The Human Wave: The Most Inhuman War Tactic
Winning at any cost
Let me paint a picture for you. You’re a soldier in a filthy trench, poorly armed and poorly equipped. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on, where or when you are — the outcome will be the same. You’ve been given orders to charge, so you and thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of other men and boys, race across no man’s land. Artillery has done little to soften the enemy. No tanks follow. No planes darken the skies. Machine guns and barbed wire beckon you across the battlefield, all around men die, but more keep pouring forward. You slip, but stagger forward, one of the first to reach the enemy, one of the few not stopped by the barbed wire. You take out a man you’ve been taught to hate before a sharp pain stops. You fall to the ground. Everything goes black, but no matter. Your brothers in arms will avenge you.
You’ve just been part of a human wave — one of the most inhuman tactics in war. The essence of the tactic is this, throw as many men at a position as it takes to bring it down, no matter the loss of life. And there is always a huge loss of life.
Human Waves in Action
Distinguishing between the human wave and other massed infantry formations is not always easy, and like almost everything, the finer details can be argued into the grave. So, I will…
