On the theme of trenches, as a former Royal Marine of 13 years, I have had
the misfortune to dig one or two in my time and the doctrine was to make
them just wide enough to stand in and be able to turn around. The theory
being that the wider they are the more angle there was for shrapnel. Of
course these were just two or three man fire trenches and not the semi
permanent field fortifications. I say let the cavalry jump them...........
My IG Rough Rider regiment, yes I have got enough figures for a Regiment,
would look great making a suicidal charge against a trench full of Orks or
Heretics............
Long Live the Imperial Guard!
Warren
----- Original Message -----
From: "peter cornwell" <petecorn_at_...>
To: <netepic_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [NetEpic ML] [v5.0] Core rules: fortifications
>
>
> "Millett, George" wrote:
>
> > Depends on the width of the trench, of course - but we
> > are talking about trained professionals (Imperial) who
> > would jump trenches as part of their basic training.
> >
> > --->As far as I am aware the training is relatively benign and I would
like
> > to see a horse that would willingly jump a deep ditch filled with nasty
> > people armed with various nasty pointed things just waiting to cut it to
> > pieces.
> >
>
> At the battle of Beersheba in WW1, the Australian Light Horse charged
trenches
>
> full of Turks across open desert. They jumped the trenches (full of Turks)
and
> went on to hit the artillery and take the city. (They had to take the city
> because they had run out of water). It was one of the last great cavalry
> charges and the charge itself was portrayed pretty accurately in the
> Australian film "The Light Horsemen" and we see them jumping right over
the
> Turks heads! I know it was a rare event, but isn't this the sort of
legendary
> charge that should happen sometimes in Epic? Maybe any infantry in the
trench
> could get a free attack as the cavalry crossed - discouraging such charges
but
> not making them impossible.
>
> By the way, I think that as far as trenches being too wide to cross, I
always
> thought they were pretty much by definition narrow. The whole idea was to
make
> them a small target for artillery. I remember how historians bagged the
> Kubrick film "Paths of Glory" because the trenches were too wide. He made
them
> wide so he could run his old style camera dolley along it, but even then
they
> weren't all that wide. I've certainly seen photos of actual trenches that
were
> narrow enough for horses to jump.
>
> just my two cents worth.
>
> Peter Cornwell
>
>
>
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>
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Received on Thu May 09 2002 - 16:55:12 UTC