MARCHING #2 Contents Some Memorable Marches.....................p.2 Various Marching Rates.....................p.4 Rates of Advance...........................p.8 .................p.9 See also: march USAMHI Marching RefBranch dv 1979 NOTE: SOME MEMORABLE MARCHES SMALL UNITS - Foot In 1809, foot soldiers of the British Light Brigade campaigning in Spain marched to the relief of the future Duke of Wellington. They covered 42 miles in 26 hours. Ref: Guinness Book of World Records, 1977 ed, p. 392 (AG243G8), which considers it the "most rapid" ever. - Foot In Sicily, WWII, a US Army infantry battalion marched cross country 54 miles in 33 hours. See FM 21-18 (1971), p. 3. - Horse In 1818, a British (native) artillery troop in India covered 95 miles in 36 hours. Ref: A.S. Cotton, "Incidents of the Past," Journal of Royal Artillery LX, p. 197. - Mixed A British-led Indian force of horse and foot troops in 1857 traveled 580 miles in 22 marching days during hot weather. See Cotton, cited above, p. 205. LARGE UNITS In 1805, a corps of the French Grand Army, urgently summoned to the Austerlitz battlefield, covered 70 miles in just over 48 hours. Rothenberg, Gunther E. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. p. 149. U39R65. During the Second Afghan War in 1880, 18,000 troops, plus baggage, animals, covered 318 miles in 3 weeks with only a single day's halt. Cotton, cited above. The longest march, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, 1977 ed, p. 392, was the "Long March" of the Chinese Communists, 1934-1935, which covered 6,000 miles in 268 days of movement. 90,000 troops started but less than 22,000 finished the trek. Memorable Marches p.2 During WWII, the entire US Third Army shifted its axis of advance in order to counter the unexpected German offensive in the Ardennes. A quarter-million men and 25,000 vehicles travelled distances of 50-150 miles through ice and snow and were able to launch a corps-level attack in three days. FM 21-18, pp. 4 & 6. Hannibal marched from Spain to Italy via the Alps, 218 B.C., a distance of 962 miles. He started with a Carthaginian army of 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse, and 37 elephants; he finished with 20,000 foot, 6,000 horse, and ? elephants. See Furse, Art of Marching, p. 26-27 & 34-35. U176F99. Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862. His "Foot Cavalry" marched 674 miles, engaged in a dozen actions, and averaged 14 miles per day. Furse, cited above, pp. 73-76 & 218-219. USAMHI Marching RefBranch dv Oct 79 NOTE: VARIOUS MARCHING RATES ANCIENT GREECE Engels, Donald W. Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. Berkeley: UP of CA, 1978. 194 p. U168E53. See Table 7 and accompanying notes for data on march rates, pp. 153-156. ANCIENT ROME According to Vegetius: "The first thing the soldiers are to be taught is the military step, which can only be acquired by constant practice of quick and collective marching. It was a constant custom among the old Romans, confirmed by the ordinances of Augustus and Hadrian, to exercise both cavalry and infantry three times a month by marches of a certain length. The foot were obliged to march completely armed a distance of ten miles* from the camp and return, in the most exact order and with the military step which they changed and quickened on some part of the march." Incidentally, the Roman foot = 0.9708 English foot and the Roman mile = 1,000 paces of five feet each. The Roman mile is thus calculated to be 0.9708 x 5 x 1,000 = 4854 English feet. Therefoor, the Roman mile was 92% or, roughly, 9/10's of an English mile. (Encyclopaedia Britannica). - Flavius Vegetius Renatus. Military Institutions of the Romans. Ed by Thomas Phillips. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1944 & 1960, pp. 18 & 31. U101V4. Marching Rates p.2 The normal rate of march for the Roman foot soldier was 100 steps per minute. Their usual day's march of seven hours covered 15-20 miles. See: Judson, Harry P. Caesar's Army. NY: Biblo & Tannen, 1888. p. 63. U35J93 Watson, G.R. The Roman Soldier. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1969. pp. 54-55. U35W352. 