Hullo,
I watched Kubrick's Barry Lyndon again, and in the SYW battle sequence where the English are advancing against the French, the rear ranks run up to fill in the gaps in the front rank. Was this how it was done, the emphasis being on keeping the frontage intact? At what point does this become difficult and the unit frontage starts to shrink?
Cheers,
Aksu
Howdy Aksu,
I have done some 18th century drill but sadly never in large enough numbers to work out the described situation.
Normally you would need at least two ranks to have an effective firing line and sufficient punch in a bayonet charge. I would therefore make an educated guess and say that the third rank would be used to fill in the gaps in the first and second ranks untill that third rank was exhausted. The line would then remain it's two ranks and deal with losses by shortening their frontage by dressing on the center (or left or right depending on it's place in the brigade). Depleting the second rank to keep the front rank at it's original frontage would be useless and was, as far as I know not done.
Mind you; one third of it's numbers would then already have been killed or wounded so it's unlikely the line would still advance or stand in face of an oncoming attack.
Cheers,
Rob
Finest movie ever!
Ace of Spade is substantially right but it would be 3 ranks minimum in the early part of the 18th century. Plus of course this is in theory, in the middle of a firefight anything could happen.