The Forlorn Hope Group — The 16 Century European Version of Kamikazes
The German mercenaries, called the Landsknechts, used suicidal attacks to defeat their enemies
Published in
4 min readOct 28, 2022
The Forlorn Hope, known as Verlorene Haufen (in German Lost group) was the European version of Japanese kamikaze. With one notable difference — they sacrificed themselves for money, and for their country.
The Forlorn Hope tactic was practiced by the Landsknechts — the best mercenaries of the 16th century.
The Landsknechts were the German version of Swiss mercenaries (and their bitter rivals!). The Germans copied and perfected the Swiss tactics and thus developed their own equally formidable mercenary regiments.
The goal of the Forlorn Hope group was to shock and awe the opponent, disrupting its formations, and thus providing an easy win.
Needless to say, the mortality rate of the warriors in the Forlorn Hope group was immense!
