Old sayings and their roots

[Cincydawg]

As you know, Napoleon adopted tactics suited for conscripts not well trained, while the British army - far smaller - was highly trained.  I'm told at Waterloo the British soldiers killed were in lines where they fought and died, or in square.  The British ability to maneuver was superb.   Wellington's Peninsula Campaigns were as close to brilliant as any in history I think.

"mid 18th century (as a noun in the sense ‘tactical movement’): from French manœuvre (noun), manœuvrer (verb)"

The French military today is more of a punchline, but not well deserved when you go back in time, like Battle of Tour, one of the most significant in Western history.  That one really put the hammer on the "Moors" (Umyyads).

[CWSooner]

Yep.  British lines and squares vs. French massed columns, preceded by massed artillery fire.

Napoleon wasn't at his best at Waterloo.  Nor were his subordinates.  He was ill and issued unclear orders.  Meanwhile, they continually let him down, what with Grouchy's uninspired "pursuit" of the Prussians that took him out of the battle while letting the Prussians rejoin it, and Ney losing control of himself and acting like a brigadier rather than a Marshal of France.

Napoleon's tactics really came a cropper when they were applied in the age of rifle fire, like in the American Civil War.

When I was teaching at Leavenworth, we published a book subtitled That Fatal Knot (available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Compound-Warfare-That-Fatal-Knot/dp/141021530X), which was what Napoleon called Spain.  The book was on fortified compound warfare, and Wellington's Peninsula Campaign was one of the prime examples.

Since this thread is ostensibly about old sayings and their roots, it's worth noting that the term "Old Guard" comes from Napoleon's army, of course.

[Riffraft]

Heard one the other day "it is time to pay the piper" Never considered where is came from before then, but figure it must come from the Pied Piper of Hamlet story.

[Cincydawg]

The rifled bore was a major change in military operations, obviously, followed not long thereafter with rapid firing breech loading rifles and cartridges.

The French 75 was a significant development, as were of course "tanks", called "Char" in French (after chariot) and panzer in German.

We got to tour part of the Maginot line.  Every tiny village in France has an obelisk with names on it from those KIA in WW I.  I've been in tiny places where they had 50-60 names on the memorial.  The French lost almost the entire generation.  By 1935, their demographics were horrible, and Maginot realized he needed fortifications to enable fewer men to man a longer area between France and Germany, the actual border.  The line of course "worked" on a tactical basis.  The French strategy was to fight the war on the defensive AND in Belgium, as northern France was heavily damaged in the first war.  They adhered to that concept, fine concept as it was, except that the Germans (Manstein) had other ideas.

Had the Germans continued with their modified Schlieffen plan, it's likely the war in France would have lasted quite a bit longer.  Make sure the Right is strong!

[CWSooner]

From the Font of All Wisdom and Knowledge:
"Hoist with his own petard" is a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet that has become proverbial. The phrase's meaning is literally that the bomb-maker (a "petard" is a small explosive device) is blown up ("hoisted" off the ground) by his own bomb, and indicates an ironic reversal, or poetic justice.
The phrase occurs in a central speech in the play in which Hamlet has discovered a plot on his life by Claudius and resolves to respond to it by letting the plotter be "Hoist with his own petard." Although the now-proverbial phrase is the best known part of the speech, it and the later sea voyage and pirate attack are central to critical arguments regarding the play.
The phrase, and its containing speech, exist in only one of three early printed versions of the play — the second quarto edition — and scholars are divided on whether this is indicative of authorial intent, or a mere artefact of playhouse practicalities.

[MrNubbz]

Sorry,CW but I've never heard that expression

[FearlessF]

not a "Hamlet" lover?

[MrNubbz]

I like ham & eggs

[CWSooner]

Green eggs and ham?