Wednesday, July 30, 2008

"Follow Me, Men!"

I never thought of this before, but I'll bet it's right:
Military historian Hans Delbrueck has rightly pointed out that the human voice does not carry very far, especially over the noise of battle, and that tales of leaders inspiring and rallying their men by voice ... simply cannot be true, despite their universal currency.
That's from Erik Hildinger, Warrors of the Steppe (1997, at 164), of which I hope to say more later as soon as I finish it. "Delbrueck" appears to be Hans Delbrueck, Medieval Warfare, 3 vols. (trans. W.J. Renfroe Jr., 1990), unread by me.

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