Hyperion Prime So you think you know anything about war? Your just some 12 year old kid who thinks war is funny. People like you make the world a bad place...
Hyperion Prime you don't know anything about switzerland. You think it would be a good decision to go to war as switzerland against germany and italy. Clearly your lacking education. Kid.
Hyperion Prime Switzerland very much mustered up for WW2 but not to fight for any side but to protect its neutrality. They shoot down both, allies and axis (mainly germans) plains who invaded the swiss territory.
I always wondered why the swiss were not conquered, especially during the Middle Ages. The explanation with the difficult terrain was never enough for me. After seeing your video, I begin to understand: the word Militia has a completely different signification for swiss. Usually militia is a bunch of not very equipped or trained people who have more the role of maintaining order. For the swiss, Militia were people who trained from infancy and fought alongside their family and neighbors, the same as the most powerful armies in the world, such as the macedonians.
Highly trained and motiveted. I belive the polish husars ruled for similar reasons. Most armies back then where made up of the different nobels but didn train to fight together since Björn (more likely they fought each other) And their morale wasn t as strong not ready to die for each other but rather flee and probably die anyway. In case of the husars it is said that not nessesary the enemie but often their horses fled because of the sound the husars wings made. Not sure if that is true or legend through.
Vlad Matei don’t wanna to take away any credit from the Swiss armed forces, but terrain was the biggest factor/reason in them not being conquered as often as other countries in Europe.
The reason is that every canton fought for each other if one was attacked. But for attacking themselves, it was different. Every canton looked after different purposes. So Bern and Freiburg looked to the west while Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden looked to the South. When you want to gain a lot of territories, you must fight together. If not, you only gain small gains. For example, at Marignano, the eastern cantons fought while Bern, Freiburg and Solothurn just came back home.
@@MrPancake777 True, even the might Wehmacht never really dared to violate Swiss Neutrality to by pass the Maginot Line; it's just not feasible because of the Terrain, the region is literally a Tank Trap (even for horse drawn units).
The reason we swiss have the best cheese, the best chocolate, the best watches, the best medicine producing industry is very simple. My teacher always said listen boys. We swiss have no oil, no gold or diamonds, but we have our precision and our working attitude to make up for it! So always do your best and remember that! Precision and working moral!
Good video! Two major events are missing: 1) Sack of Rome in 1527, when the Swiss guards escorted the Pope to safety, most of them sacrificed themselves to buy just enough time for the Pope to escape. Only the 40 or so escorting the Pope survived. 2) The 100 Swiss guards who made the last stand at the Bastille to protect Louie XVI.
Well, it was at the Tuileries in 1792, which starts the beginning of the "Terreur", and they were 900. Most died because the King ask them to stop fighting.
I think he means any Good army in a location they don't live in - yes the swiss beat every single invading army - but they aren't conquers or expanders they basically live in a valley and know the terrain perfectly cause well they fucking live there - if they try to face some Turkish army in Arabia or a Teutonic Army in the Baltic states the story might end quite differently.
Not quite right, they have been hired by many rulers as mercenaries abroad. Not only the pope, but the French king guard for instance during the late monarchy was as swiss guard. The defeat of Marignan in 1515 (mentionned in the video) was also a contract with the Duke of Milan. So if they were only effective at taking advantage of their own landscape, it would be very unlikely that they would have been hired by foreign powers for so many centuries.
Actualy i was hike Last Weekend 😁 The Swiss were once very powerful in the battles, their blood wanted freedom! they died for us. the royal houses of europe despaired and lost precious treasures to the confederates! then they became greedy, like the dwarfs of Lord of the Rings! so the royal houses have just bought us! Now we have eaten fat. but I am grateful to our ancestors, the heroes of yesteryear, I honor them because they have shown me one; nobody stops a man or woman fighting for their freedom! Greetings from Switzerland
We still have one of the biggest armies in europe! in comparison with the size of the coutry and population. Our tanks and airfighters are quite operational while other countries have their vehicles out of order! Also note that quite all swiss men have their assault rifles stored at home. So they are mobilized in 10 minutes if needed. Also mention that every house has an air raid shelter. And there are thousands of anti tank-bunkers widespread in every mountain that look just like farm buildings. Do you now wonder why nobody ever invaded switzerland?
@@satanmhabite9573 We fought for our county, and we have been successful with that. That's why other kingdoms thought: "Well if we are not able to conquer them, we are going to hire them." Luckily, in all contracts with other armies we agreed that when both combatting armies had swiss mercenaries, we could skip the battle without being punished for treason.
He was an arrogant french snob who wanted to force our strong, bearded men to wear gay tiny moustaches. The consequences of his plan: his laugh (honhonhonhon) was never heard again. Greetings from switzerland ;)
Swiss saying: "Karl der Kühne verlor bei Grandson das Gut, bei Murten den Mut und bei Nancy das Blut." Translation: "Charles the bold lost at Grandson his goods, at Murten his boldness/courage and at Nancy his blood."
Brian Drayton It is something like a riddle. Only works in German. In the first War Karl lost is stuff, in the second his will to fight and in the third he finaly died.
Being of Swiss decent it fills me with pride to see this video. I loved having Swiss Pikemen when I would play Medevil Total War 2. Also I have seen the memorial for King Louis XVI Swiss Gaurd in Luzren. It was one of the most beautiful stone art works I have seen. Thank you for sharing this and keep up the good work. 🇨🇭
So called "Gewalthaufen", the main force. They were very effective but the mentality of knights at that time helped them as well. Every knight wanted to prove himself on the battle field and earn merits and respect. Consequently the knights didn't really collaborated and coordinated their attacks, which helped the Swiss forces.
You're country hasn't taken a meaningful diplomatic stance in 200 years and became synonymous with rich persons hiding/hoarding their wealth. So I'd temper the enthusiasm a bit.
@@jon00769 Switzerland never got rich because of hiding money of leaders. Switzerland was already rich when that happens. After Britain invested a lot in industrialization in the early 19th century, Switzerland did the same in investing massively in the industrialization of textile processing and got rich because of that. It is just untrue that Switzerland got rich because of Nazi Gold or someething. That is just spread by people that don't know the history of Switzerland.
Apache Warriors + Vietcong riflemen. your immortals are cut to pieces in an ambush before they even know whats going on. and dont tell me i cant use Vietcong on you. you didnt have to lump in Winged Hussars with a infantry force that existed centuries beforehand.
They're military geniuses, they brought back the ancient military tactic of the greek Phalanx against cavalry which was too overrated in the medieval era
So Charles VII built arguably Europe's first standing army, which he used to win the hundred years war. His son, Louis XI largely disbanded it and relied on foreign mercenaries, which was somewhat unfairly chastised by Machiavelli in "The Prince". French cavalry and artillery was always mostly french. Infantry during the italian wars was largely though not exclusively foreign mercenaries. The core of the french army at pavia for example, was the gendarmes, which was the heavy cavalry and was french. The infantry was mostly swiss and german mercenaries, with a good chunk being levees. I cant find a decent order of battle for later italian war battles, such as Marciano. Mercenaries were quiet commonly used by all countries, up to the 30 years war. By that time, the french army had largely professionalized. Looking at the order of battle for Rocroi, for example, we can see a mostly french army. Some swiss, some scots and a few croatians, hungarians light cavalry. The Spanish army was far more diverse, being made up of german, italian, wallonian, burgundian, flemish, coratian formations, with a core of spanish tericos.
He did mention it but not directly. He did say many swiss were hired by other kings and nobles because enemies feared the Swiss, it was a symbol of power and "showing off" to have had Swiss on your side. Whether 10, 50 or 100. As soon as those bear banners flew, you knew you would not be given a chance to become a prisoner.