18th CENTURY Frederick the Great warned that an army travelled effectively but fifteen miles per day. Luvaas, Jay. Frederick the Great on the Art of War. NY: Free Press, 1966. pp. 129-130. U102F838. See also: - Steuben, Frederick von - Duane, William NAPOLEONIC AGE French infantry under Napoleon marched at the ordinary rate of 3 mph, 10-12 miles per day. Forced marches -- which were frequent --doubled and tripled the usual day's rate. Rothenberg, Gunther E. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. pp. 84 & 139-140. U39R65. AMER CIVIL WAR Marching Rates p.3 In route marching on roads Civil War troops averaged 15 to 20 miles per day. In forced marching, 20 to 25 or, if roads were favorable, perhaps 30 miles. Marches by mixed forces beyond 30 miles were considered extraordinary. Infantry columns marched at the rate of 2-1/2 miles per hour and cavalry alone at six miles per hour. See: Craighill, William P. The Army Officers Pocket Companion.... NY: Van Nostrand, 1862. pp. 114-116. U130C7. Halleck, Henry W.. Elements of Military Art and Science.... NY: Appleton, 1862. pp. 97-103. U102H18. Scott, H.L. Military Dictionary.... NY: Van Nostrand, 1864. U24A5S422. 20th CENTURY On the French Foreign Legion's hard marching pace of 5 km per hr, see: Kanitz, Walter. The White Kepi: A Casual History of the French Foreign Legion. Chicago: Regnery, 1956. pp. 174-188. UA703L5K36. Martin, A.L. "Recruit Training in the Foreign Legion." Army Qtly 28 (Jan 1934): pp. 289-96. Per. Mercer, Charles. Legion of Strangers: The Vivid History of a Unique Military Tradition -- The French Foreign Legion. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964. pp. 37-40. UA703L5M4. While Italian infantry in 1913 marched at an ordinary rate of 4 kilometers an hour (2-1/2 mph), the elite Bersaglieri moved more rapidly at a normal 5 kph (3-1/8 mph). Their special rate of marching was 7 kph (4-3/8 mph). See: Fea, Pietro. Storia dei Bersaglierie. Firenze: Tipografia Della Gazzetta D' Italia, 1879. 317 p. UA746B4F4. Great Britain. General Staff. Handbook of the Italian Army, 1913. London: HMSO, 1913. p. 165. UA742H36. Marching Rates p.4 According to modern US Army doctrine, the average rate of march for trained infantry under favorable weather conditions is 2-1/2 mph over roads and 1 mph cross country. A normal foot march covers 20 miles per day. The normal pace is 30 inches (76 cm), 106 steps per minute, for a rate of 4 kph. In a 24 hour period, with 5-8 hours of marching, the normal distance traveled is 20-32 kilometers. More than 32 kms is a forced march. An infantry div on the march averages 12-15 miles per day, an armored div 100 miles per day. See: U.S. Dept of Army. Staff Officers' Field Manual: Organization, Technical, and Logistical Data, Part I. FM 101-10, Oct 1961. pp. 123-124. FM. _________. Foot Marches. FM 21-18, Jan 1971. p. 11. FM. USAMHI Marching/Movement RefBranch dv Jul 93 RATES OF ADVANCE A Working Bibliography of MHI Sources Andrews, Marshall. Rates of Advance in Land Attack against Unprepared Forces. Study, Opns Res Office, Bethesda, MD, 1960. 42 p. U166.1A52. Examples incl Sherman in GA (1864), WWI, WWII & KW. Helmbold, Robert L. A Compilation of Data on Rates of Advance in Land Combat Operations. Report, US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, Feb 1990. ca 400 p. U166H44. Incls anecdotal info on 26 various campaigns (App B, 40 p.), but mostly tabular data from other studies _________. A Survey of Past Work on Rates of Advance in Land Combat Operations. Report, US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, Feb 1990. ca 150 p. U168H44. _________. Rates of Advance in Historical Land Combat Operations. Study, US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, Jun 1990. ca 200 p. U166.13H45. Quantitative analysis of computerized data. Smith, Thomas T. "Blitzkrieg: The Myth of Blitz." Infantry (Jul-Aug 90): pp. 28-30. Per. How fast was fast he asks and charts the actual speed of past fast-paced opns. See also: - "Marching & Movements" - Tactics - Roads - Transportation - "Blitzkrieg" (Ger - WWII)