banter

Napoleonic voltigeurs cross the Danube before the battle of Wagram

Skirmish was a combat tactic that served the purpose of unsettling, occupying, and weakening the enemy through continuous, albeit ineffective, fire. Soldiers specially geared to banter were called skirmishers .

In Meyer's Large Konversations-Lexikon of 1907 it is said that skirmishes are "small disturbances of mutual outposts or vanguard troops through attacks and firefights." In the German dictionary of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm it is called "light fights, skirmishes, with the isolated soon here soon there." shots are fired ”, described.

history

In ancient Greece , skirmish tactics were used by the light foot troops, the peltasts , to take action against the heavily armored phalanges made of hoplites . For this purpose, the Peltaste formations threw their spears at the phalanx and withdrew when the phalanx attacked. They were faster because they had less heavy armor and armor and were therefore able to escape the hoplites.

Skirmishing tactics were also used during the Roman Empire . Weakly armed troops, the skirmishers, moved close to the lines of the enemy and pelted the enemy soldiers, for example. B. with stones. If the enemy then attacked, the light skirmishers could flee from the heavily armored troops, leaving them out of breath, giving their side an advantage in the later battle.

In the time of the Napoleonic Wars , mostly before the start of the actual battle, so-called tirailleurs or hunters or chasseurs (also called light infantry ) were used to loosen the opposing lines by firing primarily liaison units, even in loose formation shot out. This combat tactic has been known as skirmishing.

Skirmish also refers to a less serious engagement , such as a feud . A word skirmish is a verbal argument of short duration and intensity, also described in Knaur's reference work from 1985 as "teasing" .

Web link

Wiktionary: Skirmishes  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: Skirmishers  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ banter . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 7, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, p.  619 .
2. ↑ banter. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 5 : Gefoppe – Drifts - (IV, 1st section, part 2). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1897 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
3. ^ Knaur: The German Dictionary , Lexicographical Institute Munich 1985, page 420