Infantry

Infantry is a specialization of military personnel who engage in warfare combat. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, irregular infantry, heavy infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry, mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and naval infantry. Other types of infantry, such as line infantry and mounted infantry, were once commonplace but fell out of favor in the 1800s with the invention of more accurate and powerful weapons.

"Foot soldier" redirects here. For other uses of "foot soldier", see Foot soldier (disambiguation).

Ranged combat weapons: , slings, blowguns, bows, crossbows, hand cannons, arquebuses, muskets, grenades, flamethrowers.^[17]

javelins

Melee combat weapons: bludgeoning weapons like , flails and maces; bladed weapons like swords, daggers, and axes; pole weapons like spears, halberds, naginata, and pikes.^[17]

clubs

Both ranged and close weapons: the bayonet fixed to a firearm allows infantrymen to use the same weapon for both ranged combat and close combat. This started with and its use still continues with modern assault rifles.^[17] Use of the bayonet has declined with the introduction of automatic firearms, but are still generally kept as a weapon of last resort.^[18]

muskets

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Infentory

Historic films and photos showing Infantries in World War I at

europeanfilmgateway.eu

by Field-Marshal Earl Wavell; First published in "The Times", Thursday, 19 April 1945.

In Praise of Infantry

KFOR: KFOR Chronicle.

The Lagunari "Serenissima" Regiment

– The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad.

Web Version of U.S. Army Field Manual 3–21.8

. Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 517–533. — includes several drawings