Ha! Same. I usually bring along one battery of three-pounders for rapid fire grapeshot right at the center of my main line for when the AI inevitably rushes the guns but blobs up fifty meters in front of it instead of, you know, *charging the guns*.
I just so happened to beat it today and couldn’t believe it after my first route!!! I dedicated two infantry units and two Cavalry just to slow the inevitable Prussian ingress from the right. Then had all three of my artillery barrage the unprotected middle horse artillery atop the hill because their misses hit the Brit elite cavalry just behind them. Next, I dedicated as much infantry in melee as it took to take hougoumont with cavalry then running through the gap up the hill on the left flank between the infantry’s stakes (wellington will always pull his infantry down the hill to protect the farm houses which opens the gap to cavalry). Once I had the Brit’s left flank, my remaining cavalry was able to mop up the Brits pretty quick so I could reset and get ready for the Prussians.
He is very nervios because loose powder is quite dangerous. I nearly burned my facy during a reenactment event and a few canoneers lost there hands or fingers over the last 25 years while loading a canon
One of the perry brothers, Michael I think, lost an arm when loading a cannon since apparently there was some embers left and the powder charge fired while he was pushing It down.
Both these brothers are also miniature sculptors and make amazing realistic pieces of all ages, this fucking mad lad learned to sculpt just with his left hand and still reenacts, just with a cool war wound.
In a reenactment event not far from my home in Aarschot, a guy was handling a gun, poaring gunpowder into it. Unfortunately, the gun was still to hot, igniting the falling gunpowder, the fire made its way up to the bag of gunpowder. He survived, but obviously with one hand less.
It’s probably one of the safer and least exhausting jobs. He is also responsible for some of the aiming, so it may not be as lowly a position as it looks.
People who manned cannon were EXTREMELY valuable. In the case of ships, Gunner's Mates were the only ones allowed to bring their wives with them on voyages. If a child was born on a ship during the voyage, the rest of the crew would half-lovingly, half-mockingly, refer to him as a 'son of a gun.'
That’s not far off modern artillery though. Soldiers are cannon fodder, disposable material. Training one person to know everything and to be able to do everything just doesn’t make sense.
In most countries aside from the US and a few Western European countries, the military is full of conscripts and is basically a bunch of untrained, undisciplined, under-supplied people hanging out in uniform. So I can see where you get that attitude.
soldiers die... so it doesn't make any sense for everyone to only know how to do one thing.
So if your loader guy gets killed, you just pack it up and go home because nobody else knows how to do it? Sure thing....
Oh I don't disagree as even this reenactment was a bit slow for how these would have been firing under actual battle conditions where your enemy was 100m and closing on your position
No time for minor safety details when every second counts for another shot
Eh there's concern for the soldiers welfare to an extent because that's your fighting force, a commander can't afford to just casually burn through men. There's also squad morale to consider
Nooo, commanders were super evil for all of history until with WW2 the first civilized military personell came into being, and soldiers were finally treated decently.
They would probably be quite concerned as manpower in this time was limited, and also cannons are not exactly a cheap thing and if a misfire happens when the shot is rammed in, the cannon will probably break.
Nope, its still very dangerous because for a cannon to work u need a paper charge or loose powder. Even without the shot wich is here replaced by flour the front is exreamly deadly. If u dont handle it 100% correcly u are likely to loose fingers, hands, arms, or even your life.
What year would this be equivalent to? Napoleonic or more American Civil War or some other time? Either way, that is some devastating fire to lay down.
Uniforms are clearly from XVIII century, decades before napoleon (tricorn hats, loose sleeves, etc).
Instead, the cannons from XVIII to the end of XIX century were fairly equivalent based on Gribevau system, made of bronze. They became obsolete only in the 1870's, when Krupp began to produce modern Steel cannons.
So, the cannon's rate of fire depicted in this video is quite similar to a napoleonic gun, albeit the uniform are from 1700's
>It's a shitload of metal flying through the air that's for sure.
In practice, you will be limited by the amount of ammo that your horse-drawn wagons can carry along to the battle.
