I love it when scholars talk about the kinesiology and biomechanics of fighting like you did at the end. All those details of leverage and hand placement leading to strong and weak that just *doesn't occur* to me normally but is blazingly obvious when demonstrated. It's the internalization and subconscious action upon stuff like that which makes for good fighters.
Hougomont was a combined chateau and walled farm the two divided by a central wall and the wall of the chateau. Outside to the east were a walled ornamental garden and an orchard. The orchard bounded by a high hedge and a deep ditch on the outside. In the tall garden wall were vertical slots intended as viewing windows for those taking excercise in the garden and ideal for the defenders. Other narrow slots in the exterior was were typical ventilation points for barns and animal enclosures.. The woods to the south obscured the extent of the 'farm' from the French till they were upon it. The woods were subjected to decending fire from Bulls troop of English howitzers sited on the ridge. The chateau and farm had been fortified during the night and morning by English engineers and was manned by both the Guards and a large number of elite allied troops, the latter too frequently ignored by British histories.
It's amazing and awe-inspiring to think that where he is exactly standing, explaining to us the battle situation at the gates, on those exact points of reference 200 years ago absolute chaos, death and misery was being dealt out in huge servings.
I would have liked to see more of that bayonet instruction at the end. The examples of bayonets being used by British soldiers in Afghanistan is also very interesting.
Would have liked much more of that. Matt please do a series on Waterloo/the Napoleonic Wars and its weapons and tactics. Bayonet and sword fighting in war, etc. Maybe in cooperation with British Muzzle Loaders channel?
The Napoleonic wars are most certainly my favorite period in history to study, this was an excellent video Matt. I'd actually very much like to see the whole thing, it seems like you cut a good bit out and I'd absolutely love to see all of this. Particularly the Bayonet fighting portion. But as always Matt your videos are fun and informative, I can imagine actually getting to walk around Hougoumont must have been a very exciting experience and to stand where so many men fell. Also, as someone who has played Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars religiously, I agree with your assessment of the buildings being much larger, You should have played out your favorite Fight with your sparing partner there! I know I would have! Or just go stand in the Main gate and yell "HOORAY FOR OLD NOSY!"
My Great Grandfather crossed the Nahr al-Auja with the 5th Argylls at the Battle of Jaffa in 1917. That must have been one of the last proper mass bayonet attacks (Where gunfire was forbidden), only a little over a century after Waterloo? Interesting video 👍
7 ปีที่แล้ว +3
About the "firing slots" that you can't see here (around 6:20) : You may see the black metal wall holders that are fixed in the wall. They are used to maintain the wall in shape since a long time here in Belgium (and in other parts of the world too). In WW1, German soldier massacred a lot of civilian taking those black things for firing slots and considering that civilians must have organized a civilian resistance to german military advance. It was an error of course, but I ask myself if it is not an error made by other people to. It could be that error that was made by those drawing the farm back then and bringing it back to England.
After this video I've got the sudden but strong urge to waste all of our building points on cramming as many explosives as possible into one room and fuck everybody's frame rate up big time.
One of Napolean's Generals that was exiled from France ended up in Fredericksburg, America. He lived there, married, & is buried there. I took a pic of his tombstone & posted on Find A Grave so his family can see it. Interesting.
great vid, Matt. Love this stuff. A small point about Americans not liking the bayonet in the colonial days--much of the reason for that was because the troops were often armed with civilian muskets/rifles that had no provision for fixing a bayonet. Plus very limited training in fighting together close quarters (like keeping ranks together and the like). It wasn't until fairly late in that period that we got the hang of that sort of stuff. Even up into the civil war (1862+), the regular army was fairly small, and a huge reliance was put on local militias and quickly-raised state troops. It took a little while for the troops to get regulation/issued weapons beyond what they could buy or bring for themselves.
It's even more fantastic (if you are interested in it) to fight in, during one of the anniversary battles. In 2011, my colleagues and I, wearing replica period Coldstream Guard uniforms and carrying "Brown Bess" muskets, stood in the North Gate at Hougoumont and defended it against several French attacks (before the gate was restored, that is).
The story goes, that half a century later an elderly lady called Miss Wyndham was discovered sitting in a draught. When asked why, she replied that no Wyndham had ever closed a door since Hougoumont.
Prarp Vadanathorn no the french themselves say it was the middle guard. Thats how we know that the grenadiers didnt face the grenadiers of the guard but matilands battalions did.
In this video you mentioned that the Americans did not like using the bayonet during the War of Independence. Was that not due to the fact that the vast majority of American soldiers were drawn from the militia units? With the the exception of the Continental Army and Marines most of these militiamen and minutemen would have brought their own personal arms to the battlefield. Most civilians wouldn't have felt the need for a bayonet attachment for their hunting rifles/muskets and would have used a knife or tomahawk for CQB. It was predominantly the Continental soldiers that would have have been issued rifles/muskets with bayonets and maybe been given some form of rudimentary training.
Interesting - I've never heard of this before. As a swedish person, I know the swedish Carolean army did exactly the opposite - charge "until you see the white in their eyes" (15-20 ish metres tops), stop, present, fire, and charge. But they were mostly a professional army, and a very tightly drilled one at that.
@@martinborgen no, revolutionary troops won largely because they used guerilla tactics they learned by fighting with/against Native Americans. Because they were largely unsupplied and undrilled, they took advantage of whatever tactics they had. They excelled at woods fighting, both due to the natural cover (into which they blended in their brown dyed clothes, as opposed to the British who were very visible in bright red) and because the British were accustomed to formation fighting, so woods fighting was their weakness.
