Army

B

3

France

Under Louis XIV, the French army organized a quartermaster department to perform supply functions, and training and inspection of the troops were standardized. By 1678 France’s standing forces numbered more than 200,000 soldiers. Marshal Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban designed a system for attacking fortified places, improved a system of defensive fortification, and created the first modern corps of engineers, specifically employed for military engineering.

B

4

Britain

Britain’s first regular army, established by Oliver Cromwell in 1645, consisted of 14,000 infantry and 7,600 mounted men and heavy artillery. The use of the bayonet (invented in France in about 1689), attached by tight-fitting rings to the muzzle of a flintlock musket, enabled John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, to dispense with pikemen and increase the number of musketeers. Infantrymen thus became self-sufficient.

B

5

Prussia

The techniques of modern warfare were greatly advanced in the 18th century by the theories and stratagems of the great military leader Frederick (II) the Great of Prussia. Under his guidance, the Prussian army was formed into one of the most efficient and mobile forces known up to that time. By striking suddenly, he attacked the enemy army before it could unite with others.

C

Napoleonic Army

The army of the French Revolution possessed a mobile, well-equipped artillery branch and an infantry with a high degree of morale. The military engineer Lazare Carnot in 1792 instituted a nationwide conscription of citizens into the first all-arms divisions (infantry, artillery, and cavalry) whose aim was the total destruction of the enemy.

In 1798, under Napoleon I, military conscription was made compulsory. Every male between 21 and 25 years of age was liable to four years of service. Napoleon’s initial contribution to the citizen army of France was in the area of artillery improvements. Subsequently, he established himself as perhaps the world’s foremost military strategist, able to muster an army of 200,000 to 500,000 men and to demonstrate that this massive force could move speedily, along separate roads, live off the land without fixed depots, and in concentrated units take an enemy by surprise. Napoleonic campaigns are classics of warfare that are still studied.

With the growth of armies, organization from a distance became essential. The Prussians moved armies across new railway networks, paving the way for long-range planning, and the Prussian General von Scharnhorst developed the modern general staff for directing military operations. During the 19th century there evolved the mass production of weapons and ammunition, with the subsequent development of the aeroplane, motorized vehicles, and communication by radio in the 20th century.

D

World War I

By 1914 the machine-gun had become the main battlefield weapon, making free movement impossible and forcing infantry to adopt trench warfare. Assault by shelling and bombing enemy lines and mass bayonet attacks failed to break through enemy lines. The first military tank eventually replaced cavalry troops but was developed too late in World War I to be decisive.