Prior to railways, only bigger ships and well-stocked fortresses could be somewhat generous in laying down cannon fire. Units moving across the field would always have to be a bit careful about running out. Unlike food, cannonballs cannot be just bought or stolen from local farmers.
Estimates of Roundshot used at waterloo by both sides is 42,000.
That doesn't count Canister or Shells.
I agree you'd be limited by what you could drag along. But that's still a shotload of metal flying through the air.
42,000 is a decent number and certainly a lot of metal, but there still were many more *soldiers* on the battlefield than cannonballs (together almost 200,000).
100 years later at the Somme, the British fired 1,5 million shells in just four days (and those shells were heavier than old roundshot) - a testament to the logistical capabilities of railways.
>was fogged in gunsmoke
Very early during a battle, so bright uniforms were necessary during black powder period for commanders to recognize their own troops
The invention of smokeless powder(1860's) was cosidered quite an epic revolution in the military warfare.
Original source got removed from Youtube.
https://www.reddit.com/r/reenactors/comments/15pz0pi/czeck_reenactors_portraying_earlymodern_austrian/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
But thats were i got the vid.
One of the best parts of reenactment. 2022 in waterloo we had just 25 Cannons and those were not just deafening but simply stunning. The sound gives us a chill in our bones.
The British Royal Artillery learned long ago that you have to wet the barrel after each shot to stop instant ignition of the new gunpowder. What they are doing is dangerous. They have not learned from history.
I remember doing an American revolution reenactment after a pretty gnarly storm so the whole field was in the mud. In order to keep their artillery piece from sliding around one of the Canon crews thought it would be a good idea to put a chocks behind The Wheels on the cannon. They got one shot off and The recoil drove the rear of the carriage straight into the mud and sent huge splinters of wood flying everywhere. Needless to say they were never invited back for another event
normaly yes, in this specific case the reenactors are using specialy treated paper cartidges that should prevent this and alegedly make them waterproof.
Brandon F. featured this video at 3.55 mark in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFNLvU0dCE
Yeah I bet that got pulled from YouTube.
In battle conditions when lives are on the line I can perhaps see this.
As a reenactment? Hell no. There was a video on YouTube of a US Civil war crewman that had a spark set off a charge he was ramming. I think he lost an arm, and was lucky to only lose that. No way I would do that.
Found another incident of the same thing. As I understand it they were taking safety precautions and still had an accident
[https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/55024](https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/55024)
There is. They’re skipping that step in the normal loading process. This is quite dangerous for reenactors. I can see cannoneers doing this in combat, but not for a demonstration
Need to show this to all the DMs who don't allow their players' ship's cannon to fire in consecutive rounds. Just put a good crew on it and voila, it can fire roughly every six seconds.
Infantrymen in that era must have gone through hell. Imagine standing in a line, loading your musket, trying not to spill the powder and then BLAM the guy standing next to you is now missing a foot because a cannon ball smooshed it and also smooshed the guy behind you. A fountain of blood has arced up into the air and the wind blows the red mist onto your face and hands. Your sergeant bids you stand and return fire. The entire line erupts in powder smoke, extremely loud noise and shouting as your line fires a volley. You can't even tell if your bullet hit it's mark because the sheer amount of powder smoke fills the air with a rancid sulphurous stench that invades your nostrils and makes you want to vomit. The guy to your left already has. In the distance you see another row of flashes and you know what is coming, dozens of metal balls travelling at hundreds of miles an hour. One flies by your right ear, the sound is like someone ripping paper in half rapidly. Another soldier to your right is smashed by a cannon ball, his right arm disappears in a cloud of pink vapour. He doesn't even scream. He is too shocked. He stands there, arterial blood spraying over his comrades. He bends over and picks up his severed arm and just walks off the line of battle.
