Through history, what are some of the worst examples of canon fodder troops? Like with a ridiculously high chance of being killed or wounded?
I'm thinking 16th-17th century pike formations must have been quite terrible. Never mind cavalry, when you have muskets and artillery shooting at you
Any others?
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16th-16th century armies didn't actually fight that much, though. Military doctrine was to avoid decisive battles unless the odds were overwhelmingly in your favor, if possible. You'd spent most of your time marching around, or looting. Cavalry were mostly armed with guns and didn't like to charge strong infantry formations.
You'd be much more likely to die of disease, which hits all types of troops equally.
The obvious answer, though, is infantry in something like the American Civil War or World War 1, where casualty rates were atrocious.
Fair point, and i might have worded it poorly, but what i meant was a type of troop that was not necessarily seen as expendable, but still had a high chance of getting killed
Now in the cases you mentioned, it's certainly a case of modern weapons and outdated tactics, but are there other examples of troops that might have had been used in a tactically sound manner, but still were expected to suffer heavy losses
I would argue that the ACW was not a case of outdated tactics at all. Grant knew he had more than twice as many men as his opponent, so he purposely launched bloody assaults, knowing that he'd eventually be the only one left standing with an army (which he was).
the paraguayan war
Bashi-bazouk, that is Ottoman irregulars. They were actually a way for the Ottomans to have their criminals and other pathological elements occupied. Therefore they were routinely sent into most dangerous situations with the hope that enemy fire will thin the herd.
Napoleonic French columns
Romanians and Hungarians on the Eastern front ww2
I heard that Marines from any country and any sort of naval infantry got a really shitty deal, especially when they got cut off.
>The obvious answer, though, is infantry in something like the American Civil War or World War 1, where casualty rates were atrocious.
exactly
Soviet soliders soliders 1941-1943. Two week life span on the front. That is reduced to just hours if they were on the offensive.
Soviet command ignored mine fields, rivers and everything else to sent troops forward
ww2 infantry divisions without anti tank weapons or heavy weaponry
you sit in your foxhole, have a rifle and a grenade, a few cannons in the back that will get overrun, a machine gun nest that gets zeroed in by mortars after 2 minutes of fighting
you are there and you have no means of retaliation apart from shooting a few bullets before you see the enemy column blasting all kinds of fire at you
The role of black people in ww2
Anything russians ever used
The first years of WW1, where the maxim gun was prevalent but not fully understood. Doctrine and weapons technology hadn't evolved to the point that troops were decently protected from them, so they'd often be mowed down by gunfire out in the open. Generals and theorists believed that in the next great European war, due to advances in technology and the ability of a division to lay down tremendous amounts of fire, the power of offense would be so strong that no defense could hold forever, leading to a sort of Napoleonic-minus-the-forts doctrine that was so focused on attacking it is now often called the "Cult of the Offensive". It was believed by the British that machine guns would be used like artillery to support offensives and fired in short bursts from cover, and infantry would advance in a line while utilizing nearby cover. Obviously, the war turned out to be the opposite, basically a giant multi-year siege where machine guns were instead fired continuously from fixed positions, and defense was the power that couldn't be overwhelmed. Doctrine adapted; but not before many unprotected men in brightly colored uniforms were lined up and raked with fire by machine guns concealed in an enemy defensive position.
The one and only answer is anyone assigned to the Forlorn Hope, survival was not expected
Cooking and logistics is that dangerous? Well I guess there was that time when the shells being loaded onto the ship blew up
Came here to say this. I can't imagine why any sane person with a will to live would willingly join a Forlorn Hope but apparently some people did it. I suppose if you were some bottom-rung officer and you survived you'd be guaranteed a promotion but surely the odds would rarely be worth it.
t. Jacob Goebbels
It depends who the courier goes with. The assault on nelson is alot easier since you can pick the legion off crom the mountain and the AI support can mow them down. Forlorn hope is had because theres alot of Rangers there.
I understood that reference
Pretty much any state militia that was called up for emergencies
U-boat crews in late WW2.
They were not supposed to be expendable, but they kept going to see despite suffering done of the worst attrition rates of any branch of German forces (75%). Their codes were broken, B-24s roamed the Atlantic with radar searching for them, UK & USA had poured vast resources into countering the U-boats, and ASW had been honed to an art.
>Turkish başıbozuk, literally "damaged head"
>They were armed and maintained by the government, but did not receive pay and did not wear uniforms or distinctive badges. They were motivated to fight mostly by expectations of plunder
That feel when you will never plunder your way across the Carpathian mountains with your band of başıbozuk brothers, a motley but lovable gang of weirdos, and come home to your Albanian village and your 6/10 wife until next spring's raiding season...
>columns
didn't exist
Literally all infantry
Helots.
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Anyone put into a ball turret wasn't going to make it back. If that isnt expendable I dont know what the fuck is.
>not wanting to be an akinci who raids over the carpathian mountains during wartime with his fellow horsemen buddies while at the end going back to your 7/10 greek wife
>Tercios
>Cannon fodder