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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Nathan Ross / John 1

Roman legionaries were trained to march at full pace 24 Roman miles a day (19.164 modern miles).

That does seem slow to me. Maybe the 19 miles a day (significantly less than a marathon) was a good pace for a sustained advance with waggon loads of kit and camps to demolish at either end of the march. RMs require 30 miles in 8 hours with 40lb of kit, this may be a useful yard stick.


The British Army during the Falkland War “yomped” across the island to Port Stanley with full packs (80 lbs) at around 19 miles per day.

Now this may be a coincidence but it is a practical demonstration of troops marching to war fully laden as SP’s troops would have been over a number of days and being fit enough at the other end.

Certainly 20 miles per day appears to be a norm for laden troops marching to battle through the ages but there were definite exceptions when the troops carried less than the normal loads but it is unclear how long would this be sustainable for.

John 1 wrote:

I'm certain there would be fast, aggressive Britons that could easily out pace that, there is no reason to slow them all to a carts pace, unless of course it's some sort of parade


There is an interesting article regarding horses as follows:

http://bootsandsaddles4mel.blogspot.co.u...iding.html

Cavalry Endurance Riding?

In a book called “War Horse”, by Louis A. DiMarco there is this passage that comes from the American Plains Indian Wars (late 1800’s). He is describing how the cavalry travelled in order to cover 25 miles a day, 6 days a week...
..

The book goes on to describe a specific instance in 1879 where a squadron marched 170 miles in 65.5 hours.

The unit’s march speed was over 62 miles a day. “This march was particularly noteworthy because no horses were lost, no horses were injured, and the command was totally fit for service when it arrived.”

Of course this allows for a number of scenarios for both sides.

[Nathan Ross wrote:

This makes them, over long distance, faster than any other moving body of the era, including cavalry

I would then postulate that cavalry / chariots would be able to “run down” or “escape from” infantry.
Deryk
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Deryk - 03-30-2015, 10:01 PM

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