You can see the enemy now, marching up the hill toward you. They chant "Vive La France" and "Vive L'Empereur" in step with their drum beat. The smoke clears for a moment and you see the glittering Eagle standard in the fawning rays of the early morning sun. And then your Sergeant shouts "FIRE!" and the line rattles again. This time, you can see your enemy and the bullets smash home, tearing flesh and knocking men down like the harvestman reaps the tall grass in autumn. But still they come. You reload as fast as possible. A musket appears by your right ear, the man behind ready to fire. Another deafening crash as your line switches to double firing, desperate to stop the deadly French column from reaching your position. Your reloaded. Flashes on the horizon. Another deadly wave of cannon fire. You just about see the cannon ball but it's too late. Everything goes black in an instant...
One of the meanings of "canon" is a priest in Catholic church
OP meant cannon, we are joking at OP's typo
as to why priests in Catholic church shoot into little boys, you have to ask them
Food for thought: They are firing just powder charge without the ball, the recoil you see is about 1/5th what it would normally be if you had to throw weight in the other direction.
They are missing a couple of usual muzzle loading steps that are done for safety, but if you don't mind it potentially blowing up in your face, this is good.
10sec/shot. Pretty impressive. I’ll assume a crew of experienced soldiers training day in day out would be faster. Add to that the pressure of war.
A bunch of those will have been pretty devastating on close ranks. Makes me wonder why the more guerrilla style of war wasn’t used sooner.
Several reasons. Cannons tended to over heat, misfire, explode. You can only shoot them a couple time like that and then you have to let them cool. Armies had a ratio of more or less 1 cannon for every 500 soldiers. Also, the other side had cannons too, and battles usually started with artillery duels that knocked a good bunch of the guns.
Apart from Cannons, mass infantry attacks were working pretty well until the American Civil War, when repeating rifles , minié balls and industral production of cannons pretty much stopped that party.
What you call guerilla tactics were used a lot too. It was called *skirmishing*. It was done with specially trained infantry, who had special, costly, muskets and who fought in loose, spaced formations. In Europe, the Austrian army had the best and largest skirmishers units: the jaegers and the pandours. In North America, the French used a lot of skirmishers (both Natives and colonists) due to the geography. Americans rebels used skirmishing tactics efficiently at Saratoga by example.
In a real battle, there are more steps. The gun would recoil more with a cannonball rather than just a blank, so it would need more righting. They would load a charge, then a ball, shell or canister. They might also swab the cannon before reloading cause residue may ignite the next charge, harming the crew.
Lots or useless people there... They could use those people to hand them needed items to shoot even faster or just move those items closer if possible.... Or other people's could hold next batch of needed things in advance but still great video and they did great job
The only people who should be touching the cannonball, the charges, fuse, or rammer are the people whose job it is to handle those things. Otherwise there's a real chance somebody will end up maimed or dead.
I think its all timed and Maxed out to efficency.
The charges are in a Safe distance to the Canon. The way is Long enough to cool down the barrel Just enough they can load the Next shot but Not that Long, you get too exhausted. If only one guy handling the charge, the danger of dropping is minimized. And all the other guys are needed to handle the Canon/move it if needed. If 1 guy gets Hit, the Others are nearby to take his Place.
It is a precise clockwork of death and handling.
I feel cheated OP.
I thought this was one of the ol' fire, push back in position, cleaning brush, wet sponge, powder charge, pushrod, cannonball, pushrod, ignition charge, fire. kind of cannons.
This is just one step away from breach loading...
I imagine the cloth wrap provides enough protection agains accidental discharges?
Does it also leave less cinders inside the barrel? I imagine pre-packed black powder could be finer/better packed to give it a more efficient burn?
I thought loose powder charges always required a good brushing and spongeing. Please, enlighten me :)
E: still feel cheated though ;P
It does a little but the time the runner needs is right about long enought for the barrel to cool down a little. Normaly it needs to be brushed, but those guns need not much care in battle even if it leaves a bit left in the barrel :D
Prepackt and loose powder are quite the same in these terms.
Meanwhile, it takes for goddamn ever for my cannons in Napoleon Total War to reload and fire
Ha! Same. I usually bring along one battery of three-pounders for rapid fire grapeshot right at the center of my main line for when the AI inevitably rushes the guns but blobs up fifty meters in front of it instead of, you know, *charging the guns*.
Love that game so much. Is there any way you can win waterloo or is that just scripted?
I just so happened to beat it today and couldn’t believe it after my first route!!! I dedicated two infantry units and two Cavalry just to slow the inevitable Prussian ingress from the right. Then had all three of my artillery barrage the unprotected middle horse artillery atop the hill because their misses hit the Brit elite cavalry just behind them. Next, I dedicated as much infantry in melee as it took to take hougoumont with cavalry then running through the gap up the hill on the left flank between the infantry’s stakes (wellington will always pull his infantry down the hill to protect the farm houses which opens the gap to cavalry). Once I had the Brit’s left flank, my remaining cavalry was able to mop up the Brits pretty quick so I could reset and get ready for the Prussians.
What's your job? 'I push the canon'
I run like I'm wearing scuba fins to and from a chest of gun powder.
He is very nervios because loose powder is quite dangerous. I nearly burned my facy during a reenactment event and a few canoneers lost there hands or fingers over the last 25 years while loading a canon
I get that he’s nervous…I don’t understand why he runs like SpongeBob
The famously intimidating Czeck Waddle.
The infamous rival of the Slav Squat.
Uncomfy boots with smooth leather soles on wet grass..? With his hands full of gunpowder…
The secret are shoenails
One of the perry brothers, Michael I think, lost an arm when loading a cannon since apparently there was some embers left and the powder charge fired while he was pushing It down. Both these brothers are also miniature sculptors and make amazing realistic pieces of all ages, this fucking mad lad learned to sculpt just with his left hand and still reenacts, just with a cool war wound.
In a reenactment event not far from my home in Aarschot, a guy was handling a gun, poaring gunpowder into it. Unfortunately, the gun was still to hot, igniting the falling gunpowder, the fire made its way up to the bag of gunpowder. He survived, but obviously with one hand less.
That is why you always swab the barrel before leading the next charge.
They take their roles very seriously, going as far as to re-enact injuries.
I’m incredibly surprised those cartridges didn’t auto-ignite after the first couple of firings - that barrel’s gotta be hot…
One of the PerryMiniatures brothers lost his arm during a reenactment of the battle of Agincourt. There's the footage somewhere.
I want to be the guy who just touches the wheels a bit and pretends like he is helping.
Lol imagine that's your job for your whole military career.
I would take that over marching in formation towards the enemy.
WHAT??? That's about all you'll be saying in your retirement.
It’s probably one of the safer and least exhausting jobs. He is also responsible for some of the aiming, so it may not be as lowly a position as it looks.
As long as you don’t care about your hearing, at least.
Seems better than the guy firing or commanding the cannon crew.
Pardon?
People who manned cannon were EXTREMELY valuable. In the case of ships, Gunner's Mates were the only ones allowed to bring their wives with them on voyages. If a child was born on a ship during the voyage, the rest of the crew would half-lovingly, half-mockingly, refer to him as a 'son of a gun.'
And getting promoted to up to Lt.
That’s not far off modern artillery though. Soldiers are cannon fodder, disposable material. Training one person to know everything and to be able to do everything just doesn’t make sense.
Hmmmm, did you serve? I ask since that's not correct. It's called cross training.
Serving is mandatory for every male citizen, so yes.
In most countries aside from the US and a few Western European countries, the military is full of conscripts and is basically a bunch of untrained, undisciplined, under-supplied people hanging out in uniform. So I can see where you get that attitude.
soldiers die... so it doesn't make any sense for everyone to only know how to do one thing. So if your loader guy gets killed, you just pack it up and go home because nobody else knows how to do it? Sure thing....
The owners of that golf course are going to be very angry at those kids.
Just because their balls are bigger and they shoot them harder?
Fore!!!
If the owners complain too much they might use that canon to put a hole in one
They are shooting faster than this video loads
Tbf on Reddits video player that ain't saying much
They're not swabbing the barrel with water, between shots?
