Dear friends,
since I am on my way to reconstruct a german Hussar of the 8th regiment there is always something to do. This time I was about to build myself a lance, that should have the dimensions of the originals but it should be easy to transport, too.
Historical Background
Now lets start with a little glimpse at the historical background of these lances, because lances in world war 1, when they already had machine guns, was it real? Indeed, it was. And in some kind anachronistic as well. Formerly, throughout the 19th century just a special kind of light cavalry had lances with them, who were called "uhlans" in german or "lanciers" in english. The german cavalry started to be standardised in 1889/1890 regarding their tasks and equipment, as the new emporer Wilhelm II came to power. Only their uniforms stayed special, until 1916. On the second of July 1889 all cavalry regiments were equipped with lances, which should be used throughout the entire war, of course with changing opinions, and lasted until 1927, when the lances retired. It was not only a german phenomena but in the whole of the european armies, well at least until war broke out.
As we can see on different pictures there were lances for training purposes, too.
This picture shows a sparring with lances behind the frontlines.
Another way of training was on foot to get to know the handling.
Of course there were some drills on the horse, too.
Building the lance
Now for the dimensions: It was 3,2m long with a diameter of 26cm, had in the middle a handle.
To beginn with I had to get 2 round woods with a length of around 2m and a tube in which these fit in. The tube had to be cut in half to get a propper handle, while the woods were drilled both sides to add a screw.
After adding a propper screw the sticks had to be shortened into 1,6m each.
The woods had to be sanded to fit orderly in the tube.
Then in order to prevent the wood from splinter and for safety reasons a cloth was added with glue.
Here we can see all the single parts, taken apart, how they are going to be transported easily.
Testing
Well this part is going to be looked after more closer in the future, for now just a few sentences. Afterwards it was done so far and I was able to test it, how you guys can see. It worked marvellous so far for the first time and now there are some training sessions to be done. Yes, thats me in the picture and it really was hot that day, but cool and a lot of fun nontheless.
Thank you guys for reading and until next time. If you have some questions or want to mention something feel free to ask them or discuss in the comments.
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The very fact that horsemen and lances were even still in military use in WW1, while fighter planes, tanks and submarines also were in the same war, is baffling. It shows you how tacticians can be completely oblivious when a long-standing weapon has become obsolete.
Absolutely. And it shows how strong conservatism could be.