subtitles for 'open order revolution', MHV

[SUBTITLE]
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Now time to talk about the open order

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revolution and thank you for patrons who

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voted on this topic. Now I put out the vote

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before I read the article and then I

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realized I don't really like that

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article because- it was, it was quite

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interesting and I got the general point

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but it was generally too vague and I

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didn't really got my real hang on it so

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I was like okay I could do a video with

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it but I'm not too certain so that, I did

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more and more and more reading. So

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basically and then I got down okay

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because the main issue is open order and

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closed order are usually mentioned by

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several authors in everywhere but in

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general there seems to be no real -- it's

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more like they all mention that you

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know what it is and I was like yeah I

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have kind of the idea what it is but I

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really want to get down to this. So first

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off I try to drill down what are the

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core factors between open order versus

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closed order. So basically what you think

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about when you think about open order is

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skirmish lines so you have your troop

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spread out and versus closed order you

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have the columns, you have the lines, each

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man is close to each other as you know

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for instance for the Napoleonic Wars

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we have seat them and skirmishes to

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spread out. So for open order you have

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basically the use of terrain whereas for

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closed order you have the use of mass.

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Similarly, if you look at fire, skirmishes

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are usually for precision firing whereas

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for closed order you have the volume of

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fire you use volley fire it's about

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putting as much shot out as possible

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their accuracy is limited it's just

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about mostly the volume you get out.

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Whereas skirmishers sometimes or quite early

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were equipped with rifles because they

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have to be driving a better accuracy and

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everything, for closed order it was more

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important to have a high rate of fire so

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they usually used smooth bore for quite some

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time.

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This also means for open order it's more

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focused on fire tactics

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whereas for closed order

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it's more on shock tactics. Then also

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open order, more closer units and,

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so open order also more smaller units

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whereas for closed order, more larger units

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because you need to shock, you need the

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amount of fire and everything.

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Additionally, then if you look at open

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order again it's more about initiative,

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it's more about taking the right

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position the individual, these units were

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usually more loyal as well. Whereas for

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closed order it's about

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control that your NCO and your officer

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really sees where you are and gives

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very strict and closed and focused

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orders and everything is in line and

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strong. So this also brings then for open order

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is mostly about flexibility you go with

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the flow more or less, use terrain,

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whereas for the closed order it's

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about cohesion, that the cohesion of the

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unit is still fulfilled, that nobody breaks

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away. And this also brings, for the open

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order

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you have the individual versus the cog in

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the machine in the closed order. Now if

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you look at this, this brings several

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important requirements to open order. One is

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loyality [loyalty]. Open order unit skirmishes

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yeah isn't something they were usually

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the loyal ones that were not have to be

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kept on a leash like the other units, the

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line units, so, they could be trusted

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more or less way more than the other

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ones, so still your deserters there but

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and this is something in modern comb- in

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early modern combat that yeah, a lot of

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time desertion was a main issue so you

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had them less in these units because

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they were generally more loyal. Then to a

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certain degree also some kind of education.

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It's quite often they were sometimes for

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Frederick the Great used them like these

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were the foresters guys,

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yeah, they know the terrain well and

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everything. And then they also needed

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different equipment usually some

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proper guns, usually rifles, because they

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were more accurate. And then the

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leadership was also more important

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usually more aspect was given, or more

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leeway

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- to what you would say nowadays would be an

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NCO so you've more under not officer

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controlling but on the mid-level. And

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also you have basically more focus on

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training and less focus on drill. Now

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back to the original point what was the

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open order revolution? Now the authors

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describe it basically as the major

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transformation of tactics has happened

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between 1854, the Crimean War, to 1914. So

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why was this necessary to go more open

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order than previously? Well it comes down

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to an improvement in technology.

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Basically, the rifle replaced the

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smoothbore musket. What does this mean?