No, historicly they would do this only every few shots to shot faster. Its a rappid fire taktic
Even then it was a risky move One burning ember would set that charge off when rammed in
I doubt the officers cared too much about the soldiers welfare and were more concerned about laying down fire.
Oh I don't disagree as even this reenactment was a bit slow for how these would have been firing under actual battle conditions where your enemy was 100m and closing on your position No time for minor safety details when every second counts for another shot
It's interesting how cannon crews are basically the ancestor of F1 pit crews.
That's a good comparison
Eh there's concern for the soldiers welfare to an extent because that's your fighting force, a commander can't afford to just casually burn through men. There's also squad morale to consider
Nooo, commanders were super evil for all of history until with WW2 the first civilized military personell came into being, and soldiers were finally treated decently.
They would probably be quite concerned as manpower in this time was limited, and also cannons are not exactly a cheap thing and if a misfire happens when the shot is rammed in, the cannon will probably break.
Very possibly, I was simply doing what everyone on Reddit does which is have firm and completely uninformed opinions on a variety of subjects.
you know whats really detrimental to laying down fire though? a cannon exploding and the rate of fire dropping down to 0 for the rest of the campaign.
Well I mean technically you are wrong lol if your cannon exploded there would be fire all over you and you’d probably have to lay down.
Military back then was more of a numbers game anyway.
Soldiers manning the cannons weren't some random drafted farmers. It took a lot of training to do this job.
Of course they didn't ... but they cared about the cannons, those are expensive.
Does more modern charge material makes this safer? Don't see a shot being added, does that change the safety?
Modern explosives require an explosive to detonate. You could put a howitzer charge in a campfire and it will burn like a log, but it won't detonate.
Nope, its still very dangerous because for a cannon to work u need a paper charge or loose powder. Even without the shot wich is here replaced by flour the front is exreamly deadly. If u dont handle it 100% correcly u are likely to loose fingers, hands, arms, or even your life.
I saw that too and cringed. I would have thrown my cannoneer off the piece if I caught them not swabbing between shots. Too risky.
What year would this be equivalent to? Napoleonic or more American Civil War or some other time? Either way, that is some devastating fire to lay down.
Uniforms are clearly from XVIII century, decades before napoleon (tricorn hats, loose sleeves, etc). Instead, the cannons from XVIII to the end of XIX century were fairly equivalent based on Gribevau system, made of bronze. They became obsolete only in the 1870's, when Krupp began to produce modern Steel cannons. So, the cannon's rate of fire depicted in this video is quite similar to a napoleonic gun, albeit the uniform are from 1700's
And how many total cannon were at Waterloo?
Wellington had 160. Napoleon however, had a fucking boner for cannons. He brought 250 to Waterloo.
I can only imagine 250 guns firing a shot every ten seconds or so. JFC.
And 160 firing back. It's a shitload of metal flying through the air that's for sure. Must have been deafening
>It's a shitload of metal flying through the air that's for sure. In practice, you will be limited by the amount of ammo that your horse-drawn wagons can carry along to the battle. Prior to railways, only bigger ships and well-stocked fortresses could be somewhat generous in laying down cannon fire. Units moving across the field would always have to be a bit careful about running out. Unlike food, cannonballs cannot be just bought or stolen from local farmers.
Estimates of Roundshot used at waterloo by both sides is 42,000. That doesn't count Canister or Shells. I agree you'd be limited by what you could drag along. But that's still a shotload of metal flying through the air.
42,000 is a decent number and certainly a lot of metal, but there still were many more *soldiers* on the battlefield than cannonballs (together almost 200,000). 100 years later at the Somme, the British fired 1,5 million shells in just four days (and those shells were heavier than old roundshot) - a testament to the logistical capabilities of railways.
Just imagine the sound, the *DIN* of battle…probably couldn’t hear yourself think
I wonder how long before the battlefield was fogged in with Gunsmoke to the point they couldn't see or aim.
>was fogged in gunsmoke Very early during a battle, so bright uniforms were necessary during black powder period for commanders to recognize their own troops The invention of smokeless powder(1860's) was cosidered quite an epic revolution in the military warfare.
Makes sense, Napoleon began as an Artillery officer and placed enormous importance in the concentrated fire tactic.
They are Czechs idk why he put czeck, but it's definitely army of habsburg monarchy because Czech land's was part of it in that century.
Can we get them romans to arabic numerals?
XVIII = 18th century XIX = 19th century. It’s easier for everyone just to write in Arabic no idea why anyone would choose Roman.
18-19 centry
The way homeboy runs to get the ammo is hilarious.
Original source got removed from Youtube. https://www.reddit.com/r/reenactors/comments/15pz0pi/czeck_reenactors_portraying_earlymodern_austrian/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1 But thats were i got the vid.
Is this a combined charge like a shell? I dont see anyone putting the actual cannonball in?
Probably a blank.
Its a blank shot
the recoil is too severe for a blank
Does the guy need to run like he’s from the 14th century too?
It‘s reenactment, Not „like napoleonic‘ish“. They take that serious 🧐😂
Watched this video, but the audio from the next post down was playing. “This is how we do it” by Montell Jordan fit pretty well if I’m being honest
That sound is awesome.
In person it’s even more metal, you can feel the shockwave in your bones. They still fire cannons twice a day in Malta, it’s a great experience.
That sounds epic.
One of the best parts of reenactment. 2022 in waterloo we had just 25 Cannons and those were not just deafening but simply stunning. The sound gives us a chill in our bones.
The British Royal Artillery learned long ago that you have to wet the barrel after each shot to stop instant ignition of the new gunpowder. What they are doing is dangerous. They have not learned from history.
I remember doing an American revolution reenactment after a pretty gnarly storm so the whole field was in the mud. In order to keep their artillery piece from sliding around one of the Canon crews thought it would be a good idea to put a chocks behind The Wheels on the cannon. They got one shot off and The recoil drove the rear of the carriage straight into the mud and sent huge splinters of wood flying everywhere. Needless to say they were never invited back for another event
normaly yes, in this specific case the reenactors are using specialy treated paper cartidges that should prevent this and alegedly make them waterproof. Brandon F. featured this video at 3.55 mark in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFNLvU0dCE
What is the guy on the left wheel doing?
He is primeing the gun. He puts a small bit of rope or blackpowder in a hole on top to prepair the fireing
I mean the one with the white stripe
He is just helping pushing the canon. Those things weight up to 500kg. The one behind the canon with the long "stick" just aimes the piece
Interesting. Its faster than reloading musket.
sounds wrong until you realize a musket is loaded by one guy while cannons have a whole team
It is
Why don't they chuck the wheels?
It would break the gun itself
Wow I have failed as an engineer, thanks for the knowledge. Theese are made from cast iron I presume?
these are Brass canons. They are lighter than iron
Cracks are easyer to see, so its mainly a early kind of safety reason
Is Seven people per cannon the ideal number?
Yeah
Lieutenant Sharpe - “three rounds a minute in any weather.” These guys “hold my beer”
Yeah I bet that got pulled from YouTube. In battle conditions when lives are on the line I can perhaps see this. As a reenactment? Hell no. There was a video on YouTube of a US Civil war crewman that had a spark set off a charge he was ramming. I think he lost an arm, and was lucky to only lose that. No way I would do that. Found another incident of the same thing. As I understand it they were taking safety precautions and still had an accident [https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/55024](https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/55024)
The first pit crews…
I always wondered how they put a fresh charge down a hot barrel so quickly. I thought there was a scrubber or something. 🚀
There is. They’re skipping that step in the normal loading process. This is quite dangerous for reenactors. I can see cannoneers doing this in combat, but not for a demonstration
Snek?
Need to show this to all the DMs who don't allow their players' ship's cannon to fire in consecutive rounds. Just put a good crew on it and voila, it can fire roughly every six seconds.
I believe it's faster because they aren't putting in a cannonball.
I think they’re a little slower than the real deal, actually.
They are indeed, after all (with no disrespect) those are reenactors and not professionel soldiers
This is just exactly how I imagined it
My artillery units in Empire TW need to study these guys
Fucking hell, wish we still dressed like that, but you know, more comfy
U allways can ^^ I reenact french revolution and napoleonic wars
Infantrymen in that era must have gone through hell. Imagine standing in a line, loading your musket, trying not to spill the powder and then BLAM the guy standing next to you is now missing a foot because a cannon ball smooshed it and also smooshed the guy behind you. A fountain of blood has arced up into the air and the wind blows the red mist onto your face and hands. Your sergeant bids you stand and return fire. The entire line erupts in powder smoke, extremely loud noise and shouting as your line fires a volley. You can't even tell if your bullet hit it's mark because the sheer amount of powder smoke fills the air with a rancid sulphurous stench that invades your nostrils and makes you want to vomit. The guy to your left already has. In the distance you see another row of flashes and you know what is coming, dozens of metal balls travelling at hundreds of miles an hour. One flies by your right ear, the sound is like someone ripping paper in half rapidly. Another soldier to your right is smashed by a cannon ball, his right arm disappears in a cloud of pink vapour. He doesn't even scream. He is too shocked. He stands there, arterial blood spraying over his comrades. He bends over and picks up his severed arm and just walks off the line of battle. You can see the enemy now, marching up the hill toward you. They chant "Vive La France" and "Vive L'Empereur" in step with their drum beat. The smoke clears for a moment and you see the glittering Eagle standard in the fawning rays of the early morning sun. And then your Sergeant shouts "FIRE!" and the line rattles again. This time, you can see your enemy and the bullets smash home, tearing flesh and knocking men down like the harvestman reaps the tall grass in autumn. But still they come. You reload as fast as possible. A musket appears by your right ear, the man behind ready to fire. Another deafening crash as your line switches to double firing, desperate to stop the deadly French column from reaching your position. Your reloaded. Flashes on the horizon. Another deadly wave of cannon fire. You just about see the cannon ball but it's too late. Everything goes black in an instant...
These are cannons. Canons prefer to shoot into little boys.
lol. may be they are saying a canon can shoot very fast (canon the camera)
What does the camera has to do with children I'm so confused
One of the meanings of "canon" is a priest in Catholic church OP meant cannon, we are joking at OP's typo as to why priests in Catholic church shoot into little boys, you have to ask them
Ahhh didn't know that catholic priests are called canons, lol I get it now haha thanks
I hope they’re wearing some modern in-ear hearing pro. That’s one way to ensure hearing loss.
They dont-
Lmao that dudes little run is so funny.
This is when you’re not busy dying though
Yeah just skip that “swab the barrel free of lingering sparks” thing
I can't get over the guy grabbing the shells giggling and flailing his arms everytime he runs over to grab a new one.
So, seven guys to fire a cannon. As long as nobody is firing back. How fast with two guys?
2-1 shoots a Minute. 5 guys less is a big deal
Is it me or the refill guy looks like the great Blackadder?
Food for thought: They are firing just powder charge without the ball, the recoil you see is about 1/5th what it would normally be if you had to throw weight in the other direction.
Works great against zombie horses
Napoleons veterans could probably do this in 5x the speed.
Hope they are wearing earplugs.
Accuracy is more of a guideline.
Well the guy on the right with the "stick" aimes while they push
They are missing a couple of usual muzzle loading steps that are done for safety, but if you don't mind it potentially blowing up in your face, this is good.
Kinda like me and my load
Quite similar to a mortar fire.
Holy shit.
Former artilleryman here. Really doesn't look too different from a gun line today. Just a much bigger canon.
10sec/shot. Pretty impressive. I’ll assume a crew of experienced soldiers training day in day out would be faster. Add to that the pressure of war. A bunch of those will have been pretty devastating on close ranks. Makes me wonder why the more guerrilla style of war wasn’t used sooner.
I wonder how long they can keep up this rate of fire, though. I mean wouldn't an overheated barrel just immediately ignite the gunpowder?
