Sharpe is attacked while digging trenches. __ In the Peninsular War, a British sergeant is field promoted to a lieutenant in charge of a disrespectful rifle company.
I love how everyone else has sticks and branches and Harper has an actual log. Even when he's unarmed, he still has the biggest weapon out of all of them.
I like how Sharpe actually respects the new officer (I don't know his name, I just know he was Elton in Doctor Who and in Band of Brothers) after he actually fought with them, rather than running away like Hakeswill or Simmerson
@@AmTrFilms think the french decided defence against stick wielding english was better than losing bigger numbers to sticks, also not really time to think straight with harper 5 seconds away from clubbing your head in
Fired them on the charge, standard practice for a flying advance. The english broke and ran, so they didn't expect them to come back. The french were notoriously slow to reload, so an immediate and unexpected counter charge caught them with unloaded guns.
These scene makes a lot more sense when you watch the whole movie. It is previously set up that the French command is paying a reward to anyone who turns in a spade. They know that the British are lacking engineering supplies and they want to impede their siege efforts by encouraging theft of the limited number of spades they do have. In the scene the British are doing some digging and the French charge them. They naturally assume that it is an attack meant to counter their entrenching and since they have no weapons, they run. When the officer calls out not to let the French take the spades they look at them and realize that the French were just trying to steal them for money. They have broken their formation, most of them cannot shoot or fight now because they are greedy and they are holding onto a ridiculous number of spades which they stole, nobody bothered to reload because they didn't want other to get to the spades first and they are now compeltely disorganized. There is no way that the French would be able to form a line and fire a volley before the British got to them and most of them will not let go of the spades to engage in a melee. That is why the British were able to charge a trench with no rifles or muskets and why they knew that they could do that even though they just ran from the same group of French.
I don’t think it was translated well, but in the books it was apparently raining so the French soldiers couldn’t reload and the cannon were damp as well
magic of english propaganda don't tell them they lost the hundred years war because of a little girl or that they were running away and crapping their pants at waterloo when the prussians arrived with twice more soldiers than the French or that the day before they lost the Quatre Bras battle 😂
This scene always confused me. 1. We can't fight them 2. Flee for their lives 3. Suddenly start finding it funny 4. Say there's nothing we can do 5. Suddenly decide the spades are important 6. Charge at armed Frenchmen with sticks 7. Win
to explain it for you: in the military you often have to do some shit jobs. be it Kitchen cleaning or bathroom scrubbing, or literally digging a hole or trench. you dont enjoy this duty and you curse the luck of any man who escapes this type of duty. When the french muster, with musket and rifle, and cannon support, they are trying to drive the british troops off of their new trenches. the british were getting too close to the french fort, and that comprimises security. so the brits, having left their rifles behind and carrying digging instruments, cant fight a trained french unit. they retreat. but the french arent pressing an attack or offensive. instead of continuing an advance against the unarmed brits, they stop, and many french trade their rifles for the discarded british shovels, to begin filling in the hole. its funny because at the expense of cannon and musket fire, to risk life and limb, and to advance into an entrenched enemy (all very dangerous things to do) all the french choose to do is the reverse of what the british were doing. they charged the british lines to perform their own shit work detail. its like someone fighting you over the right to scrub dirty toilets! its funny! so then, with officer's orders (the man in the blue uniform who is shot and must be carried off) and half the french now armed only with shovels themselves. the British counterattack to retake the trench. now because the two sides are more equal (the french being largely unarmed now) the british numbers mean they can overwhelm the french unit. and so they do, with stick and stone and shovel. tl;dr the french scare the brits, who find out that there isnt anything to be afraid of, and they then counter attack.
@@philippedetourris4452 i would understand why a frenchman would think so. it isnt the most flattering film. my french is bad, but i believe it is: 'à chacun ses goûts'
I like how Sharpe grows to respect Rymer. He may be green and Sharpe’s replacement as Company Commander. But he proved that he is brave and capable. I also like how Rymer knows who Sharpe is as a soldier and mutually respects him in return.
Often times this show has the amusing feature of being about moments which included hundreds and thousands of people but only featuring a few. In these scenes however I think the directors really pull off making the scale look right, even with few people by, for the most part, keeping the camera close in and narrowing the view to give a myopic but personal POV of the most important characters and their reactions.
@Gena Norrick I know you are a scamming piece of shit and all so it doesn't really matter but how in the flying fuck would you know that it is 'great so far' if you hadn't even tried it out yet lol
2:24. In the book, Hakeswill is often described in animalistic terms. Love the way they included that little rattlesnake noise as he slinks away. How his greatcoat makes him blend into the background. He could easily be too ridiculous to be scary but little touches like that hint at his cunning and sense of opportunity.
