Combat characteristics of heavy infantry

The hoplite warfare method of ancient Greece was a technological leap in the history of warfare and a tactical turning point in the 7th century BC. So, let’s take a systematic look at several characteristics of ancient Greek hoplite tactics. As far as individual soldiers are concerned, the combat effectiveness of hoplites has been greatly reduced due to their high requirements for defense and collective combat effectiveness.

As shown in the picture (of course this picture is quite non-standard), the individual defense system of the hoplite generally consists of a helmet, a breastplate and a shield. The function of the helmet is actually a decoration in a larger sense, and its defensive function is almost ineffective. Having effective defense will reduce a soldier's vision and hearing to a terrifying level, so it is not commonly used. The role of the breastplate is to protect the soldier's head and chest (obviously). Most of the breastplates in ancient Greece were made of bronze. Of course, even if skilled craftsmen made the breastplate as comfortable as possible, soldiers usually still wore an additional underwear. The most important thing in the defense system is the huge shield in the hands of the soldiers. Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" describes the shield-making process in detail and accurately, and historians also obtained such a shield, which was mainly composed of multiple layers of cowhide and bronze. The considerable weight of the shield is the main reason why their soldiers are called "hoplites". This kind of shield usually has two handles, which are convenient for soldiers to hold in front and side. Sometimes, in order to ensure the vision of the shield holder, a large piece of the top of the shield is sometimes cut off. Such a thick shield can play a certain defensive role against spears, flying arrows and some short weapons. This defense system has been prominently reflected in phalanx combat, but its impact on the mobility of soldiers is very huge. In other words, a single heavy infantry theoretically has no effect. To put it bluntly, this Maybe this is a small reason why David defeated Goliath.

There are two main means of attack for hoplites, one is the spear in their hand. During Alexander's time, the Macedonian heavy infantry phalanx used "Sarisha" spears, which were more than 5 meters long, and there were even spears over 8 meters long. This kind of spear not only has a tip, but also a sharp butt, like a spindle with two pointed ends. When the phalanx attacks the enemy, the important task of the soldiers in the rear (from row 5 onwards) is to use their rifle butts to assassinate the enemies who have fallen to the ground but are not yet dead. The other is a short sword at the waist, usually made of bronze or wrought iron. This weapon is usually used in the melee after the phalanx breaks up.

In general, heavy infantry has the characteristics of poor mobility, high team requirements, and low individual combat capabilities. In addition, its defense system makes its weak points prominent in the neck and abdomen. Coupled with the large shield that is inevitable in skirmishes, its so-called high defense power can only be based on square formation operations. Theoretically, hoplites have the only effective way of combat - phalanx combat.

When fighting, soldiers usually line up in a rectangular formation, with at least ten rows and more columns. During the battle, the soldiers in the first five rows held their spears flat and stretched forward to form five rows of spears. The soldiers in the back row raised their spears and were always ready to use the butts (above) and to replace the soldiers in the first row who died in battle. At the same time, the infantrymen uniformly raised their shields to the front and leaned closely against each other, even the soldiers in the back row, instead of raising the large shields above their heads as described in the film and television works, which would not have much effect. , and it will also waste a lot of energy.

The key to the application of phalanx tactics lies in the coordination and unity of the entire phalanx. A phalanx is a close-knit fighting group, and the actions of everyone in it must be coordinated, otherwise the phalanx will be like a piece of loose sand and have no fighting power. On the contrary, a phalanx full of courage, unity and coordination played a huge role on the ancient Greek battlefield. Therefore, the phalanx soldiers are all outstanding ones who need to undergo strict training and layers of screening.

In addition, the core force in the phalanx operations are the veterans distributed inside the phalanx. They can not only play a powerful role in boosting morale, but more importantly, they are the driving force behind the phalanx's advancement. When the new recruits are timid, the veterans will use their shoulders to push the entire phalanx forward. Therefore, when Alexander issued an order to continue in the Punjab, which was opposed by his Macedonian phalanx veterans, he had no choice but to return home. Hoplites appeared in ancient Greece and became the main fighting force at that time, which was an inevitable choice of history.

In ancient Greece, knights were the same high-level arms that only nobles could afford to support in medieval Western Europe. However, due to the broken and undulating hilly terrain of the Greek region, the advantages of cavalry could not be demonstrated. Therefore, cavalry was used in It was relatively rare in ancient Greek wars.

However, in the Greco-Persian War, the Persian cavalry on land still played a certain impact.

In contrast, heavy infantry organizations in ancient Greece were mostly borne by wealthy farmers. Farmers could accept these less expensive equipment, so a large number of heavy infantry with a certain status were produced. More wealthy peasants preferred hoplites to the despised "naval rabble" and timid archers ("The Iliad"). Of course, a few people with insufficient financial resources will also serve as archers, light infantry and even stone throwers.

The heavy infantry reform that appeared in the 7th century BC swept the Greek world for a while, and it played a great contribution in the Peloponnesian War, the Greco-Persian War, and the subsequent establishment of Alexander's Empire. There were so many shortcomings in the hoplite and phalanx tactics that people quickly found the key to cracking the hoplite tactics. The sign of the decline of the heavy infantry can be said to be that after the 300 Spartan heavy infantry were defeated by the Thracians, the 600 elite troops sent to support were beaten to pieces by the Thracian light shields, and more than half of them surrendered to the enemy. Army (around the 5th century BC). From then on, there was a situation where phalanx infantry and lightly armored shield troops coexisted in the Greek world.

Afterwards, due to the improvement of iron smelting technology and the emergence of quenching technology, the defensive power of heavy infantry continued to decline. In addition, the world after leaving Greece has more plains, mountains and other battlefields that are not conducive to heavy infantry. The heavy infantry gradually faded out of people's sight and stepped off the world's military stage.

Most of the historical materials in this article are quoted from the book "Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece", so I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editor and translator of this book. In addition, this article was written by the author from memory. If there are any historical errors, I hope you will correct me. I would be very grateful.