Quote:
Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
The problem is finding skilled archers.
The British did not train archers in the middle ages, we bred them. Boys would start from around the age of 10 to 12 and develop their skills over years. At one point archery was required by law and many games and pastimes where banned in order to keep the youth of the country practising archery.
It was the devlopment of the crossbow and later on the musket that allowed for trained professionals to be effective in a relatively short time.
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If I do recall correctly, some British Navy ships carried longbows as secondary armament as late as the late 19th century.  The longbow was pretty much equivalent to modern machineguns in medieval warfare as a skilled archer could fire about twelve arrows a minute. Multiply that by 50 or 100 and you get a bunch of hedgehogs on the other side...
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"Listen to me, nugget, and listen good. Don't go poppin' your head out like that, unless you want it shot off. And if you do get it shot off, make sure you're dead, because if you ain't, guess who's gotta drag your sorry ass off the field? Were short on everything, so the only painkiller I have comes in 9mm doses. Now get the hell out of my foxhole!" - an unknown medic somewhere, 2013.
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