I am afraid that you are mistaken. The British army mostly fought in open order, advancing rapidly and firing into the whites of the rebels eyes before charging home with the bayonet. It was the American army that strove to fight in the European fashion.
Yeah, NietzscheanMan. It was those dang refugees (brought here by the darn lefties trying to culturally enrich us) that placed graffiti in the Belgian countryside, and certainly not local rebellious teenagers partaking in the tradition of tagging every single surface they see, which has been supremely popular since the 1980s. Take it easy with the memes and try going outside for once.
NietzscheanMan There's a monument near where I used to live that's covered in Victorian graffiti & some cliffs with Roman graffiti. Graffiti has existed for as long as people could write...
how would the bayonet charge have changed due to the press of soldiers from side and behind - i would guess they would panic/spread out to give themselves room - so the fighters would not neccessarily get a full arc area to fight in immediately.
You're really getting into some Theseus' ship territory here, only more so: if the ship has been broken down, then rebuilt, but with the old wood in different places or configurations, is it the original ship?
The TH-cam AI has the dirty mind of a schoolboy, I switched on auto-generated captions to counter the wind noise, and what it hears when Matt says bayonet fighting is worth a chuckle.
Is there a reason why the French tried to capture the farmhouse rather than just bombard it with artillery? It seems it would have more value to the allied forces to break up a French attack then the French who were going passed it to attack the allied lines so tacking it out the picture would have been almost as good as capturing it.
Ohhh, interesting. When you're longswording agaist someone with a different dominant hand you can still "mirror" them, even if you have to deal with the usually less comfortable grip positions and some changes of leverage. But trying to mirror with long weapons that are held at a wider span like rifles and spears would be really awkward :)
Unfortunately the wind made most of the presentation un-presentable on video. The three main aspects are 1) holding the musket at the butt and on the left side instead of the right, 2) bending the knees in a more fencing-like stance, 3) standing in closer order, so that the second rank can double-up the numbers in the front rank.
Rifle units like the 95th of Sharpe fame also had a sword bayonet that was longer than a regular bayonet and had a proper handle so it could be held and used like a short sword.
Yeah, I knew about the sword bayonet for the Baker rifle, but that has a fairly small hilt and fairly short blade, like a straight briquet sabre. The cutlass bayonet, judging by pictures, with its bulging bowl hilt and heavy meaty blade just looks beautifully silly on top of a rifle.
I would be very interested in a serious about Napoleonic bayonet fighting, I actually work as a military interpreter portraying a British soldier from 1812 and my workmates and I were talking today that we should try figure out how to fight with our brown bess'
Wait, you're saying that theres a farm somewhere in France with Napoleonic War artifacts and in order to work on the archaeological site you need to be sworn into a French regiment that has been protecting the site for over a hundred years? That's some Davinci Code shit there Matt! Also holy crap imagine how traumatizing it would be as a soldier on the wall ordered to "be active with their bayonets". I bet they didn't go home with their minds intact.
Even if the perimeter wall has been reconstructed, many of the bricks used would have been from the original, recycled when possible instead of using new expensive material. The height of the original wall may well be estimated if the bonding to the main building is still evident. Looking at the end of the wall nearest to the farmhouse, a part covering about 10 feet is much higher than the rest and could well represent the original height of the compound wall. 😜
i did a barn conversion on the once estate of Frederick Lewis Maitland who took Napoleons surrender and they throw a party there to mark the day... not often that is a relevant fact so ill take it!
Ullanor Von Krieger hi i am Belgian and am fluent in both French and Flemish and i believe Hougoumont is a bastardized form of the flemish words "hoogemont" wich means high mount!
Well then ... almost correct it is "Hoogeberg" and it is not really a mount(ain), it does not have to be an elevated spot or a hill: "berg" also means "storing place" a save place.. as in Kortenberg, Huldenberg ... aaaaand it is actually not in Waterloo but in Eigenbrakel or Braine-l'Alleud
please rip apart the Arya/Brienne fight I have no problem with the 100% lack of realism if it's a good character moment but there's no reason Arya should even be that skilled, she never got enough training
Have to take issue with your comment about the troops at Culloden lacking in bayonet training. According to Trevor Royle ("Culloden: Scotland's Last Battle"; Little, Brown, 2016, page 72) " a new bayonet drill was perfected in an attempt to protect the government soldiers from the effects of the much-feared Highland charge....The tactics required trust, synchronisation and above all strict training."
That IS TRUE - the red coated Government troops at Culloden DID receive some drill in bayonet fighting to counter the much feared Highlanders charge... each man was supposed to stand in line and face to his right at an angle in order to 'stick'' the Highlander under the arm... as the theory was that the charging Scotsmen's torso would be totally exposed due to his arm being raised as his claymore was above him ready to strike down at his random red coat opponent as the attack closed ... his shield being in his left hand ( assuming most Highlanders of the time were right handed of course !!! ) as the charging Jacobite attacked the soldiers recoated infantry colleague to his immediate right.... he was taught to NOT face directly at or defend himself by bayonet against the Highlander attacking immediately in front of him.. that would be covered by the next soldier in line and on his left ( this would need complete and utter trust in both guys either side of you to follow the same tactic of course )..... this obviously worked as the Government troops won the day ... but pity the poor soldier at the extreme left of the line of the regiment being attacked.. I think a trusted sergeant with a hulbard / pike was posted there to cover the last red coat who was busy protecting the second to last soldier to his right.... hope this makes sense ??? I read about this years and years ago......
No cannons, but he did use howitzers to good effect by setting the farm on fire. Most of the farmyard was destroyed by fire, killing many injured troops inside.
