What is the origination of the Forlorn Hope?
score:6
Amplifying Tom Au's answer:
With the military revolution in European warfare, two features entered military operations:
- professionalism
- intensive siege warfare
Prior to the military revolution (cf: Tercio), a subcaste of the nobility mastered warfare, and primarily gained benefits by in group status and rapine. However, the professionalisation of military life meant that in group status benefits were no longer suitable rewards. Instead, systems of advancement, ennoblement, and recognition amongst an open set of wealthy professionals came to replace in group status amongst a caste. For the most junior, and poorest officers of newly professional companies, such advancement was eagerly sought—sought well above the chances of survival.
Secondly, the advances in troop density, decisive infantry engagement, and siege weaponry led to significant changes in the structure of siege warfare. Star forts developed, and again this led to the development of professionalisation. As sieges became more a result of art and engineering than chaos and starvation, the "storming" phase of sieges became much more highly developed. In particular, bastions needed to be stormed by light infantry in skirmish to remove their capacity to defend other emplacements during sieges, and so advance the central purpose of the siege. Such attempts to take by storm had extremely high costs, and the coin paid for those paying the highest price was advancement or in the case of men wealth.
The reduction in smaller field warfare reduced the chance men had for rapine and thus abnormal pleasure, where the increase in troop densities caused systematic and planned pillage to replace amateur rapine. Ordinary men faced military careers devoid of the pleasures of flesh and sin, and so sought the opportunity for abnormal wealth in other phases.
The military necessity of storming heavily defended bastions caused by the military revolution; the change in status structures for those in command of battle caused by the professionalisation caused by the military revolution; and, the change in the opportunity for martial pleasure amongst serving men caused (yet again) by the military revolution in Europe all found their focus in the one event: the folorn hope. The first unit through the breach enjoyed peculiar benefits because of their peculiar and abnormal chance of death. But these benefits were so highly esteemed that the position of the folorn hope was eagerly volunteered for.
By the time of the "Sharpe" fiction series, these cultures had become institutionalised even though warfare had substantially moved back towards field manoeuvre (this change again caused by the continuing effects of the military revolution). While sieges were not central to warfare any more, the folorn hope still played a cultural role related to its military role.
(I say pity more the second unit through the breach: a similar volume of fire, but no advancement).
Upvote:2
A "forlorn hope" is a small breach, or at least a weakening of the walls or defense system of a besieged city or fortress. It is the place where the attacker will initially try to enter the defenses, which is why the defenders will typically do their utmost to contain it. As a result, most of the attackers, at least the early ones at the "forlorn hope," will get killed.
Often, this effort is NOT in vain, because while the defenders are trying to contain/repair the breach at the forlorn hope, their attention and manpower will be drawn away from other potential invasion sites. It's possible that the defenders will (initially) contain the breakthrough from the forlorn hope, and succumb to an attack from another direction.
More post
- 📝 Why did Operation Barbarossa fail?
- 📝 Did armored cavalry have an advantage over unarmored cavalry in 18th/19th century?
- 📝 Colonisation of India: Which regions of the United Kingdom did colonial personnel come from?
- 📝 Why was compulsory vaccination abandoned in the UK?
- 📝 Were there natives In Iceland prior to the Irish monk's landings?
- 📝 Who built this monument in Hatra?
- 📝 What route did the Hindenburg take when traveling from Germany to the U.S.?
- 📝 When and how was West/East-German citizenship determined in the early years of post-war Germany?
- 📝 How have changes in taxation affected philanthropy in the US?
- 📝 What was the typical range of travel of a Pennsylvanian resident for everyday life in the late 18th early 19th Century Pennsylvania?
- 📝 Were Alexander the Great and Hephaestion lovers?
- 📝 Who was Krusenstern's scandalous priest?
- 📝 Was Charles V of France opposed to commoners learning?
- 📝 Why was the Bay of Pigs invasion unsuccessful?
- 📝 Contracted Trade in the 18th century
- 📝 Why did the Germans not encircle and besiege Stalingrad?
- 📝 Please help find these paintings
- 📝 Where is the sword used to execute Queen Anne Boleyn?
- 📝 Did the Hungarian Army ever use crescent banners?
- 📝 Why was a gold standard not stipulated in the U.S. Constitution?
- 📝 Jurisdiction in German occupied territories after WW II
- 📝 Vikings: The sagas of Ragnar Lothbrock and his sons
- 📝 Did the Romans pour wine down wells for health purposes?
- 📝 Why were the Mongolian armies able to to use greater percentages of archers than (Medieval) Europeans?
- 📝 Did indentured servants in British North America have job security?
- 📝 What was the consequence of Gestapo being declared a criminal organization in the Nuremberg trials in 1945?
- 📝 Why did the French nobility adopt Calvinism?
- 📝 Did 20th century militaries have their own fire-fighter units?
- 📝 Language used on a dagger hilt, supposedly of Persian provenance, ca. 1700-1750
- 📝 When did the "Great War" become "World War 1"?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the origination of the Forlorn Hope?
- 📝 What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?
- 📝 What is the source of this quote about hope and POWs?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What is the origin of 3 meals a day?
- 📝 What is the first recorded dog name?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 What damage did anti-tank rifles hope to inflict on tanks in WW2?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?
- 📝 What do the phone number suffixes J, M, R, W in 1940 New York phone book mean?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What did babies eat before the advent of modern blenders?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 What did the Emancipation Proclamation exactly do?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 What do the numbers on this 1960s anti-integration sign mean?
- 📝 What is the first horse name recorded in history?
- 📝 What is the pre-schism Christian church called today?
- 📝 What is the oldest building in the world still in use?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What were the acceptance criteria in universities of medieval Europe?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?