Charge warfare: Encyclopedia - Charge warfare

Charge (warfare)

A charge is a maneuver in battle in which soldiers advance towards their enemy at their best speed to engage in close combat. The charge has been the key tactic and decisive moment of most battles in history.

The basic process operating in a charge is speed of advance against rate (or effectiveness) of fire (firepower). If the attackers advance at a more rapid rate than the defenders can kill or disable them then the attackers will reach the defenders. Of course there are many modifiers to this simple comparison - timing, numbers, covering fire, organisation and formation, terrain, etc, etc. A failed charge will often leave the would-be attackers extremely vulnerable to a counter-charge.

There has been a constant rise in an army's rate of fire for the last 700 years or so, but while massed charges have been successfully broken they have also been victorious. It is only in the last 150 years that straight charges have become less successful, especially since the introduction of the self-acting machine gun and breech-loading artillery. They are often still useful on a far smaller scale in confined areas where the enemy's firepower cannot be brought to bear.

Charge warfare - Famous charges

• Charge of the Light Brigade (October 25, 1854) at the Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War
• Pickett's Charge (July 3, 1863) at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Charge warfare", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki