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Cannon Fodder
Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where combatants are forced to fight against hopeless odds (with the foreknowledge that they will suffer extremely high casualties) in an effort to achieve a strategic goal; an example is the trench warfare of World War I. The term may also be used (somewhat pejoratively) to differentiate infantry from other forces (such as artillery troops, air force or the navy), or to distinguish expendable low-grade or inexperienced combatants from more militarily valuable veterans. The term derives from fodder, as food for livestock. Soldiers are the metaphorical food for enemy cannon fire. Etymology The concept of soldiers as fodder, as nothing more than "food" to be consumed by battle, dates back to at least the 16th century. For example, in William Shakespeare's play '' Henry IV, Part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Combatant
Combatant is the legal status of a person entitled to directly participate in hostilities during an armed conflict, and may be intentionally targeted by an adverse party for their participation in the armed conflict. Combatants are not afforded immunity from being directly targeted in situations of armed conflict and can be attacked regardless of the specific circumstances simply due to their status, so as to deprive their side of their support. In an interstate conflict, the definition of "combatant" is found in Article 43 (2) of Protocol I, Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: "Members of the armed forces of a Party to a conflict (other than Military medicine, medical personnel and military chaplain, chaplains covered by Article 33 of the Third Geneva Convention, Third [Geneva] Convention) are combatants, that is to say, they have the right to participate directly in hostilities." Combatants when captured by an opposing party are automatically granted the status ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career of Napoleon, a series of military campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He led the French First Republic, French Republic as French Consulate, First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then ruled the First French Empire, French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815. He was King of Italy, King of Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Italy from 1805 to 1814 and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1813. Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Suicide Attack
A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is often associated with terrorism or war. When the attackers are labelled as terrorists, the attacks are sometimes referred to as an act of ''" suicide terrorism"''. While generally not inherently regulated under international law, suicide attacks in their execution often violate international laws of war, such as prohibitions against perfidy and targeting civilians. Suicide attacks have occurred in various contexts, ranging from military campaigns—such as the Japanese pilots during World War II —to more contemporary Islamic terrorist campaigns—including the September 11 attacks in 2001. Initially, these attacks primarily targeted military, police, and public officials. This approach continued with groups like al-Qaeda, which combine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Shock Troops
Shock troops, assault troops, or storm troops are special formations created to lead military attacks. They are often better trained and equipped than other military units and are expected to take heavier casualties even in successful operations. "Shock troop" is a calque, a loose translation of the German word ''Stoßtrupp'' (literally "thrust squad" or "push squad"). Assault troopers are typically organized for mobility with the intention that they will penetrate enemy defenses and attack into the enemy's vulnerable rear areas. Any specialized, elite unit formed to fight an engagement via overwhelming assault (usually) would be considered shock troops, as opposed to "special forces" or commando-style units (intended mostly for covert operations). However, both types of units could fight behind enemy lines, by surprise if required. Before 1914 The Companion cavalry of Alexander the Great (356-326 BC) are described as being the first example of shock cavalry being used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Penal Military Unit
A penal military unit, also known as a penal formation, disciplinary unit, or just penal unit (usually named for their formation and size, such as ''penal battalion'' for battalions, ''penal regiment'' for regiments, ''penal company'' for companies, etc.), is a military formation consisting of convicts mobilized for military service. Such formations may consist of military prisoners convicted under military law, civilian prisoners convicted in civilian courts, prisoners of war who have chosen to side with their captors, or a combination of these groups. Service in penal military units is generally considered a form of punishment, discipline, or penal labour, used in lieu of, or offered as an alternative to, imprisonment or capital punishment. Penal units have historically been used as disposable cannon fodder, treated poorly or with little regard and used in compromising or dangerous situations (commonly suicide missions such as demining or forlorn hope advance parties), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Human Wave Attack
