

[SpecialEd]

Shakespeare aside, a very interesting and important battle to study.

 

[stand watie]

SpecialEd,

YEP.

yours, sw

 

[William R. Moore]

There was a program on the History channel some time back on the battle. They had experts and were on the actual battle site. Seems King Henry was bright enough to take a stand on a hill and the French had to advance through a near bog, caused by heavy rains. The mounted knights couldn't come up with any speed (had a hard time moving at all). I've read elsewhere that various and sundry French lords wanted to show off for the King and instead of a massed charge, said lords charged individually with their retainers, with no co-ordination. Add in that, allegedly, the French charge was a horse race instead of a boot to boot wall, and you had a frog shoot for the archers.

If I've got my dates straight, the French didn't learn and someone else repeated the lesson later at a place called Crecy. Or maybe, Henry cribbed off whoever fought Crecy.

 

[Tim Burke]

Victor Davis Hanson has a book called Culture and Carnage. One of the key points of the book is that there is a western way of war, in which the fighting is done by coordinated groups and not individuals. Another one of the key points is that the western way of war is more effective than what preceded it.
According to the above, the French were not fighting in the western way.

 

[WaltGraham]

“I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.”

 

[William R. Moore]

Walt, who's the quote from? Patton?

BTW, I checked, Crecy was many years before Agincourt. Kinda makes me recall US Grant's comment about why he passed over an officer for a command. The officer had X number of campaigns. Grant's reply: "That mule over yonder has as many campaigns, he's still an ass."

 

[WaltGraham]

Walt, who's the quote from? Patton?

Yep.