09-05-2016, 05:53 PM
(09-05-2016, 05:03 PM)JaM Wrote: You seems to not understand what i'm writing about... Self-preservation is not something ordinary man can simply switch off and on as he pleases.. you usually have to overcome it, no matter who you are.. its an instinct that keeps you alive, that prevents you doing things that could be potentially dangerous.. yes, some men were able to overcome it, but it was not a norm that can be expected from every single soldier, and such a feat was usually something exceptional, and worth mentioning by somebody important.(like Caesar for example)
and also you cannot build up a combat formation theory, that just completely goes against such a base human instincts.. If anything, their combat tactics would follow these "rules", try to bend them to gain advantage (using same thing against the enemy, make him withdraw/run from battle first) People are not mindless robots. They would not stand and hack each other into pieces until killed.
A WWI front line soldier had a much large chance of becoming a casualty by going over the top of the trenches in a major offensive, where tens, even hundreds of thousands died in a week's time. I am a former soldier, who served in combat, and I would NEVER have gone over the top. No way. And yet they still did it. Why?
Because times change, people change. Mentality and mindset changes. What you believe is suicidal is not what I believe is suicidal, and what I believe is not what someone from Iraq believes now, or a Frenchman in 1916, let alone a Roman in 52 BC.