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You have more precision but still you

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have a higher rate of fire because

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previously you got you've got you went

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with the smoothbore musket because you

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had a higher rate of fire but you had a

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lack of precision

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and rifles what was previously before

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given to specialists, but now the rifle

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is sufficient enough or well-developed

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enough that you can give it to regular

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units, and two very important rifles here,

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the 'Minié' rifle, which was basically a

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rapid muzzle loader from the French,

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around, introduced about 1849, so this

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allowed to load from the muzzle still

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but rapidly, so we had a higher rate of

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fire. And from the Prussians there was the

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'Dreyse Needle Gun',

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das nadel gewehr[?] which was a breech

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loader, in 1841. So you could load from

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the breech, which meant you could reload

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prone, very important, so way more cover.

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In general, the results were higher rate

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of fire and high accuracy. Other

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developments that happen at the time were

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standardized ammo and round balls

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converted to point bullets so was a

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better ballistics and everything. Yet there

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were even more developments especially

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in the 1880s.

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Now you had smokeless powder which meant

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that you could actually more or less hide

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as infantry, because, before you were just

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sitting in a big plume of smoke after

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you fire the first shot. Then the stripper

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clip was basically introduced so you had

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several - like five - cartridges in one

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rifle and not just have to reload for

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every shot which of course

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increased the rate of fire even more,

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then you had smaller calibre which

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meant you could carry more ammo and you

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had also less recoil which of course

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increased your firepower

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again. Now this is very important here so

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you had a substantial increase in

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firepower in this time and this to a

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certain degree for some authors note

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this explains why the machine gun was

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also imported less importance. Because

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you had just a major increase in

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firepower so that you don't need more

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firepower, it's like okay we have already

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way more firepower than we had ever

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before I don't think we need more. And of

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course there were other issues

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some actually were thinking okay fire

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discipline is an issue and we don't know

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if the ammo is enough so and if you dare

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and you think okay but I don't think we

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have enough ammo then- here we have a

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machine gun it's wasting more ammo

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in less amount of time it's like, no I

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don't want to have something that even

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shoots way more ammo away because I'm

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already scared that my units don't

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hold fire discipline until ran out of

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ammo before before they to get in proper

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effective firing range of or something

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or before the battle is over. And of

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course another aspect was that for

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instance the Prussians and Germans were

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very focused on the attack and the early

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machine guns were not properly suited

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for the attack so this was also a

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doctrine issue so they looked

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at it they said eh, that's a great weapon for

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defending but we are Prussians we

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like to attack anyway so it's also

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another aspect why the machine gun it

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wasn't ignored or something or

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they were not all ignorant it was just

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in some cases didn't fit in there well.

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Now another issue that came up due to this

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improved rifles was you were now less

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exposed if you were in the defense

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because you could lie down,

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you could reload your weapon while prone

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which was previously not possible, so

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this will of course would hinder the

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attack which was it requires a change in

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tactics and then you know just say okay

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let's go from closed order to open order

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and actually the knife is tempered[?] it

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was constantly back and forth between

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the two and one issue was the challenge

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of command.

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Because in close order you had a very

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strong grip on your men and they were

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all drilled on this so you basically

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drilled your men to perform like

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automatons to a certain degree. Now there was

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the issue that you need different

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training for these men now, you need more

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focus on training and less on drill, you

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need more focus on initiative and

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other

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aspects you need also more loyality

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because you can't keep them on the

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leash that much any more. And so we had

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the issue of control versus obedience

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and everything. And they actually noted

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that in some cases fine soldiers, were

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perfectly drilled soldiers, when they put

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into open order, that they didn't perform

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anymore, that they didn't advanced

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because they were just not used to this

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thing they were not used to be

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initiative to be initiative and as

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individuals or more or less individuals

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and go forward, so then there was a whole

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necessity to change training and this

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also led to organizational challenges as

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well so the units got smaller, so before

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the core unit you focused on a

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battle- that battlefield was 400, 600 guys

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with muskets and now you look more on 50

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to 100 men with rifles. So you've got

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more independent subunits. This means you

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put people in permanent commands that

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were previously not there and smaller

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units are harder to control especially

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in the attack as well.

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And other issues were of course the

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general discussion, for instance the

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Germans are obviously 'effect vor deckung',

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'effect before cover' so effect is more

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important than cover, which meant you

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massed a lot of firepower on a small

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frontage. You wanna have a maximum of

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firepower and small frontage but then

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you have the problem that you're way

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more exposed especially against

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artillery. So what you're gonna do, you

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want to minimize your losses or you want

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to maximize your firepower on a certain

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area?

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So one is clearly, okay, let's stay close

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order because I mean we're trained

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everyone for this already and the other

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as well. Something that similarly

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happened in the whole area here in the

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development which is kind of related is

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the change in colors from more or

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less bright and colorful uniforms to

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more yeah more camouflaged looking

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areas because now you had smokeless

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powder so it actually made sense to hide

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to a certain degree and you were firing

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prone so hiding or getting cover

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actually made sense now where before it

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was of- the benefits were limited to

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a certain degree. Now a few examples

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to get a basic understanding on how the

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back and forth worked. So we have the Battle

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of Königgrätz in 1866, Prussians against

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Austria. So the Prussians attack in

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open order, when the Austrians attack with

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closed order charges

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the Austrians take heavy losses and are

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quite shocked because the Prussians with

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the Dreyse needle gun have a high

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rate of fire and sometimes it just shoot

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together the Austrian columns. So, quite

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often it's just attributed to the needle

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gun and everyone okay it was just better

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technology but it's not that easy.

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And also the victory was not so easily

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achieved. Now here was the problem;

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actually the Prussians had quite some

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problems controlling these loose

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formations there with mortar[?] formations

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it was not so well and the main issue

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was that Austrian- the Austrians were

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very weak in skirmishing and also in

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marksmanship. If they had been well-

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better trained this could have led to a

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quite a different outcome or it would

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have not been as decisive and it

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basically at this point the

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Prussians had an edge in tactics and

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also technology. Usually you have

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at most one, so there was this- it was

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quite an imbalanced

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fight to a large degree and they were

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aware of this. So they were like okay we

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need to do something because other

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people are watching, for instance

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the French and so in 1870 when

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they were fighting against the French

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the French basically used Prussian

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tactics from Königgrätz

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and the Prussians charged in closed order

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although they should have known better and

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they took quite a lot of losses. And what

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they did they adapt quite rapidly

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they went to a more open more order

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and they used the artillery to shoot

00:14:18.100000,00:14:21
together the French so they had better

00:14:21.100000,00:14:24
artillery now because there they actually saw

00:14:24.100000,00:14:25
that the Austrians had quite some

00:14:25.100000,00:14:27
volunteer developed[?] and improved their

00:14:27.100000,00:14:30
artillery. Let me give you some specific

00:14:30.100000,00:14:32
numbers here, we have some data for the

00:14:32.100000,00:14:34
first World War on the Eastern Front in

00:14:34.100000,00:14:37
September 1914 and it was one company

00:14:37.100000,00:14:39
that attacked in closed quarter [order] and the

00:14:39.100000,00:14:42
other companies in open order. The company

00:14:42.100000,00:14:44
in closed-quarter [order] had losses of 50

00:14:44.100000,00:14:46
percent up to 50 percent, whereas companies

00:14:46.100000,00:14:49
in open order, about one point sixty seven

00:14:49.100000,00:14:53
percent. So there was a huge discrepancy

00:14:53.100000,00:14:56
here. I didn't find any other examples

00:14:56.100000,00:14:59
for this so maybe this is an extreme

00:14:59.100000,00:15:04
example but even if it would be

00:15:04.100000,00:15:06
half the volumes for the lost in the

00:15:06.100000,00:15:08
closed order and they also know that the

00:15:08.100000,00:15:10
other brigades as well, other units, they

00:15:10.100000,00:15:14
had similar issues, so in general if at

00:15:14.100000,00:15:15
this point closed

00:15:15.100000,00:15:19
order was led to very high losses. I hope

00:15:19.100000,00:15:21
this give you a basic understanding on

00:15:21.100000,00:15:23
the whole issue of closed versus open

00:15:23.100000,00:15:25
order and what the open order revolution

00:15:25.100000,00:15:28
meant. So, big thank you here to Jack for

00:15:28.100000,00:15:30
sending me the book on infantry and

00:15:30.100000,00:15:32
thank you for watching, see you next time!

00:15:32.100000,00:15:37
Bye!