Wir sind ein einzig Volk von Brüdern! We swiched from the halberd to the Sig 550 but our courage stayed the same! Thanks for filling my day with national pride. You sir earned a sub today!
thierry gisler Eidgenossen hebt die Hand, wir schnupfen jetzt für‘s Vaterland! Eher uns die Kugel geben, als Ewig in der Knechtschaft leben! Wir Eidgenossen wollen schwören, uns gegen alle Feinde wehren! Und ist der Weg auch noch so schlimm, für‘s Vaterland liegt alles drin! Priis!! 🇨🇭
Essentially the Swiss reinvented the Greek Phalanx. Tactics and formations and weapons are to all practical purposes identical. Just the armour style distinguishing them. They would have been instantly recognizable to Spartans or Romans from 1500 years before. In the end, like their Greek counterparts they proved highly vulnerable to projectile fire due to their tightly packed formations. In ancient times dart throwers and ballista and arrows or slingers were used, in modern times matchlocks and cannon.
Arthur Brogden Pike formations were different to Alexander's formations , which had terrible mobility apart from forwards. The Swiss could go forward, wheel into a circle, stretch into a line, square up or hold the enemy at the line .
The Swiss benefited from much lighter armour weight, stell vs bronze and the lack of extemely heavy full body shields used by the Greeks. The shields themselves weighed over 30 lbs and were extremely ackward to carry,
A typical hoplite shield (aspis/hoplon) weighed about 7 kilos, which is roughly 16 lbs. Shields used by Macedonian phalangites were even smaller and lighter, similar to a large buckler.
Arthur Brogden actually the formation isn't really just pikes or a Phalanx, the formation is called gwalthuffe respectively in standard german gewalthaufen which literally means forcemob. The formation varied but generally included a shield of pikes at the flanks and in the back to render cavalery useless. In the midst a combination of (rarely) zweihänder and hellbards aswell as polearms, to crush enemy formations.
You forgot to mention the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs where a small force of a thousand or more Swiss pikemen fought against an incoming French army of over 30,000 and killed like 2,000 in the process, with the Swiss losing limbs or being struck with crossbow bolts still fighting to avenge their own deaths. Although the Swiss lost in here it intimidated the French when they heard there were 30,000 troops in Zurich and were forced to retreat.
Girom Christian Calica : yes that was here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._Jakob_an_der_Birs. The French troops were the famous Armagnaks, an elite troop from 100 year war. The Swiss killed also many Scottish longbows. They killed more than the enemy. After 10 hours fight all of the 1500 were killed and the Armanaks retired. All Europe was astonished how strong the Swiss troops were.
Girom Christian Calica Battle of Morgarten Battle of Giornico Battle of Näfels Battle of Murten Battle of Frastanz Battle of Bruderholz Battle of Sempach Battle of Héricourt Battle of Planta Battle of Grandson Battle of Nancy Battle of Schwaderloh Battle of Dornach Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs
W Wasser Armagnac was a political faction representing a noble house backed by France against the Burgundians,another political party of nobles helped by England,they were no special troops whatsoever.
Hitler said "Die Schweiz, das kleine Stachelschwein, das holen wir im Rueckweg ein" (meaning basically, Switzerland we capture on our way home) . Hitler did not attack Switzerland at start for a reason. Every Swiss soldier, from the cook to the Supreme General (Swiss army only has Generals during war time) is a trained marksman. The idea would have been to allow German troops and tanks to invade, then blow up the bridges, trapping German forces. Remember, no resupplies can then reach German tanks, and tanks cannot enter forests, thus the Swiss would use guerrilla warfare against the Germans, plus snipe them from long range (Shooting competitions still tradition to this day). Germany would over time surely be able to conquer Switzerland but it would take them at least 5 years alone to rebuild the infrastructure needed for resupplies and they would suffer catastrophic losses. Hitler was pissed off, because Swiss General Guisan told him in the face that if Germany invades, it will be a bloodbath. Hitler was pissed because he had to go to Italy (his closest ally) the long way, as through Switzerland would have been really fast. Hitler learned from the Swiss.
PFG - 45 Ag. 042-IO Well I‘m a patriot too. But we used to let German Soldiers travel with our trains through Switzerland to Italy. But yeah. We were dangerous. Guisan was one of the greatest Generals ever. A German general asked a Swiss: „What would you do if Germany invaded Switzerland with 1million troops and you had 1million troops too?“ The Swiss general said: „We would shoot once and go home.“ Then the German asked again: „And If 2million invaded?“ „Then we would shoot twice and go home.“ So that‘s that with the marksman. :D
I am not aware to be honest about German troops using Swiss trains. Swiss border guards have shot German soldiers without mercy that entered Swiss territory, the relations between German and Swiss was actually not good at all. Guisan probably allowed wounded German soldiers through Switzerland, but as a neutral country he would not have been allowed to let German soldiers through.
Vara not only that. A colonel in Hitler's staff, who was a friend of Switzerland, advised not to attack Switzerland. because too many casualties and so the southern flank would be protected and Switzerland would resist even in an Allied invasion. Hitler was thus able to avoid losses and also use the swiss army for himself. The example of the 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 soldiers firing twice was during the "Imperial Maneuver" around the First World War.
How could you end the video on that? You missed one out of the last stand of the swiss guard during the sacking of Rome when 189 swiss guardmens lined the steps to St. Peter's Basilica, holding off the Spainish long enough for the pope to escape with 40 other guards.
Ninjafox they were unpayed mercenaries which were luteran meaning they werent from spain because spain is catholic so they were on their own in search of loot
Axel Ba Inaccurate, in addition to the german Landsknechts there were also six thousand Spanish soldiers under the orders of Charles of Habsburg who participated in the sack of Rome.
I had always wondered why nobody invaded Switzerland in either of the world wars. A reputation and historical respect like that lives on for quite some time.
In Medieval 2 Total War, I modded the Swiss Guard of the Papal States to have 5 health per soldier. Now they're almost invincible in battle and the Papal States have taken most of Europe. I think I made a terrifying mistake.
The strongest units in the game have like 2 hitpoins (Sherwood archers, bodyguard units, hashashim). 99% of the units in medieval 2 have only 1 hitpoint
@SabuPtolemy The EU is blackmailing Switzerland. Because we are not obeying, they threaten to cancel all bilateral agreements, which mainly manage how we live together as neighbours. e.g. allowing Swiss students to study in the EU and vice versa, shared research, trade, etc. They wanna destroy our friendship, limit our possibilities and isolate us until we comply. The EU is not any better than the mafia and needs to be crushed. Liberation for the European states. Greetings from Switzerland
I see...at least someone ended up using Alexander's pikemen style infantry...and to think it would work in Switzerland of all places...very interesting and intriguing indeed.
george haralampous Swiss pike formations were radically different to the phalanx of antiquity though, it would be more accurate to compare them to the highly mobile and versatile Roman Maniples, just with pikes. Where the Phalanx was nigh-impenetrable from the front but largely undefended from the flanks and rear, the Swiss could attack and defend in all directions, while maintaining the impenetrability afforded by having a wall of pikes.
You are here the pathetic Natzi... Because he is swiss he is a natzi and a racist and should be judged about what his ancestors did? Every one’s ancestors were rapists murderers and racist and you are seemingly following this path. You are the only racist in this commentary section you poor pathetic human being.
First of all, ancient Helvetii were a Celtic tribe and the medieval Swiss had very little in common with them. The Helvetii were thoroughly romanized after the Roman conquest. In the early Middle Ages the area of Switzerland was resettled by Germanic tribes, which mixed with the Roman citizens. Secondly, Swiss pikemen were primarily a Renaissance unit, not a medieval one - they started using pikes in mass formations at the very end of Middle Ages.
Resettled or just conquered and assimilated? Surely the latter because there are no massive population replacements since the Bronze Age. Things become very stable as wars become more about aristocrats conquering lands with workers than about workers conquering land to work themselves. And if you doubt me, I'd suggest you read on archaeogenetics.
Gniewko Drewnicki Swiss Germans get a majority of their dna from the celtic peoples that where there before the germanic tribes , so your statement is false , medieval swiss and modern swiss have connections to the helvetii , the majority of haplogroups in Switzerland are celto-italic ones , such as R1B-U 152 , you are ignorant and not knowing of what you speak of . ~ a person of swiss descent .
Gniewko Drewnicki Swiss Germans obviously speak Alemannic (dialect of German ) but actually get very little dna from those people , Its kind of like with the Hungarians , they speak a Uralic language but actually have only around 1% - 0% of that dna from those people where they get their language from .
Probably because while they were certainly much braver and more skilled then their opponents they still were defeated. So that would defeat the point of the video if he included a defeat
Well, technically the swiss guard's stand during the Sacco di Roma in 1527 was a tactical victory for them, since they accomplished their primary goal.
Grimo Knobel Eidgenossen hebt die Hand, wir schnupfen jetzt für‘s Vaterland! Eher uns die Kugel geben, als Ewig in der Knechtschaft leben! Wir Eidgenossen wollen schwören, uns gegen alle Feinde wehren! Und ist der Weg auch noch so schlimm, für‘s Vaterland liegt alles drin! Priis!! 🇨🇭
Chad Dixon You are good pals too :) Greetings from a swiss pall👋🏼 We both have celtic blood. You have more of it thats clear but i think we are like cousins :)
Small addition: estimates of battle strengths at Morgarten were 8000~9000 Habsburgs, of which only ~2000 were knights and the rest ill equipped peasant levies, versus 1500~2000 Swiss. Leopolds army was stretched over kilometers, while the Swiss bulked up and crushed the spearhead of unprepared nobles, leaving the peasants and remaining noble Habsburgs to flee in panic. Casualties: ~1500 Habsburgs vs ~12 Swiss. Numbers can't be proven though, as records of that time are sketchy at best. They're probably less spectacular in reality. Nonetheless an overwhelming victory. Ironic that they recognized and took advantage of a change in battle tactics with the implementation of the halberd, guerilla tactics and the forgoing of chivalrous combat, but later failed to see the effectiveness of gunpowder weaponry.
they probably saw the advantage of gunpowder weapons, but had no chance to actually get it on large scale. Halberds and pikes where easy to get while gunpoweder weapons were still extremely expensive. After all, the reason why so many Swiss became mercenaries because they were extremely poor and had no choice. (they were usually second and third sons who could not inherit the farms from their families, so it was tempting to pick up a halberd or a pike and try your luck fighting the wars of other kings). It's not like Swiss people were war-hungry they just needed a way to feed themselves. Fighting a war is actually quite a good option for that: you win and get rich or you die and do not have to worry about anything anymore.
One of the reasons of the Swiss decline was the lack of flexibility in changing tactics and the disdainful attitude toward firearms. In the late records we find indeed some arquebuses in their ranks but in very low percentages. As soon as firearms became reasonably effective, the large Swiss squares proved to be too vulnerable to artillery fire. In Novara, a battle won by the Swiss side, they suffered horrible losses because of the artillery but they kept going and steamrolled the Landsknechts anyway.
You actually can :'D there is a mod called Realms on Voobly which has more factions like the Burgundians, the Bohemians, the Dutch, the Moors, the Balts or .... the Helvetians! They have a special unit which consist of 4 pikemen that you command as one unit - and they also say a few Swiss German words when you move them around. Their tech tree isn't amazing though, obviously they don't get Cavalier or Paladin (since their hobby is murdering nobility) - but some good countering units. I think skirms get a team bonus. And they also have the handcanoneer. So late game they are strong which kinda matches their historical highpoint in the 15th-16th century. Personally I would have added a banking bonus for collecting relics or something... ;)
Standings still and bunker down or only performing in their own terrain...against torn apart nations smaller than them or losely put together by stupid wannabe kings? You see, what happens if a united nation fights. It wasnt the number that made france invade them...it was the better, united army. If not everyone since 18:00 wouldnt simply dont care about the swiss to conquer it, it would have been easily...even back in the day. Fighting essentially against tribes and then even defensively only dont make them the worlds best force ever roamed the planet earth or something crap like that. It just shows a united landscape, fortified, trained to defend and humble to not want to expand...instead defending....and sure with well trained guards. The others around it were far more active in totally different scales...it is not like suddenly a northern german tribe shows up. It was always neighboors and as the countryside doesnt favour large tribes (they expand somewhere else or simply dont care), it is clear that they only fought against minorities or losers. And rome didnt further try to invade senseless territory...otherwise they would had allocated more to get it.
@@이정아-l5s Artillery and a venetian relieve army we needed to defeat those Swiss who had stayed to fight the French. Half of them had been paid off by France and they had left Milan, the late arriving didn't get any coin and thus they decided to give the French a beating. High ranking French nobility perished in that battle. After the battle Francis I. paid off the Swiss Confederacy to make peace and France never questioned the Swiss claim to what is today the Cantone of Ticino.
The Dutch have a saying that goes something like this: no gold, no swiss, underlining the importance of mercenaries in that time period. In fact, the Dutch gained independance because they were successful traders and thus pretty wealthy, so they could hire many mercenaries. There was also excellent leadership. The Dutch stood out in managing their mercenaries, where other nations had difficulty getting reliable results with them.
no they weren't. They were brutes out of the mountains knowing little mercy but who actually attacked neighbouring reigns, and poor starving buggers who didn't have any choice but to turn into mercenaries for whoever paid them most.
Mina the fiddler ,,brutes out of the mountains knowing little mercy but who actually attacked neighbouring reigns'' well no shit but sounds just like the spartans if you ask me :,D
Highly informative, great use of images, overall very well done. If I could offer one piece of constructive criticism, the voiceover sounds slightly flat. It sounds a little bit like you're reading it right off your notes for the first time. It's not a massive problem, but when everything else in the video is so good, it sticks out a little bit. Just my two cents. Thanks for making such an excellent video! I wish I had more thumbs up to give this!
Good, that people from around the globe get to know some of the Swiss history. I served 1965 in the Gebirgsschuetzenkompanie 3/10 in Andermatt, way up in the mountains. And - We are not only posh and spoiled bankers.
The Swiss Guard of the Vatican even have their own epic rearguard story... It takes a lot of balls to be that tough, which is why they have to wear those loose pantaloons, I suppose...
No mention of the German Landsknechts or Spanish Tercios? Both beat Swiss Pike formations on several occasions. Whilst Swiss Pikes were very powerful, they could be beaten easily with correct tactics. Charging horses into them was never going to work, nor would conventional infantry, but they were at a severe disadvantage to artillery and missile fire as they had to stay in a tight formation if they were to remain effective.
Luis Aldamiz Not at all. The Landsknechts were Mercenary rivals of the Swiss and each hated one another. They typically used their famous two handed swords in combat. The Spanish beat the Swiss by using Pikes to defend whilst using muskets offensively. They also developed the Caracole, a technique where pistol armed cavalry would attack in column and after the front rank fired, they would swing around and join the back to reload, thus the column could fire continuously. Against these tactics the Swiss pikes could not resist and eventually they hung up their pikes.
"The Landsknechts, formed in conscious imitation of the Swiss mercenaries (and, initially, using Swiss instructors)". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsknecht
What about archers against swiss pikemans. I mean they had poor armor so arrows would cause great damage and since they have pikes in their both hands that means that they dont have any shield to defend them agains arrows.
Sky Leonidas raid style lighting strike attack outa the woods, surprise! Have 600 pikes to the squishy bits. kill them all out of the blue, kill the leadership first, run down the rabble. No quarter, no mercy. For the Homeland! By the time archers are aware of the Swiss, their leadership has been skewered and knights have been ran over. Next ting you know is a tight formation of pikes that can be up to tree lines of people deep on the front is charging your formations. Secondary lines of this train of death is alabards and the odd long sword or spears, hacking down on what has not been skewered by the front lines. The rest of formation has whatever they have, maces, short swords, axes.. those finish off whatever still draws breath after the front formation has passed over them. Usually this kinda tactic left the enemy army in shambles, the Swiss would then persue the routing enemy, killing everything that can't run fast enough.
Europe has been a rough place over the last few thousand years. If the Swiss were a pushover, they would have been long gone by now. Since the German speaking Swiss are descendants of the Allemanic tribe they have a run that is lasting now for nearly 1700 years. I don't think they will disappear soon.
Brilliantly presented! Maybe some more details on fighting styles, formations and equipment maybe? Otherwise a really good, really informative watch, thank you.
Basicly they were heavily armored, ie if they afford it usually they wore half-armour (like munition armour from the 1510's, but from the 1510's, and in the 1520-30's heavy armour was not as common among them, some of them wore a cuirass, or a breastplate, burgonet helmet, but that's all). Heavy armour in non men-at-arms (men-at-arms=every wealthy men not only nobles or knights, whose had regulary full plate armour and basicly a horse, or more horse) troops usually and basicly means more metal protection like cuirass, mail shirt, brigandine, some arm plates, gauntlet, occasionally leg protection and of course helmet (primary sallet and kettle hat in the 15th and very early 16th century; in the 14th century mainly kettle hat and non visored bascinet; the Swiss soldiers loved the sallet and the kettle hat). Light armour usually and basicly means organic protection like the aketon, or simpli clothes, and usually lesser metal protection (most important wore, like a helmet, etc.). Of course, not every soldier was heavily armored (and not every wore helmet), specially the poor recruits and some others (depend on the soldier, if he didn't like heavy armour, he didn't wear it). The Swiss mercenaries were basically heavy infantry. Full plate armours, however, could only be afforded by officers and senior figures (and nobles, or other wealthy people). A Swiss unit consists of pikeman's, halberdiers, some archers, a few handgunners, and a few field guns, but there is a important thing: the guns were relatively small numbers in the Swiss arsenal!). The cavalry was only secondary (support) branch, and very small size (It almost did not exist in their organisation). Don't see or read much of them in contemporary depictions or writings. They attacked in deep columns, but if the situation required it, their units also took the square formation. The cantonal forces were usually divided into the Vorhut (vanguard), Gewalthut (center) and Nachhut (rearguard), generally of different sizes. Mercenary parts were little bit different. They were well equiped, well trained, experienced professional soldiers. That's it, in short. :) Some contemporary illustrations about the Swiss: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Luzerner_Schilling_Battle_of_Grandson.jpg upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Schlacht_bei_Dorneck.jpg
lazarus921 Open vast plains?Quarter of borders is sea,another quarter is mountains. Poland fell because of shitty political decisions,not geographical location.
There's only one thing we do, now and then all the same: We try to improve ourselves, our plans, our strategies and ideas, before asking others to do so. That's independence.
What about Czechoslovakian Legion in ww1, there were really important during Russian revolution and are one of the main reasons 1st Czechoslovakia was formed. Fun fact the only CS naval battle was fought in ww1 by CS legion at the Battle of Lake Baikal and there are a lot of stories about their deeds in Siberia.
