Text 17440, 44 rader
Skriven 2011-04-26 14:12:04 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 17412 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: What nature doesn't do to us...
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Ward Dossche wrote to Bob Ackley on Monday April 25 2011 at 16:49:

WD> In the 14-15th centuries kings assembled an army if they went to war,
WD> then had a single battle where 75% of their troops were either killed
WD> or mortally wounded (due to infection, wounds quite often were mortal)
WD> and didn't cost them an extra penny anymore.

I hate to ruin a nice story, but even in the 14th-15th century, the casualty
rates were a good deal lower than 75%, and fatalities even lower. Talk about
20% (casualties, not fatalities) and you're talking about the American Civil
War, where the historians claim the casualty rate was higher than in any other
war to date - one of the reasons being the use of the Mine ball, a nasty
projectile that shattered bones and caused more than one amputation under
unsanitary conditions, without anaesthetic.

WD> These days you go to war, hardly anyone gets killed anymore compared
WD> to the good old days ... and they keep drawing benefits until they're
WD> 90.

That's the real difference, isn't it? There were no "benefits" to be drawn in
the 14th or 15th centuries. If you were lucky, you went back to the farmwith a
little loot. If not, you either begged (as a cripple) or died of infections or
disease (a little like modern soldiers, albeit without modern - or for that
matter _any_ medicine). I've read that the _lucky_ ones in the Civil War were
the wounded soldiers the medics did _not_ treat. They had a better chance of
survival. Remember, no sanitation, no hand washing and no antibiotics. Not
really much different from the 14th and 15th centuries.

WD> If you go in the military, expect to get killed, not to make a living.

Are you kidding? Nowadays, people go into the army to get an education, and to
avoid unemployment. Not everyone gets sent to Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq and even
of those who do, not everyone is in the front line with a gun.

WD> In the good old days, the money the mercenaries got kept his family
WD> alive for 2-3 years. Getting killed was their insurance policy.

Not getting killed and being paid out is (and was) the best, though. Oh, yes,
and in the good old days, you might get to plunder a city...

Cheers, Bob

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