But the angle was not broken. Not any longer. Horn—trusted Horn, trustworthy Horn—had reformed the line even before his kings orders arrived. The Swedish left now formed a solid corner for the battlefield. The imperial heavy cavalry had already broken against that Baltic rock. The tercios lumbered up and did no better. Pike against pike, the Catholics were easily the equal of their foe. But the Swedish king was a believer in firepower more than cold steel. He had studied the methods of the Dutch, and tested them in Poland and Russia. At Breitenfeld, the Swedes had a higher arquebus-to-pike ratio than their enemies. More important, Gustav Adolf had trained them to fight in shallow formations, following the Dutch example. Tillys arquebusiers were arrayed thirty ranks deep. Most of those arquebuses could not be brought to bear. Gustavs, not more than six—just enough to allow time to reload while the front ranks fired. The Swedish pikes held the tercios at bay long enough for the Swedish preponderance in firepower to bring down them down. Tillys men never buckled. But they made no headway against the Swedish line. They simply died. And meanwhile, the king of Sweden prepared the death stroke. Tilly and his tercios could not wheel, but Gustav Adolf could. Could, and did. youtube/watch?v=s9eWbrc_ynw
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:30:01 +0000
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