No mention that loading a muzzle loader with a bayonet attached may prove painful. Presumably you would have to only attach the bayonet when you had to use it....
Not at all - bayonets in this era are curved away from the line of the muzzle, for precisely that reason. When breech-loaders become common, the bayonets became straight.
Gareth Barry I would think that the barrel would become loose at the attachment points of the stock before the barrel itself would start to deform - which would also have a negative impact on accuracy. Just a theory based on engineering principles, but maybe someone else can shed some historical light on the subject. Great question, though.
The stock and barrel of a musket are fairly tightly fixed. In the Napoleonic period Brit "Brown Bess" muskets used a set of sunk pins in the forestock that fitted through loops on the bottom of the barrel, and in the case of French "Charlevilles" they used a set of three barrel bands held by springs. Both make for tight fits, so the barrel and forestock act to strengthen each other. To bend the barrel would snap the forestock. As Mat and the archeologist explain what usually happened was the stock would break at its weakest point - the neck of the stock where the buttstock joins the lock and trigger mechanism. So yes, there was a risk of breaking your musket, but armies travelled with men trained to carry out running repairs on guns and where necessary replace parts, including stocks. However, in reality there were plenty of spare muskets after battles due to casualties. And the other option, getting stabbed or shot in close quarter combat, was less preferable than the risk of breaking your gun. Better to walk away and have to find a new gun than to not use it to every potential and get killed or wounded.
sandmanhh67 Agreed, same goes for 20th century military rifles with wood stocks regarding the most common breaking points. Bands, springs, and screws are what hold the barrels and receivers to the stocks and handguards on my Mosin Nagant rifles. One of them did arrive to me with a longitudinal crack in the lower 1/3rd of the buttstock, and showed arsenal marks as this receiver was the third to have been mounted to it. The stock must have been through some serious $#!+ to have been rearsenaled twice by two different countries than the original manufacturer.
Interesting mate. Maybe the first stock was just sub par, and the second a "battle" break due to dropping or something.....Mosins have a good rep for keeping going when other rifles of the same era packed in. If its a WW2 era gun its worth bearing in mind old Ivan was chucking them out as fast as possible, so maybe it was one with a bad stock originally - not treated for weather properly etc and that caused the first fail. Dunno mate....well after the interest period Im into (Napoleonic & early to mid Victorian). I see a lot of long guns in auction that have damage and cracking to the neck, and some pretty nifty period repairs as well. I have an East India Company period Pattern F musket with a lovely wound wire and brass brace plate repair to what must be a split in the neck underneath the repairs. It must have been owned by an Indian trooper or ex-trooper as the repairs are definitely too bohemian/decorative and fancy for a Brit to have bothered with. Some of my Napoleonic 1796 British cavalry pistols have damage to the butt suggesting they were used to maybe clonk Froggy heads at some point. Have to say tho....those sparring "muskets" Mat uses look a little short to me. Im well over six feet, and my Short Land Pattern Brown Bess with a regulation bayonet fitted comes up to my ear near enough. Those sparring guns Mat is using look about a foot to a foot and a half short, and way too light and nimble.
Gotta love Soviet film making and cinematography... From Wiki: "Columbia Pictures published a 28-page, full-colour pictorial guide when it released Waterloo in 1970. According to the guidebook, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis had difficulty finding financial backers for the massive undertaking until he finally began talks with the Soviets in the late 1960s and reached agreement with the Mosfilm organization. Final costs were over £12 million (UK) (equivalent to about US $38.3 million in 1970), making Waterloo, for its time, one of the most expensive movies ever made. Had the movie been filmed in the West, costs might have been as much as three times this. Mosfilm contributed more than £4 million of the costs, nearly 16,000 soldiers of the Soviet Army, a full brigade of Soviet cavalry, and a host of engineers and labourers to prepare the battlefield in the rolling farmland outside Uzhhorod, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). To recreate the battlefield authentically, the Soviets bulldozed away two hills, laid five miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed fields of rye, barley and wildflowers and reconstructed four historic buildings. To create the mud, more than six miles of underground irrigation piping was specially laid. Most of the battle scenes were filmed using five Panavision cameras simultaneously-from ground level, from 100 foot towers, from a helicopter, and from an overhead railway built right across the location. Actual filming was accomplished over 28 weeks, which included 16 days of delay (principally due to bad weather). Many of the battle scenes were filmed in the summer of 1969 in often sweltering heat. In addition to the battlefield in Ukraine, filming also took place on location in Caserta, Italy, while interior scenes were filmed on the large De Laurentiis Studios lot in Rome. A massive quantity of period props were built by E. Rancati and hundreds of pairs of footwear were supplied by Pompei. The film includes about 15,000 Soviet foot soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen as extras and 50 circus stunt riders were used to perform the dangerous horse falls. Sergei Bondarchuk was in command of the seventh-largest army in the world.[1] Months before the cameras started filming, the 15,000 soldiers began training to learn 1815 drill and battle formations, as well as the use of sabres, bayonets and handling cannon. A selected 2,000 additional men were also taught to load and fire muskets. This army lived in a large encampment next to the battlefield. Each day after breakfast, they marched to a large wardrobe building, donned their French, British or Prussian uniforms and fifteen minutes later were in position. The soldiers were commanded by officers who took orders from director Sergei Bondarchuk by walkie-talkie. To assist in the direction of this huge, multi-national undertaking, the Soviet-Ukrainian director had four interpreters permanently at his side: one each for English, Italian, French and Serbo-Croatian."
scholagladiatoria I especially like it because it's one of the few films where you really see what a battle involving tens of thousands of men might have looked like. No CG, just a host of extras drafted from the Soviet armed forces. They say that during filming, director Sergei Bondarchuk commanded the seventh largest army in the world. With modern computer technology, we are unlikely to see something equivalent again.
scholagladiatoria After this video I've got the sudden but strong urge to waste all of our building points on cramming as many explosives as possible into one room and fuck everybody's frame rate up big time.
