Yeah room clearing with a Sarissa would be literally impossible.
Not quite. Ring the building off and block the exits. Then burn it down. Spear people as they tried to escape. The Sarissa actually came in two halves which were screwed together to form the full 18-foot (some cases up to 22 feet) Sarissa. The half-length would be used for more confined actions. But, we still have the hypaspists and slinger/archers for room-to-room work.
CarlManvers2019 said:
Also, you sure military sabers were never really in use?
Remember, the point always beats the edge. Slashing with sabers causes ugly superficial wounds; puncturing with a thrust kills the victim. One of the interesting things by the way is that the general image of cavalry crashing into a defensive line very rarely happened. Usually what would happen is that once a charge had started, either the line would stand its ground and the charge would break off (say again, horses are too smart to charge against a line of spikes pointed at their eyes) or the line would break and run and the cavalry would pursue it. It's not that sabres weren't used, its that their specific role is not appropriate to the circumstances we are discussing.
The aftermath of Culloden is a good example of how cavalry really was used. The actual battle was over in about 20 minutes; the army under Charles Edward Stuart (aka 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' and actually a vile character) tried its Highland charge and got shot to pieces. I would say they broke and ran only they were broken before the battle started. Anyway, the panic-stricken mass of troops escaping from the slaughter ran down the Inverness Road. This was a relatively narrow road with high banks topped by stone walls on each side. In other words, once they were on that road, there was no way out. The English Army had three regiments of militia cavalry (barely-trained local people) who pursued the fleeing highlanders and cut them down. The problem was, the highlanders weren't wearing uniforms (there was another problem there) and they were mixed in with fleeing civilians. The cavalry couldn't tell the difference and did what cavalry did. Killed them all.
This was where slashing sabres came into their own. A slashing sabre is designed to intimidate and terrorize. It is intended to make sure than an army that is on the run keeps running. Thrusting sabres are designed to kill. Remember the quote from Stargate? "This (a staff) is a weapon of terror. It is designed to intimidate your enemy. This (a P-90) is a weapon of war. It is intended to kill your enemy." Same with sabres.
So sabres do have a role but to use it one has to break the enemy army first. That's what happened at Culloden. There it was made worse by something else. Remember I said the Highlanders weren't in uniform? Some were; they had taken the red coats from English dead at Falkirk Muir and Prestonpans. Wearing an enemy uniform was just about the worst no-no there was in 18th century warfare and being caught doing so meant summary execution at best. You've probably heard the stories about the English pistoling Highland wounded after Culloden? They were the ones wearing red coats.
By the way. given a choice in the specified circumstances between a motorcycle and a cavalry horse, I'd take the horse. Cavalry horses were trained to fight and were intelligent enough to do so. They were taught to bite, kick, trample and generally squelch the enemy. They could figure situations out for themselves and take appropriate action and work with their riders to make the enemy's life thoroughly miserable. In one set of cavalry memoirs, the writer spoke fondly of one cavalry horse that had a penchant for biting the face off his enemies. A motorcycle has none of that.
en.m.wikipedia.org
