 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Shield wall" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ashield wall (scieldweall orbordweall inOld English,skjaldborg in Old Norse) is amilitary formation that was common inancient andmedieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation,but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder and holding theirshields so that they would abut or overlap. Each soldier thus benefited from the protection of the shields of his neighbors and his own.
The formation was known to be used by many ancient armies including thePersianSparabara,Greekphalanx, and theearly Roman army, but its origin and spread is unknown. It may have developed independently more than once.
Although little is recorded about their military tactics, theStele of the Vultures depictsSumerian soldiers in a shield wall formation during the third millennium BC.
By the seventh century BC, shield walls in ancient Greece are well-documented. The soldiers in the shield wall formations were calledhoplites, so named for their equipment (ὅπλα,hópla).Aspis shields were 3 ft (0.91 m) in diameter, sometimes covered in bronze. Instead of fighting individual battles in large skirmishes, hoplites fought as cohesive units in this tight formation with their shields pushing forward against the man in front (to use weight of numbers). The left half of the shield was designed to cover the unprotected right side of the hoplite next to them. The worst, or newest, fighters would be placed in the middle front of the formation to provide both physical and psychological security.[1]
In a phalanx, the man at the right hand of each warrior had an important role; he covered the right side of the warrior next to him with his shield. This made it so that all the shields overlap each other and thus formed a solid battle line. The second row's purpose was to kill the soldiers of the first line of an enemy shield wall, and thus break the line.[citation needed]
The Romanscutum was a large shield designed to fit with others to form a shield wall but not overlap. Roman legions used an extreme type of shield wall called atestudo formation that covered front, sides and above. In this formation, the outside ranks formed a dense vertical shield wall and inside ranks held shields over their heads, thus forming a tortoise-like defense, well-protected from missile weapons. Although highly effective against missiles, the formation was slow and was vulnerable to being isolated and surrounded by swarms of enemy soldiers. Caesar, inDe Bello Gallico, describes the Germans as fighting in a tight phalanx-like formation with long spears jutting out over their shields.
In thelate Roman andByzantine armies, similar formations of locked shields and projecting spears were calledfulcum (φοῦλκον,phoulkon in Greek), and were first described in the late 6th-centuryStrategikon. Roman legions were typically well-trained, and often used short stabbing-swords (such as thegladius) in the close-quarters combat that inevitably resulted when their shield-walls contacted the enemy. As auxiliaries were often less well-armed, a shield-wall with spearmen was commonly used to provide a better defence.
TheDaylamite infantrymen used solid shield walls while advancing against their enemies, and used their two-pronged short spears and battle-axes from behind.[2]
The shield-wall was commonly used in many parts ofNorthern Europe such as inEngland andScandinavia.
In the battles between theAnglo-Saxons and theDanes inEngland, most of the Saxon army would have consisted of the inexperiencedfyrd, a militia composed offree peasants.
The first three ranks of the wall would have been made up of select warriors, such ashuscarls andthegns, who carried heavier weapons such asDane axes and consistently worearmour, and were often theretainers ofealdormen. However, the vast majority of combatants in such battles were equipped only with shields and spears, which they used against the unprotected legs or faces of their opponents. Often, soldiers would use their weapons to support one another by stabbing and slashing to the left or the right, rather than just ahead. Short weapons, such as the ubiquitousseax, could also be used in the tight quarters of the wall. Limited use ofarchery and thrown missile weapons occurred in opening stages of shield-wall battles but were rarely decisive to the outcome.
The drawback of the shield-wall tactic was that once a shield wall was breached, the whole formation tended to fall apart quickly. Themorale of the less-trained fyrdmen was sustained by being shoulder to shoulder with their comrades, but panic might well set in among them once theircohesion was disrupted. Once breached, it could prove difficult or impossible to re-establish a defensive line, leading to arout.
Although the importance of cavalry in theBattle of Hastings portended the end of the shield wall tactic, massed shield walls would continue to be employed right up to the end of the12th century, especially in areas that were unsuitable for large-scale mounted warfare, such as Scandinavia, theSwiss Alps andScotland.
The tactic was used at theBattle of Stamford Bridge in which the relatively well-armed Saxon army hit the Norwegian army ofKing Harald Sigurdsson unaware. The Norwegians were not wearing as much armour since they had left theirhauberks behind on their ships and were only wearing their helmets. After a bloody battle between two shield walls, the Norwegians fled in panic, and were almost entirely wiped out.
Both sides at theBattle of Hastings are depicted as using the formation in theBayeux Tapestry[3] although the battle was ultimately won through a combination offeigned retreats byNorman mounted cavalry and the impetuousness and fatigue of the Anglo-Saxon warriors.
The shield-wall as a tactic has declined and has been resurrected a number of times. For example, in the Greek phalanges (the plural form ofphalanx), as thedory gave way to thesarissa, it became impossible to carry a large shield and so it was abandoned in favor of much smaller shields were used.
Likewise, in the Late Middle Ages, the shield was abandoned in favor ofpolearms carried with both hands (and often partial plate armor), giving rise topike square tactics.
Although obsolete as a military tactic because of firearms and explosives, a wall ofriot shields remains a common formation for police worldwide for protection against large groups usingimprovised weapons, punches, kicks, and thrown objects such as bricks, bottles, andMolotov cocktails.