A few hundred thousand bricks in the original wall. Very unlikely that tourists could have loosened and then half-inched that many heavy bricks, even over 200 years!
The usage of white bricks as lines around the red bricks is a building style of the general time period of this building. You'll find this way of building allot. Don't think we can assume that it's the case that all the red brick is new and all the white old.
In some parts there seems to be intentional filling with brick of different colour, sometimes it is a way architect-archeologists mark reconstructed parts. The stone bottom and brick top is typical for foundation walls, in general (historical) bricks do badly in non-drained soil, Also, In XIX century, up to WW2 really completely rebuilding historic landmarks according to "idea of how it should look like" was something acceptable (see Marienburg, Carcassone and Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg as prime examples). You really need to study if the brick size and laying technique, and mortar composition, conform to what is known to be typical for region and period. Way I see it all of that walls we see up close are either cleaned or reconstructed, mortar's bit to bright. The wall in the background of bayonet presentation looks more legit.
yes..........and I have one of the red bricks proudly sat on my bar in Sussex...... that I ''relived'' from the crumbling at the time south wall of the farm house kitchen garden wall..... yes I know it was wrong but I simply couldn't help myself.
I love it when scholars talk about the kinesiology and biomechanics of fighting like you did at the end. All those details of leverage and hand placement leading to strong and weak that just *doesn't occur* to me normally but is blazingly obvious when demonstrated. It's the internalization and subconscious action upon stuff like that which makes for good fighters.
This was some of the best example of bayonet drill I've witnessed. Thrilling stuff!
Fantastic demonstration of the science of bayonet use. It not just 'in, twist, out'. Fascinating stuff.
I did the full tour of Waterloo a couple weeks ago. Incredible
Hougomont was a combined chateau and walled farm the two divided by a central wall and the wall of the chateau. Outside to the east were a walled ornamental garden and an orchard. The orchard bounded by a high hedge and a deep ditch on the outside. In the tall garden wall were vertical slots intended as viewing windows for those taking excercise in the garden and ideal for the defenders. Other narrow slots in the exterior was were typical ventilation points for barns and animal enclosures.. The woods to the south obscured the extent of the 'farm' from the French till they were upon it. The woods were subjected to decending fire from Bulls troop of English howitzers sited on the ridge. The chateau and farm had been fortified during the night and morning by English engineers and was manned by both the Guards and a large number of elite allied troops, the latter too frequently ignored by British histories.
Incidentally, I have more footage from Hougoumont and that will come in due course.
Matt I can't wait, this was fascinating.
I sincerely hope so - the actual "tour" of Hougemont was quite perfunctory. 😥
That talk was great despite the odd angle. I find the nitty griity of historical technique very interesting.
It was really interesting seeing how the concept of strong vs. weak is even present in bayonet fighting.
I understand. I was just inferring how similar the concepts of rapier fighting (the system I practice) are with bayonet.
It's amazing and awe-inspiring to think that where he is exactly standing, explaining to us the battle situation at the gates, on those exact points of reference 200 years ago absolute chaos, death and misery was being dealt out in huge servings.
I would have liked to see more of that bayonet instruction at the end. The examples of bayonets being used by British soldiers in Afghanistan is also very interesting.
Awesome video, thanks for showing us around the farm with bonus bayonets
Thank you very much for your work! Really well spoken and very interesting. Would love to see more of the Waterloo if possible!
Would have liked much more of that. Matt please do a series on Waterloo/the Napoleonic Wars and its weapons and tactics. Bayonet and sword fighting in war, etc. Maybe in cooperation with British Muzzle Loaders channel?
Here Here.
The Napoleonic wars are most certainly my favorite period in history to study, this was an excellent video Matt. I'd actually very much like to see the whole thing, it seems like you cut a good bit out and I'd absolutely love to see all of this. Particularly the Bayonet fighting portion. But as always Matt your videos are fun and informative, I can imagine actually getting to walk around Hougoumont must have been a very exciting experience and to stand where so many men fell.
Also, as someone who has played Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars religiously, I agree with your assessment of the buildings being much larger, You should have played out your favorite Fight with your sparing partner there! I know I would have! Or just go stand in the Main gate and yell "HOORAY FOR OLD NOSY!"
My Great Grandfather crossed the Nahr al-Auja with the 5th Argylls at the Battle of Jaffa in 1917. That must have been one of the last proper mass bayonet attacks (Where gunfire was forbidden), only a little over a century after Waterloo? Interesting video 👍
About the "firing slots" that you can't see here (around 6:20) :
You may see the black metal wall holders that are fixed in the wall. They are used to maintain the wall in shape since a long time here in Belgium (and in other parts of the world too). In WW1, German soldier massacred a lot of civilian taking those black things for firing slots and considering that civilians must have organized a civilian resistance to german military advance. It was an error of course, but I ask myself if it is not an error made by other people to.
It could be that error that was made by those drawing the farm back then and bringing it back to England.
Thanks for a great video. The farm house is much bigger than i thought. I loved the bayonet demonstration.
If I had known about you giving bayonet lessons in my home country, I would have invited you to our local HEMA club for a session...
The NW references make me so happy much love bro
After this video I've got the sudden but strong urge to waste all of our
building points on cramming as many explosives as possible into one
room and fuck everybody's frame rate up big time.
Augschburgball lol I want to make a cinematic reenactment of the defense with 200 people and post it that'd be sweet
Fantastic presentation! Very informative!
it´s fun to look at this as I am reading a book about the waterloo campange.
One of Napolean's Generals that was exiled from France ended up in Fredericksburg, America. He lived there, married, & is buried there. I took a pic of his tombstone & posted on Find A Grave so his family can see it. Interesting.
great vid, Matt. Love this stuff. A small point about Americans not liking the bayonet in the colonial days--much of the reason for that was because the troops were often armed with civilian muskets/rifles that had no provision for fixing a bayonet. Plus very limited training in fighting together close quarters (like keeping ranks together and the like). It wasn't until fairly late in that period that we got the hang of that sort of stuff. Even up into the civil war (1862+), the regular army was fairly small, and a huge reliance was put on local militias and quickly-raised state troops. It took a little while for the troops to get regulation/issued weapons beyond what they could buy or bring for themselves.
My GGG uncle was in the cavalry applying cold steel at the Battle of Tel Al Kabir. Got the Khedive Star. Fascinating.
That was, even with the wind, fantastic! I hate that you faded out. I'd be completely sucked into what was being said and then....
Welcome to Belgium! Hope you enjoy your stay! :)
enjoyed this very much,especially the bayonet.i fight with spear in the sca ,so enjoyed watching you get your point across.
Fantastic video Matt, very informative. (I play Mount Blade: NW, have done for years) And it is interesting to see the comparisons.
I was there a few months ago renting out the farm house, it was fantastic to actually stay in the farm
It's even more fantastic (if you are interested in it) to fight in, during one of the anniversary battles. In 2011, my colleagues and I, wearing replica period Coldstream Guard uniforms and carrying "Brown Bess" muskets, stood in the North Gate at Hougoumont and defended it against several French attacks (before the gate was restored, that is).
I like that bit about there being more preparation for war during times of peace. Sad but true.
I hope there is a documentary filmed of this project
The video just started, and I thought you were spinning in circles insanely fast for a second.
Glad you had opportunity to do this. Ran twice to be sure of not missing.
The story goes, that half a century later an elderly lady called Miss Wyndham was discovered sitting in a draught. When asked why, she replied that no Wyndham had ever closed a door since Hougoumont.
Excellent video. Thanks.
Well that was a lovely surprise to wake up to. Thanks as always for the fascinating content!
THE OLD GUARD HAS BROKEN
Dirty dan middle guard.
That was what the British thought they were.
Prarp Vadanathorn no the french themselves say it was the middle guard. Thats how we know that the grenadiers didnt face the grenadiers of the guard but matilands battalions did.
The505Guys aka Neys face.
If I made one mistake I should have burned Berlin!
18:12 He said it guys! - CONTEXT!!!
that cheeky look into the camera before he said it though
and "butt". But no "deep penetration".
I think you could get rid of some of the wind noise with EQ. Even a simple high pass filter would be better than nothing.
That would take editing. Matt doesnt do that.
Well done. Very interesting.
This was great Matt thanks for this. Who's the veteran teaching with you? Does he have a channel? I'd certainly like to hear more from him.
In this video you mentioned that the Americans did not like using the bayonet during the War of Independence. Was that not due to the fact that the vast majority of American soldiers were drawn from the militia units? With the the exception of the Continental Army and Marines most of these militiamen and minutemen would have brought their own personal arms to the battlefield. Most civilians wouldn't have felt the need for a bayonet attachment for their hunting rifles/muskets and would have used a knife or tomahawk for CQB. It was predominantly the Continental soldiers that would have have been issued rifles/muskets with bayonets and maybe been given some form of rudimentary training.
Squad23jta
I was under this impression as well.
Interesting - I've never heard of this before. As a swedish person, I know the swedish Carolean army did exactly the opposite - charge "until you see the white in their eyes" (15-20 ish metres tops), stop, present, fire, and charge. But they were mostly a professional army, and a very tightly drilled one at that.
@@martinborgen no, revolutionary troops won largely because they used guerilla tactics they learned by fighting with/against Native Americans. Because they were largely unsupplied and undrilled, they took advantage of whatever tactics they had. They excelled at woods fighting, both due to the natural cover (into which they blended in their brown dyed clothes, as opposed to the British who were very visible in bright red) and because the British were accustomed to formation fighting, so woods fighting was their weakness.
I am afraid that you are mistaken. The British army mostly fought in open order, advancing rapidly and firing into the whites of the rebels eyes before charging home with the bayonet. It was the American army that strove to fight in the European fashion.
17:20 Bastard!
I appreciate how being able to hate anything on demand is a good military skill.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching this. What is the game you play as I am trying to find what it might be?
The military guy projects his voice over the lawn mower, the wind, everything. I do the same thing military does raise your decibal slightly lol
"some nice countryside to look at"
Instantly rides past a container covered with graffiti.
Tyynymyy Belgium is being ruined by cultural enrichment.
Dude, it has been like that since I can remember. You could say that Graffiti is a part of Western culture.
Yeah, NietzscheanMan. It was those dang refugees (brought here by the darn lefties trying to culturally enrich us) that placed graffiti in the Belgian countryside, and certainly not local rebellious teenagers partaking in the tradition of tagging every single surface they see, which has been supremely popular since the 1980s.
Take it easy with the memes and try going outside for once.
+Kloick It would be lovely if that were true. You're talking utter crap though.
NietzscheanMan There's a monument near where I used to live that's covered in Victorian graffiti & some cliffs with Roman graffiti. Graffiti has existed for as long as people could write...
how would the bayonet charge have changed due to the press of soldiers from side and behind - i would guess they would panic/spread out to give themselves room - so the fighters would not neccessarily get a full arc area to fight in immediately.
Good vid Matt, think I'm gonna go watch a bit of Sharpe's Waterloo!
Modern Bayonet is apparently based on the old tradition of "stick them with the pointy end".
Was over in Europe in March on a 1st and 2nd world war site trip. Managed though to get a trip in to Waterloo though as well, well worth a trip.
You're really getting into some Theseus' ship territory here, only more so: if the ship has been broken down, then rebuilt, but with the old wood in different places or configurations, is it the original ship?
Hi Matt and thanks for the video. Can you recommend any source material for someone wanting to learn more about bayonet fighting in this period?
I've got two brick's from the original wall . I collected back in 72
The TH-cam AI has the dirty mind of a schoolboy, I switched on auto-generated captions to counter the wind noise, and what it hears when Matt says bayonet fighting is worth a chuckle.
Great video. Thanks for referring to The Last of the Mohicans.
There's a certain game of thrones battle you may want to see
Think it was the inspiration for Waterloo? Maybe GRRM and HBO should sue;-)
There's a certain training exercise in that ep to...
The horse archers Mr.Easton asked for did turn up. :)
Floreal78 Literally two guys doing trick shots while standing up on their horses if I remember correctly.
haha yeah. Can't wait to hear what Matt has to say about Dany burning down the supply carts instead of the Lannister line
Is there a reason why the French tried to capture the farmhouse rather than just bombard it with artillery? It seems it would have more value to the allied forces to break up a French attack then the French who were going passed it to attack the allied lines so tacking it out the picture would have been almost as good as capturing it.
Ohhh, interesting. When you're longswording agaist someone with a different dominant hand you can still "mirror" them, even if you have to deal with the usually less comfortable grip positions and some changes of leverage. But trying to mirror with long weapons that are held at a wider span like rifles and spears would be really awkward :)
When I saw it I immediately recognized it from M&B Napoleonic Wars
Yeah, it is really weird stepping into a real map that you've played online so many times. Truly bizarre.
Soldiers were holding positions on that roof on the left. Saw that on Napoleonic_Role_Play on NW.
You should do more instructional content!
25:21, put on subtitles and be amused
What are the two other aspects of this system?
Unfortunately the wind made most of the presentation un-presentable on video. The three main aspects are 1) holding the musket at the butt and on the left side instead of the right, 2) bending the knees in a more fencing-like stance, 3) standing in closer order, so that the second rank can double-up the numbers in the front rank.
28:25 Theres two other aspects of his system which are interesting...
Cutlass bayonet? I didn't know I needed that in my life. Do you have any of those? It would be an interesting video.
Rifle units like the 95th of Sharpe fame also had a sword bayonet that was longer than a regular bayonet and had a proper handle so it could be held and used like a short sword.
Yeah, I knew about the sword bayonet for the Baker rifle, but that has a fairly small hilt and fairly short blade, like a straight briquet sabre. The cutlass bayonet, judging by pictures, with its bulging bowl hilt and heavy meaty blade just looks beautifully silly on top of a rifle.
I would be very interested in a serious about Napoleonic bayonet fighting, I actually work as a military interpreter portraying a British soldier from 1812 and my workmates and I were talking today that we should try figure out how to fight with our brown bess'
Wait, you're saying that theres a farm somewhere in France with Napoleonic War artifacts and in order to work on the archaeological site you need to be sworn into a French regiment that has been protecting the site for over a hundred years? That's some Davinci Code shit there Matt!
Also holy crap imagine how traumatizing it would be as a soldier on the wall ordered to "be active with their bayonets". I bet they didn't go home with their minds intact.
Even if the perimeter wall has been reconstructed, many of the bricks used would have been from the original, recycled when possible instead of using new expensive material. The height of the original wall may well be estimated if the bonding to the main building is still evident. Looking at the end of the wall nearest to the farmhouse, a part covering about 10 feet is much higher than the rest and could well represent the original height of the compound wall. 😜
Why are you wearing a reflective vest? Are there a lot of vehicle traffic?
Frederick Kue nope propably to show that he belongs to the team which works there
Started off well but lost it when bayonet practice came in . 😥
Woah, stepping out into the sunlight turns discogrey into a silver fox.
i did a barn conversion on the once estate of Frederick Lewis Maitland who took Napoleons surrender and they throw a party there to mark the day... not often that is a relevant fact so ill take it!
Hougoumont sounds a lot like Huguenot. I wonder if there is an etymological connection.
Great video by the way.
Ullanor Von Krieger ask the Metatron.
No, the two are HugueNOT related.
Ullanor Von Krieger hi i am Belgian and am fluent in both French and Flemish and i believe Hougoumont is a bastardized form of the flemish words "hoogemont" wich means high mount!
Well then ... almost correct it is "Hoogeberg" and it is not really a mount(ain), it does not have to be an elevated spot or a hill: "berg" also means "storing place" a save place.. as in Kortenberg, Huldenberg ... aaaaand it is actually not in Waterloo but in Eigenbrakel or Braine-l'Alleud
Actually, you can do something about the wind- with a wind muff. You can see the other videographer using it.
I already use one all the time.
The charmingly named "dead cat"?
The game of thrones episode was fucking incredible.
Great use of the word Mullered!
Funny to see the shallow stratigraphy in the dig pits, only a couple hundred years worth of topsoil 2 dig through. Convenient archaeology, lol
Saber VS Bayonet in a duel, Which one would win?
It´s all about the context.
Hey, Matt, last night's episode of Game of Thrones is a goldmine for your movie fight reviews. Are you planning to do that?
Oh yes.
+scholagladiatoria Awesome!
I can not wait for the truth to be put out on the fight.
Seemed like a perfect storm of battle cliches, bad choreography and general bad armour and costumes.
please rip apart the Arya/Brienne fight
I have no problem with the 100% lack of realism if it's a good character moment but there's no reason Arya should even be that skilled, she never got enough training
So your commute wasn't affect by Network Rail at Waterloo then?
Really interesting! Thanks :3
scholagladiatoria
Can you please review the Game of thrones Arya and Brienne fight in the new episode of Game of thrones?
Have to take issue with your comment about the troops at Culloden lacking in bayonet training. According to Trevor Royle ("Culloden: Scotland's Last Battle"; Little, Brown, 2016, page 72) " a new bayonet drill was perfected in an attempt to protect the government soldiers from the effects of the much-feared Highland charge....The tactics required trust, synchronisation and above all strict training."
That IS TRUE - the red coated Government troops at Culloden DID receive some drill in bayonet fighting to counter the much feared Highlanders charge... each man was supposed to stand in line and face to his right at an angle in order to 'stick'' the Highlander under the arm... as the theory was that the charging Scotsmen's torso would be totally exposed due to his arm being raised as his claymore was above him ready to strike down at his random red coat opponent as the attack closed ... his shield being in his left hand ( assuming most Highlanders of the time were right handed of course !!! ) as the charging Jacobite attacked the soldiers recoated infantry colleague to his immediate right.... he was taught to NOT face directly at or defend himself by bayonet against the Highlander attacking immediately in front of him.. that would be covered by the next soldier in line and on his left ( this would need complete and utter trust in both guys either side of you to follow the same tactic of course )..... this obviously worked as the Government troops won the day ... but pity the poor soldier at the extreme left of the line of the regiment being attacked.. I think a trusted sergeant with a hulbard / pike was posted there to cover the last red coat who was busy protecting the second to last soldier to his right.... hope this makes sense ??? I read about this years and years ago......
Didnt Napoleon had canons? That wall looks like it would fall pretty quickly under canon fire.
No cannons, but he did use howitzers to good effect by setting the farm on fire. Most of the farmyard was destroyed by fire, killing many injured troops inside.
No mention that loading a muzzle loader with a bayonet attached may prove painful. Presumably you would have to only attach the bayonet when you had to use it....
Not at all - bayonets in this era are curved away from the line of the muzzle, for precisely that reason. When breech-loaders become common, the bayonets became straight.
We all know that Sean Bean defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
What percentage of the year is sweater weather in the UK?
That answer's going to be different for southern England and northern Scotland.
oh, only about 300 days a year ;-)
interesting about using the gun stock as a club; surely that would bend the barrel and mess up the accuracy?
Gareth Barry
I would think that the barrel would become loose at the attachment points of the stock before the barrel itself would start to deform - which would also have a negative impact on accuracy. Just a theory based on engineering principles, but maybe someone else can shed some historical light on the subject. Great question, though.
The stock and barrel of a musket are fairly tightly fixed. In the Napoleonic period Brit "Brown Bess" muskets used a set of sunk pins in the forestock that fitted through loops on the bottom of the barrel, and in the case of French "Charlevilles" they used a set of three barrel bands held by springs. Both make for tight fits, so the barrel and forestock act to strengthen each other. To bend the barrel would snap the forestock.
As Mat and the archeologist explain what usually happened was the stock would break at its weakest point - the neck of the stock where the buttstock joins the lock and trigger mechanism.
So yes, there was a risk of breaking your musket, but armies travelled with men trained to carry out running repairs on guns and where necessary replace parts, including stocks. However, in reality there were plenty of spare muskets after battles due to casualties. And the other option, getting stabbed or shot in close quarter combat, was less preferable than the risk of breaking your gun. Better to walk away and have to find a new gun than to not use it to every potential and get killed or wounded.
sandmanhh67
Agreed, same goes for 20th century military rifles with wood stocks regarding the most common breaking points.
Bands, springs, and screws are what hold the barrels and receivers to the stocks and handguards on my Mosin Nagant rifles. One of them did arrive to me with a longitudinal crack in the lower 1/3rd of the buttstock, and showed arsenal marks as this receiver was the third to have been mounted to it. The stock must have been through some serious $#!+ to have been rearsenaled twice by two different countries than the original manufacturer.
Interesting mate. Maybe the first stock was just sub par, and the second a "battle" break due to dropping or something.....Mosins have a good rep for keeping going when other rifles of the same era packed in. If its a WW2 era gun its worth bearing in mind old Ivan was chucking them out as fast as possible, so maybe it was one with a bad stock originally - not treated for weather properly etc and that caused the first fail. Dunno mate....well after the interest period Im into (Napoleonic & early to mid Victorian).
I see a lot of long guns in auction that have damage and cracking to the neck, and some pretty nifty period repairs as well.
I have an East India Company period Pattern F musket with a lovely wound wire and brass brace plate repair to what must be a split in the neck underneath the repairs. It must have been owned by an Indian trooper or ex-trooper as the repairs are definitely too bohemian/decorative and fancy for a Brit to have bothered with. Some of my Napoleonic 1796 British cavalry pistols have damage to the butt suggesting they were used to maybe clonk Froggy heads at some point.
