Platoon Firing

　　This firing plan for musketry ensures an infantry unit keeps up a continual barrage of shots against an enemy. Nearly all line infantry carry smoothbore, muzzle-loading muskets. These take considerable time to reload after firing: anything up to a minute for poorly trained or nervous troops. During that time, the enemy can close or return fire unmolested. In the time it takes to reload, a unit can be cut down, its half-loaded weapons useless in the face of an aggressive foe. It is sensible to make sure that not everyone in an infantry unit is reloading at the same moment; this, in turn, means that not everyone should be firing at the same time. Platoon fire is a way of dividing a unit into smaller groups that each fire, reload and fire again in turn. The result is a “rippling fire” down a line formation and, as the last platoon fires its muskets, the first is ready to fire again. A unit can always give some fire to the enemy at all times, even if this is less than a complete volley. When more than one unit is involved all the troops in every first platoon fire, followed by all the second platoons, and so on, creating several rippling barrages down the battle line. The word “platoon” in this context does not have the modern meaning of being a sub-unit of a military company. Platoon assignment to what was a “fire group” was made on an ad hoc or informal basis, and could mean a whole regiment being assigned to a “platoon”

　　輪射

　　這種開火方式能夠保證步兵向敵人傾瀉連續(xù)不斷的火力。幾乎所有的戰(zhàn)列步兵都使用前裝滑膛槍。重新裝填這種武器實(shí)在是一件麻煩事：對于缺乏訓(xùn)練的新兵來講，戰(zhàn)場氣氛帶來的緊張足以使這個過程持續(xù)一分鐘以上。在這段時間里，敵軍足以接近到能發(fā)起沖鋒的距離或者跑到射程以外。一支裝填了一半的步槍在面對白刃沖鋒的敵軍時沒有半點(diǎn)用處，它的主人將被無情地刺死。因此，明智的做法是讓士兵們裝填彈藥的時間錯開，也就是說，不能進(jìn)行全齊射。

　　輪射戰(zhàn)術(shù)將步兵們分為較小的單位，每個單位處于開火或裝填的不同狀態(tài)。結(jié)果就是步兵陣線上的火力如漣漪般連綿不絕，當(dāng)最后一組士兵開火之后，第一組士兵已經(jīng)裝填完畢，可以再次開火了。這樣，步兵陣線就可以保持不間斷的火力。當(dāng)然，這種火力沒有全齊射那么兇猛。當(dāng)較大的步兵單位排成戰(zhàn)列線時，往往第一排首先開火，然后是第二排，依次往下實(shí)現(xiàn)輪射。

　　在這里，“排”并不是指現(xiàn)代部隊(duì)中的排級編制?！芭拧眱H僅是一組同時開火的士兵，可以是臨時編制的小群，也可以是一整個團(tuán)。