Forlorn hope
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Forlorn hope is a military term that comes from the Dutch verloren hoop, which should be translated as "lost troop" although in Dutch it can also mean "lost hope". In the days of muzzle-loading muskets it was most frequently used to refer to the first wave of soldiers attacking a breach in defences during a siege. It was likely that most members of the forlorn hope would be killed or injured. The intention was that some would survive long enough to seize a foothold that could be reinforced, or at least that a second wave with better prospects could be sent in while the defenders were reloading or engaged in mopping up the remnants of the first wave.
A forlorn hope was typically led by a junior officer with hopes of personal advancement. If he survived, and performed courageously, he was almost guaranteed both a promotion and a long-term boost to his career prospects. As a result, despite the risks, there was often competition for the opportunity to lead the assault. The French equivalent of the Forlorn Hope, called Les Enfants Perdus or The Lost Children, were all guaranteed promotion to officers should they survive and on both sides, men took up the suicidal mission as an opportunity to raise themselves in the army.
There was a symmetry between the risks faced by the forlorn hope and those faced by the defenders. Once a breach suitable for assault had been made in the walls, defenders were usually given a chance to surrender safely. The defenders had already shown their determination and there would be no loss of honour in surrender. If however they chose not to take this opportunity, forcing the attackers to undertake an assault, the usages of war made them subject to massacre, and made the position (often a town or city) that they were holding subject to being sacked and pillaged (see looting) as described by Shakespeare's Henry V before the walls of Harfleur:
- How yet resolves the governor of the town?
- This is the latest parle we will admit;
- Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves,
- Or like to men proud of destruction
- Defy us to our worst;
By extension, the term forlorn hope became used for any body of troops placed in a hazardous position; e.g. an exposed outpost, or the defenders of an outwork in advance of the main defensive position. This usage was especially common in accounts of the English Civil War, as well as in the British Army in the Peninsula War of 1808-1814.
A more modern equivalent of the Forlorn Hope were the Shtraf penal battalions used by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The battalions were mainly made up of convicts from the Gulags, often soldiers who had disgraced themselves by, for example, retreating in the face of the enemy or deserting. The penal battalions were seen as a way to redeem their previous crimes. The Shtraf battalions were given suicidal tasks, such as mine clearing or assaults across open terrain towards German positions - their compliance ensured by NKVD units to their rear. Despite the obvious high casualty rate, many men from Shtraf battalions became Heroes of the Soviet Union for their bravery and the battalions were eventually copied by the Wehrmacht.
In the Roman Army, such troops would have been punished by decimation, which gave a better chance of survival than combat on heavily uneven terms.
[edit] See also
- Cannon fodder
- A good fictionalized account of a Forlorn Hope mission set in the real Battle of Badajoz (1812) can be found in the Richard Sharpe novel "Sharpe's Company" by Bernard Cornwell.
