04-26-2005, 06:32 PM
Somebody else chime in, but it may also have been due to the need to keep the "tail" of the legion short. A limited amount of carts would have meant guys carrying more of their personal gear. one piece tents are huge and I thought I read somewhere that most legions tried to keep the number of carts to one per century, so just packing on the tents would have loaded them down.
Cooking utensils would have been personal gear, and most likely split up so each guy in the squad carried something inportant like the communal pot or this or that. This way if they lost the cart they could still drive on. All these little practicalities would have been honed over centuries of campaigning, where the first and formost rule of combat is that stuff happens and be prepared for anything.
"in world war 2 infantrymen carried the shelter halves 1 pole and 6 pegs, the Germans the zeltbarn 3 sections , 3 men. the reason they used these because it was practical"
Except that on operations few soldiers from any army (that has an interest in survival that is), while in combat areas, pitched pup tents. It's just not done except in the movies. The shelter halfs would have been good ground cloths or something extra to wrap yoruself in while you slept on the ground at the bottom of your hole.
Likewise a Roman legionary would have used his cloak for similar purposes if he didn't have his tent. This is the lot of soldiers for time immemorial.
Los
Cooking utensils would have been personal gear, and most likely split up so each guy in the squad carried something inportant like the communal pot or this or that. This way if they lost the cart they could still drive on. All these little practicalities would have been honed over centuries of campaigning, where the first and formost rule of combat is that stuff happens and be prepared for anything.
"in world war 2 infantrymen carried the shelter halves 1 pole and 6 pegs, the Germans the zeltbarn 3 sections , 3 men. the reason they used these because it was practical"
Except that on operations few soldiers from any army (that has an interest in survival that is), while in combat areas, pitched pup tents. It's just not done except in the movies. The shelter halfs would have been good ground cloths or something extra to wrap yoruself in while you slept on the ground at the bottom of your hole.
Likewise a Roman legionary would have used his cloak for similar purposes if he didn't have his tent. This is the lot of soldiers for time immemorial.
Los
Los
aka Carlos Lourenco
aka Carlos Lourenco
