Wouldnt they be running like mad to get to the german trench? Can someone explain why they went at walking pace? When I watched Gallipoli and other WW1 movies all soldiers were running.
shareIt's got something to do with the way British soldiers were trained to be dignified.
It was the first war to be fought in this way and they were still using old methods.
Hope that gives you a bit of insight.
Thanks for the answer. Interesting they would risk their lives just to look dignified. The Germans must have laughed at having such easy targets. Seems crazy to me trying to override your primal survival instinct to run! So the British used these old methods, and the Aussies were smart enough to run to the trench. Amazing.
shareLooking dignified had nothing to do with how the infantry crossed no-man's-land. The plan, thought up by the general staff, assumed that there would be no opposition to the advancing troops, the week-long artillery bombardment would have destroyed the barbed wire, levelled the enemy trenches and knocked out the machine guns. In addition, the high-ups didn't think the British soldiers were well enough trained or experienced enough to be allowed out of the control of their officers and nco's. That's why the plan required the infantry to advance at a walking pace, in long lines with rifles at the high port.
If the artillery bombardment had done what it was supposed to do, the attack would have been a great success, the line would have been breached, the cavalry able to make the break through and roll up the German line. Tragically, this was not to be and the rest is history.
Thanks, I didnt think it really had to do with being dignified. But its strange how they didnt begin to run even when they saw their fellow countrymen being killed off next to them. I guess they were really disciplined and had to keep the steady walking pace.
shareProbably hard to run with the amount of kit they were carrying, too. Basic 60lbs plus anything else they were given, picks, shovels, extra ammunition, boxes of pigeons. Loads of stuff!
Of course, that's not to say some troops didn't run rather than walk. Probably the more experience soldiers would have. I can remember reading in Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme, that the 10th York and Lancasters did advance in rushes, but that was at Gommecourt which was just a diversion from the main attack. The 10th Y & L were an experience battalion, having been in the Battle of Loos the previous year so were probably not under any illusions about what it would be like and the need for speed.
So how were the Aussies able to run in Gallipoli? Did they have lighter loads then on them?
shareI have to say, I don't have a great deal of knowledge of the Gallipoli campaign (not that lack of knowledge ever stopped anyone from having an opinion on anything on here, lol). I have seen the film Gallipoli and the mini-series Anzacs, but that's about it for Gallipoli! From what I remember of the film, the attacks shown there were purely local attacks to take a particular position, so the infantry were very lightly loaded and hence able to run. I am, of course, prepared to be corrected in this.
It did strike me at the time of watching Gallipoli that the main purpose of the film was to perpetuate the Anzac myth, i.e. the fighting was done by the Australians whilst the British sat on the beach drinking tea. Not altogether correct, as the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers were awarded 6 VC's when landing on W Beach.
Well, some of that tea was scaldingly hot. A man deserves a medal for burning his upper lip, what?
shareWhile there were surely a lot of futile ill conceived infantry charges in WWI as leaders did the same thing over because they couldn't envision any other way, I felt like the final scene in this movie was stylized a bit. Surely once people start dropping around you it turns to chaos and soldiers start at least running, maybe trying to keep low. Also the landscape was so green and free of craters and barbed wire. It didn't look at all what an actual "no man's land" would look like. So it really felt to me like a stylized representation/commentary on the madness of what leaders would send soldiers to do.
share