"A Production Line of Death”: How Volley Fire Changed the Face of Battle (and Where it Originated)

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Thanks to Opera for sponsoring this video. Click here https://opr.as/Opera-browser-sandrhomanhistory to upgrade your browser for FREE! When firing volleys, all men of the first row of a formation shot simultaneously. Then, they made way for their comrades to fire the next round. Volley fire emerged in the 16th century and fundamentally changed warfare. It enabled infantry with arquebuses and muskets to fire continuously for the first time in history, making fighting in formation more efficient—and battles more deadly. How this firing mode looked in its final form can be seen, for example, in the film Zulu, which depicts the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879. In this battle, 139 British soldiers defended a mission station in South Africa against almost 4,000 Zulu warriors. Thanks to the deliberate use of volley fire, they managed to repel several assaults and hold the station. This video explores how and where volley fire originated, how it worked, and why it was so effective. Check out our Amazon Storefront for all sorts of military history, military SIFI and military fantasy books that we recommend: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sandrhomanhistory Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/sandrhomanhistory Paypal (thank you: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/SandRhomanhistory Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sandrhoman Bibliography Ágoston, Gábor, Firearms and military adaptation: The Ottomans and the European military revolution, 1450-1800, in: Journal of World History, vol. 25/1 (2014), pp. 16-24. Ágoston, Gábor, Guns for the sultan: Military power and the weapons industry in the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge 2005, pp. 93-94. Andrade, Tonio, The Arquebus Volley Technique in China, c. 1560: Evidence from the Writings of Qi Jiguang, in: Sim, Teddy Y.H. (ed.), The Maritime Defense of China. Ming General Qi Jiguang and Beyond, Singapore 2017, pp. 73-92. Andrade, Tonio, The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton 2016. Börekçi, Günhan, A contribution to the military revolution debate: The Janissaries’ use of volley fire during the long Ottoman-Habsburg War of 1593-1606 and the problem of origins, in: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 59/4 (2006), pp. 407-38. Dierk, Walter, s.v. 'Heeresreform', in: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Duffy, Christopher, Fire and Stone. The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860, New York 1975 León, Fernando Gonzalez de, Spanish military power and the military revolution, in: Geoff Mortimer (ed.), Early modern military history, 1450-1815, New York 2004, pp. 25-42. Meumann, Markus, s.v. ‘Military Revolution’, in: Encyclopaedia of the Modern Era. Muir, Rory, Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon, New Haven/London 1998 Ōta, Gyūichi, Elisonas, J.S.A. and Lamers, Jeroen Pieter, The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, Leiden 2011, p. 42. Parker Geoffrey, The “Military Revolution”, 1560-1660 - a Myth?, in: Journal of Modern History 48.2, 1976, 196-214 Parker Geoffrey, The Limits to Revolutions in Military Affairs: Maurice of Nassau, the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600), and the Legacy, in The Journal of Military History, 71;2, 2007; pp. 331 - 372. Parker, Geoffrey, From the House of Orange to the House of Bush. 400 years of Revolutions in Military Affairs, in: Militaire Spectator, 172/IV (2003), pp. 177-93. Parker, Geoffrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, Cambridge 2008. Parker, Geoffrey, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, Cambridge 1996. Parker Geoffrey, The military revolution, 1560-1660, in: Clifford J. Rogers: The military revolution debate. Readings on the military transformation of early modern Europe, Boulder 1995, pp. 13-35. Rogers, Clifford J. / Tallet, Frank (eds.), European Warfare, 1350-1750, 2010. Rogers, Clifford J. (ed.), The Military Revolution Debate. Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe, 1995. Van Nimwegen, Olaf, The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688.