Time Commanders

They used hit and run tactics with their knights to pull the Saxons out of formation but then failed to take advantage. Ultimately they got pulled into a grinding match which ultimately they lost. William the Bastard (yes that is what he was called before become The Conquer) was sent in to stop the rot but ultimately ended up with his head on a Saxon pike.

 

Would you separate fact from Norman propoganda for those of us unfamiliar with the battle?

 

Gladly - how long do you have?

If you look at the accounts of the battle in chronological order, they get further & further from the truth.

Contemporary sources say:

both armies raced for the high ground, English won the race, Normans attacked, attack failed, English counter-attack the fleeing Normans, William the Bastard (yes, Ebar is correct!) rallies the Normans, counter-counter attacks... and then it get confused. Either it decends into a big free-for-all here, or it reverts to the starting position, the Normans try again, and then it reverts to a big free-for-all. Harold is killed by 4 knight who are assigned to deliberately kill him off. English crumble at the death of their leader (as all medieval armies do) but his bodyguard fight on (as they do).

Later sources have the English ready formed-up on Senlac Hill before the Normans got there. It is the Breton allies who flee, not the Normans, and the counter-counter attack is hugely successful. William then organises the following (and oft repeated) series of attack: arrow hail (continuous, all day) then cavalry attack, feign flight, the dumb English always chase them, and are always cut down. This lasts all day.

Ok - an arrow hail throughout the day? If William had 1,000 archers (quite likely) shooting 5 arrows a minute each (a conservative estimate, up to 14 could be down with training, up to 30 with high training), that gives 150,000 arrows in just half an hour. Remember that all the Norman supplies had been brought across the Channel in one go, including a thousand or more horses. And I doubt the English obligingly gave the used arrows back...
Plus, the short-bow then in use would be bog-all use against men in armour with big shields standing on top of a hill.

Feigned retreats. Pah. Yes, they could be (and were) done at this time - once even by the Normans (against the French, though William was not present). However, never in the scale apparently undertaken here, and they were very complex to do right, and disasterous to do wrong. Remembering that the 'Norman' army was mostly not Norman, but Mercenaries from across Europe (can anybody say 'language barrier'?)...


Other exploded myths:

1) English troops were ill-equipped or ill-armed. Rubbish. Both sides were equally well equipped, the only real differences being that the English used 'bearded axes' (big axe on a 6ft pole) and the Normans had a few rudimentary crossbows. Most common weapon remained the spear.

I need to get my essay published...

 

What happened in the show was that the Norman horsemen performed one perfect hit-and-run after another, grinding down the shield wall and tempting the English to move downhill leaving a huge yawning gap in their line. The Normans, however, did nothign with this even though they had plenty of units to exploit it; they preferred to throw their archers in hand-to-hand combat against the reforming shield wall and they became completely paralyzed when one of their horse units killed an English general because the team thought they had killed Harold and the battle would be over.

 

Bollocks - unless I am reading the BBC schedules wrong then in place of Time Commanders on the 6th we have a bunch of bloody dogs and their owners prancing about the arena.

:angry: :bang: :bang: :bang:

 

The Dogs of War? Dog Soldiers?

 

I dont believe it - the hamster is commentating on Crufts!!!!

 

Dammit, sunday night's not Hammond time, it's Time Commanders time! What, do you think we watch it just to see the Hamster at work? :angry:

 

Back on 6.15 UK time Sunday.