Sharpe doubles back with his commanding officer in whip snap reply to a senior officer being wounded (The General's wounding being second most to his emphatic orders to save the shovels), even though not a rifle or musket between a man, winning the element of surprise in quick response to not make a joke of an order. Lesson One. He leads from the front, always, even recognizing the comical futility of their orders. Lesson Two. Even though he knows his current commander isn't the better man, he gives due deference to him in allowance of the cohesion of the unit and their cause. Lesson Three. Great Show.
@@Firan25 The order to retrieve the spades seemed like a silly waste of life, but Sharpe carried them out so quickly the French were taken by surprise and no-one died.
I understand wearing them was a nightmare, though. Not all of them were made with comfort in mind and, even then, the adage "uniforms come in two sizes, too big and too small" applied. Imagine wearing tights a size too small, yikes!
The mission is worthless. It produces laughter. A unknown off panel officer is shot. The mission becomes the most important one in history. That's soldiering.
Ever been through a company level change of command? Every shovel, pick, fire extinguisher, socket, ratchet, chair, desk, bed, sheet, blanket, curtain, broom, mop, buffer, pen, M9, M16, M916 is accounted for. You don't want any of that stuff to go missing. Sure, it's cheap, but the military don't buy cheap stuff cheap. So I understand Sharpe not wanting the French to take his equipment without a fight. Only once did I see a change in commanders without laying out everything and an hours long ceremony with speeches. When we went to Iraq we got a new captain that week because the old one had diabetes and couldn't deploy with us.
This clips shows a good example between (1) a soldier who jumps through ranks quickly and with privilege vs. (2) a hard-working and struggling soldier who understands and connects other hard-working and struggling soldiers. Also, try comparing Simmerson with Sharpe to see my point. All of this just shows that while we all want privilege and easy success (I mean who doesn't?!), struggle also builds character if you do it right (whether you know how to do it or not, the latter part mostly through God's help).
It's still one of the best written and produced shows with a tiny budget and I'll never regret buying the entire series on DVD. But some of the acting can be very suspect when you watch it clip format like this.
Marc Warren IIRC He's also Danny Blue in "Hustle" among many others. Sharpe is great fun for finding future stars at the beginning of their careers. :)
Well, that’s the last thing I could imagine seeing after reading the books. Disrespecting sarge when e was literally one of the most feared Sargent out there!
time transport 50 garand M1s on a cart,oil cleaning brushes, show sharp 8 clips of 30 cal, a thousand clips, 50 shots a minute,every frenchman killed,,,,sharpe ,an enlisted irishman private becomes brit MP
Is this is the Siege of Cuidad Rodrigo? Pretty sure it is as Sharpe leads a Folorn Hope at Badajoz to make certain of his rank, which I believe was a Captaincy.
He would live another 200+ years to become a contracted drone pilot before eventually having a Pakistani man come into his house to expose him, acting as if he had a bomb, when he didn’t.
One of the things scarier than a bunch of British soldiers running at full bayonet charge... Is a bunch of British soldiers running at full bayonet charge; carrying big sticks and swords
I watched a ducumentary about Def Leppard heard lots of Joe Elliot talking and then I watched this and I though Sean Bean must be from the same place so I looked it up and theyre both from Sheffield
He actually didn’t die, colonel Fletcher (the engineer in question) was shot in the groin but a silver dollar in his pocket took the worst of the hit and he continued to serve from bed die to a shortage of engineers. However a couple of years later at the siege of san sebastian he was killed during the final assault.
you have to load, aim, fire your musket 3shots a min, carry your supplies on your backs, march/walk all over the country, engage in close battle and be happy soldier too.
I just noticed it, might be entirely a fluke, but Hakeswill is actually sort of gesturing for the troops to go with his spontoon (Well, and holding his hat as per usual). I imagine if he was closer to shoot you'd hear him encouraging the retreat (as politely as he could, I'm sure). I just found it an interesting tidbit to see the Sergeant doing normal duties, since we forget that he's actually considered useful as an NCO by the officers (as incompetent as they could be). Then again, he might've done it to draw attention from himself actually fleeing.
Perfect example of a class that was left alone the blue girls vs the red boys, the battle to end all battles to cease all fighting and to finally make sure the boys are first in line to leave for recess!! *Salutes* CHARGE!!!!!
Muskets were notoriously bad shots. The way the portray in the series is wrong. You can kill a battalion of men close together by sheer volume of shots fired. Each musketmen fires a round. He might not get his target but might accident kill the guy next to him. They were only effective when used in a group. The englishmen probably should have just stayed in the trenches and fought a bayoneylt/ sword battle