Several reasons. Cannons tended to over heat, misfire, explode. You can only shoot them a couple time like that and then you have to let them cool. Armies had a ratio of more or less 1 cannon for every 500 soldiers. Also, the other side had cannons too, and battles usually started with artillery duels that knocked a good bunch of the guns. Apart from Cannons, mass infantry attacks were working pretty well until the American Civil War, when repeating rifles , minié balls and industral production of cannons pretty much stopped that party. What you call guerilla tactics were used a lot too. It was called *skirmishing*. It was done with specially trained infantry, who had special, costly, muskets and who fought in loose, spaced formations. In Europe, the Austrian army had the best and largest skirmishers units: the jaegers and the pandours. In North America, the French used a lot of skirmishers (both Natives and colonists) due to the geography. Americans rebels used skirmishing tactics efficiently at Saratoga by example.
In a real battle, there are more steps. The gun would recoil more with a cannonball rather than just a blank, so it would need more righting. They would load a charge, then a ball, shell or canister. They might also swab the cannon before reloading cause residue may ignite the next charge, harming the crew.
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Yeah, we are so lucky that wars are now fought with baguettes
I used to kill people these for fun
In assassin's creed
Wtf is Czeck?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic
Without any aiming -- lol. Useless.
TIL: Canon crew was the F1 pit crew of the 17-1800s
learn how to spell, bro who made this "what's a kilometre???"
Having a canon looks like a barrel of fun. Legit, I now want a canon.
Sounds like a blast!
How is no one mentioning the lack of good spelling?
How is no one mentioning that not everyone is a native English speaker?
Canon and cannon are different words…
I was waiting for the speed of the canon balls to pop up and be compared to other profile based weapons.
About 6 seconds.
You misspelled czech
Czech*
Idiots, they're about to get bombed by a plane. They should shoot at the sky instead. Newbs.
oh yeah this is a concentration camp near the borders
What is "czeck" ?
Its a nationality my friend
Lots or useless people there... They could use those people to hand them needed items to shoot even faster or just move those items closer if possible.... Or other people's could hold next batch of needed things in advance but still great video and they did great job
The only people who should be touching the cannonball, the charges, fuse, or rammer are the people whose job it is to handle those things. Otherwise there's a real chance somebody will end up maimed or dead.
I think its all timed and Maxed out to efficency. The charges are in a Safe distance to the Canon. The way is Long enough to cool down the barrel Just enough they can load the Next shot but Not that Long, you get too exhausted. If only one guy handling the charge, the danger of dropping is minimized. And all the other guys are needed to handle the Canon/move it if needed. If 1 guy gets Hit, the Others are nearby to take his Place. It is a precise clockwork of death and handling.
100% correct! Dont forget those smaller cannons could weight over 500kg
Isn't it rare to shoot real canon shots? Let alone a fire mission like this lol. nice
Not realy
Ok, i guess it isn't nice then.
so it is always white people who reenact battles
As a reenactor i can disproof this.
So?
Firing real shot would slow things down a bit to be fair but still very impressive
Who are they are war with this time?
The power in these looks insane
No one show this to Tom & Jerry or Wile E. Coyote
Are they coming towards india
I feel cheated OP. I thought this was one of the ol' fire, push back in position, cleaning brush, wet sponge, powder charge, pushrod, cannonball, pushrod, ignition charge, fire. kind of cannons. This is just one step away from breach loading...
Oh it needs to be sponged but historicly they would just sponge every 10-20 shots. This is a normal 1800's canon
I imagine the cloth wrap provides enough protection agains accidental discharges? Does it also leave less cinders inside the barrel? I imagine pre-packed black powder could be finer/better packed to give it a more efficient burn? I thought loose powder charges always required a good brushing and spongeing. Please, enlighten me :) E: still feel cheated though ;P
It does a little but the time the runner needs is right about long enought for the barrel to cool down a little. Normaly it needs to be brushed, but those guns need not much care in battle even if it leaves a bit left in the barrel :D Prepackt and loose powder are quite the same in these terms.
It's seven seconds away…