Humfrey Barwick was an English soldier who served as a mercenary in France and Spain during the late 1500s. He wrote a treatise to explain, as someone who had personal experience with them, the benefits of longbows compared to firearms (specifically, muskets and arquebuses). At the time, most English were certain that longbows were superior. Some of his points, summarized and translated into modern English, go like this:
- The harquebus requires a lot of training to use properly, many English do not trust it yet because they are not yet used to the weapon.
- The English are overly attached to the longbow due to their history and culture. ‘
- Noble men can’t understand the effect of weapons as well as common soldiers do. Particularly those who use firearms since those professions are considered beneath noblemen.
- If the weather is so wet that everything gets damp then it is also a disadvantage for the other side. In this case the soldiers can either wait it out or engage in melee.
- Barwick claims he has never seen anyone slain outright by an arrow and only a few by crossbow quarrels, but has seen 20,000 killed by gunshots.
- There is no archer who can shoot more than 2 arrows for every 1 bullet from a well trained harquebuser.
- Barwick discusses the siege of Lieth in which 448 English soldiers were killed. When he asked how many of the defenders were killed by arrows he learns that there were none over the course of the entire siege, except for one man who was still recovering from his wound.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário