Firefight
The term firefight describes combat operations (a battle ) in which firearms are used. It is no longer used as a military term, but is often used by journalists and in police reports . A firefight is a subtype of enemy contact .
Below the combat command of a battalion with its companies as tactics , one speaks of fire fighting through fire and movement during trains .
The term is no longer used in military language since military battles as equestrian battles with bare weapons ( Pallasch , lance ) or as bayonet attacks are no longer common from around 1915 and are always associated with the use of firearms.
The troop movements on a battlefield were initially due to the action of long-range weapons; the further they went, the earlier the real battle began as a gun battle. An attack by the infantry was carried out by the Tirailleur line , which had been sent out and delivered one or more volleys . This was followed by the Soutiens and reserves closed. After the firefight, the bayonet attack was gradually adopted.
Types of firefight
Historically, the infantry distinguished:
- Single fire in a scattered order
- Individual fire from closed compartments, also called rapid fire, with each man in the limb firing as soon as he has loaded and captured the target
- Simultaneous shooting on command, volleys of larger or smaller sections, also section by section (in a square), four sections, whereby two sections standing close behind each other shoot at the same time, the two front rows kneeling, the rear ones standing.
In the 18th century there was also the so-called peloton fire with three branches. Volley and single fire were practiced while kneeling and standing. As a general, Frederick the Great shifted the focus of combat to firefighting, a principle that Napoleon further developed.
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- ↑ attack . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 1, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 581.