05-30-2006, 07:25 AM
Quote:As an engineer signaller i once marched 30 kilometers with 30 kilos of packing, in just over five hours, on gravel roads. I wept as i stumbled over the finish line. Other guys in the platoon, who i know was far weaker than me took a couple of hours longer than me to finish, and had no problems what so ever. Swedish ranger forces are supposed to be able to march fifty kilometers a day with bigger bergens plus taking turns with a 81 mm mortar, one per platoon. Our paracomandos are supposed to march 70 kilometers in under 24 hours in very difficult terrain. I suppose that roman veterans were more like paracomandos in stamina than like weaklings like me.
Wow. I could never do that, not even in my twenties when I was young and in shape!
How would that work in a larger Group, when all men would have to march together? I remember from my days in the military that marching in a group (especially the forced marching) was most difficult for the tallest and the shortest men, for they were always adapting their pace to the ones in the middle. Any marching effort would have been influenced by that factor, right?
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