Have to say tho....those sparring "muskets" Mat uses look a little short to me. Im well over six feet, and my Short Land Pattern Brown Bess with a regulation bayonet fitted comes up to my ear near enough. Those sparring guns Mat is using look about a foot to a foot and a half short, and way too light and nimble.
Muskets had wood along a good amount of the barrel so just don't grab it by the metal part of the barrel?
Mr Easton What think About the 1970 Movie Waterloo.
It has some of the best reconstructions of the battle ever filmed. Of course it has mistakes, but for an 'impression' it's probably the best we have.
Jes
Gotta love Soviet film making and cinematography...
From Wiki:
"Columbia Pictures published a 28-page, full-colour pictorial guide when it released Waterloo
in 1970. According to the guidebook, Italian producer Dino De
Laurentiis had difficulty finding financial backers for the massive
undertaking until he finally began talks with the Soviets in the late
1960s and reached agreement with the Mosfilm organization. Final costs
were over £12 million (UK) (equivalent to about US $38.3 million in
1970), making Waterloo, for its time, one of the most expensive
movies ever made. Had the movie been filmed in the West, costs might
have been as much as three times this. Mosfilm contributed more than £4
million of the costs, nearly 16,000 soldiers of the Soviet Army,
a full brigade of Soviet cavalry, and a host of engineers and labourers
to prepare the battlefield in the rolling farmland outside Uzhhorod, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).
To recreate the battlefield authentically, the Soviets bulldozed away
two hills, laid five miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed
fields of rye, barley and wildflowers and reconstructed four historic
buildings. To create the mud, more than six miles of underground
irrigation piping was specially laid. Most of the battle scenes were
filmed using five Panavision cameras simultaneously-from ground level,
from 100 foot towers, from a helicopter, and from an overhead railway
built right across the location.
Actual filming was accomplished over 28 weeks, which included 16 days
of delay (principally due to bad weather). Many of the battle scenes
were filmed in the summer of 1969 in often sweltering heat. In addition
to the battlefield in Ukraine, filming also took place on location in Caserta,
Italy, while interior scenes were filmed on the large De Laurentiis
Studios lot in Rome. A massive quantity of period props were built by E.
Rancati and hundreds of pairs of footwear were supplied by Pompei.
The film includes about 15,000 Soviet foot soldiers and 2,000
cavalrymen as extras and 50 circus stunt riders were used to perform the
dangerous horse falls. Sergei Bondarchuk was in command of the
seventh-largest army in the world.[1]
Months before the cameras started filming, the 15,000 soldiers began
training to learn 1815 drill and battle formations, as well as the use
of sabres, bayonets and handling cannon. A selected 2,000 additional men
were also taught to load and fire muskets. This army lived in a large
encampment next to the battlefield. Each day after breakfast, they
marched to a large wardrobe building, donned their French, British or
Prussian uniforms and fifteen minutes later were in position. The
soldiers were commanded by officers who took orders from director Sergei
Bondarchuk by walkie-talkie. To assist in the direction of this huge,
multi-national undertaking, the Soviet-Ukrainian director had four
interpreters permanently at his side: one each for English, Italian,
French and Serbo-Croatian."
scholagladiatoria I especially like it because it's one of the few films where you really see what a battle involving tens of thousands of men might have looked like. No CG, just a host of extras drafted from the Soviet armed forces. They say that during filming, director Sergei Bondarchuk commanded the seventh largest army in the world. With modern computer technology, we are unlikely to see something equivalent again.
scholagladiatoria After this video I've got the sudden but strong urge to waste all of our building points on cramming as many explosives as possible into one room and fuck everybody's frame rate up big time.
"Some of the things that are done with a long weapon you can't do with a short weapon."
Joaquim Guerreiro Size of the weapon doesn't matter! An average sized weapon can kill just as easily as a big one!
Smack Millan IKR! That's what I told her.
Just so you know, the next stop is actually closer from the site. You are welcome ;)
A few hundred thousand bricks in the original wall. Very unlikely that tourists could have loosened and then half-inched that many heavy bricks, even over 200 years!
grave pits?
What's this Napoleonic Wars game you referring to?
store.steampowered.com/app/48705/Mount__Blade_Warband__Napoleonic_Wars/
So, are the white bricks the originals?
Nothing is really certain at this point. Surely many of the stones and bricks are original, but perhaps reconstructed to make the walls more stable.
The usage of white bricks as lines around the red bricks is a building style of the general time period of this building. You'll find this way of building allot. Don't think we can assume that it's the case that all the red brick is new and all the white old.
In some parts there seems to be intentional filling with brick of different colour, sometimes it is a way architect-archeologists mark reconstructed parts.
The stone bottom and brick top is typical for foundation walls, in general (historical) bricks do badly in non-drained soil,
Also, In XIX century, up to WW2 really completely rebuilding historic landmarks according to "idea of how it should look like" was something acceptable (see Marienburg, Carcassone and Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg as prime examples).
You really need to study if the brick size and laying technique, and mortar composition, conform to what is known to be typical for region and period. Way I see it all of that walls we see up close are either cleaned or reconstructed, mortar's bit to bright. The wall in the background of bayonet presentation looks more legit.
yes..........and I have one of the red bricks proudly sat on my bar in Sussex...... that I ''relived'' from the crumbling at the time south wall of the farm house kitchen garden wall..... yes I know it was wrong but I simply couldn't help myself.
My T-shirt arrived today.
"I'VE NOW EATEN THE BANANA!"
The British Alamo, only they held.
Been there.
Why wasn't the walls reduced to rubble by Artillery cannon before the French infantry assaults 🤔