A human wave attack, also known as a human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun and overwhelm the defenders by engaging in melee combat. The name refers to the concept of a coordinated mass of soldiers falling upon an enemy force and sweeping them away with sheer weight and momentum, like an ocean wave breaking on a beach. Definition According to U.S. Army analyst Edward C. O'Dowd, the technical definition of a human wave attack tactic is a frontal assault by densely concentrated infantry formations against an enemy line, without any attempts to shield or to mask the attacker's movement. The goal of a human wave attack is to maneuver as many people as possible into close range, hoping that the shock from a large mass of attackers engaged in melee combat would force the enemy to disintegrate or fall back. The human w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Forlorn Hope
A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the vanguard in a military operation, such as a suicidal assault through the breach of a defended position, or the first men to climb a scaling ladder against a defended fortification, or a rearguard, to be expended to save a retreating army, where the risk of casualties is high. Such men were volunteers motivated by the promise of reward or promotion, or men under punishment offered pardon for their offenses, if they survived. Etymology The term comes from the Dutch , literally "lost heap". The term was used in military contexts to denote a troop formation. In the 16th century, when English-speakers first encountered the phrase, it was misheard as "forlorn hope", giving an added meaning to the term. While ''verloren'' is correctly identified with the English "forlorn" (both words stemming from the Proto-Germanic ''ferliusan''), the Dutch word (in its sense of "heap" in English) is not cognate with En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Male Expendability
Male expendability, the relative expendability argument, or the expendable male hypothesis, is the idea that the lives of male humans are of less concern to a population than those of female humans because they are less necessary for population replacement. Since the 1970s, anthropologists have used the concept of male expendibility to study such things as polygyny, matrilinearity, and division of labor by gender role. The concept comes from the idea that, from a reproductivity standpoint, one male may be able to impregnate or otherwise father offspring with many females. In humans, this would mean that a population with many reproducing women and few reproducing men would be able to grow more easily than a population with many reproducing men and few reproducing women. Origin According to Carol Mukhopadhyay and Patricia Higgins, the concept of male expendability was first described by fellow anthropologist Ernestine Friedl in 1975, though she gave it no particular name. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Conscription And Sexism
Conscription, sometimes called "the draft", is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Men have been subjected to military drafts in most cases. Currently only three countries conscript women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands (in the latter conscription is suspended during peacetime). Opponents of discrimination against men, including some feminists, have criticized military conscription, or compulsory military service, as sexist. They regard it as discriminatory to compel men, but not women, into military service. They say conscription of men normalizes male violence, conscripts are indoctrinated into sexism and violence against men, and military training socializes conscripts into patriarchal gender roles. While not all feminists are anti-militarists, opposition to war and militarism has been a strong current within the women's movement. Prominent suffragists like Quaker Alice Paul, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Morning Chronicle
''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It was the first newspaper to employ a salaried woman journalist, Eliza Lynn Linton; for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew that were collected and published in book format in 1851 as '' London Labour and the London Poor''; and for publishing other major writers, such as John Stuart Mill. The newspaper published under various owners until 1862, when its publication was suspended, with two subsequent attempts at continued publication. From 28 June 1769 to March 1789 it was published under the name ''The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser''. From 1789 to its final publication in 1865, it was published under the name ''The Morning Chronicle''. Founding The ''Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser'' was founded in 1769 by Willia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Hendrik Conscience
Henri (Hendrik) Conscience (3 December 1812 – 10 September 1883) was a Belgian author. He is considered the pioneer of Dutch-language literature in Flanders, writing at a time when Belgium was dominated by the French language among the upper classes, in literature and government. Conscience fought as a Belgian revolutionary in 1830 and was a notable writer in the Romanticist style popular in the early 19th century. He is best known for his romantic nationalist novel, '' The Lion of Flanders'' (1838), inspired by the victory of a Flemish peasant militia over French knights at the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs during the Franco-Flemish War. Over the course of his career, he published over 100 novels and novellas and achieved considerable popularity. After his death, with the decline of romanticism, his works became less fashionable but are still considered as classics of Flemish literature. Early life Childhood Hendrik was the son of a Frenchman, Pierre Conscience, from Bes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |