(TFT) Re: Dodging arrows

[David Bofinger <bofinger.david@gmail.com>]

> And there's alos accounts (both European and Japanese) of guys coming out
> of a battle with nary a scratch, but with enough arrows hanging out of
> their armour to make it difficult to swing.

Can't recall where I saw it now but I think there's a letter home from a
famous crusader remarking that he'd been hit by eleven arrows in his last
battle, and that he saw it as a sign of God's favour, not that they didn't
penetrate, but that he should be hit by so few. (The bows might not have
been as powerful as longbows, though.)

We can argue about *why* it took so many arrows to kill someone under
battle conditions, but we know it did.

At Crecy they had horses to aim at, with IIUC not much barding, so they
probably did a good deal better.

>>> the English lost [...] poor generalship

Depends on your standard. Compared with the French generals who lost Crecy
and Agincourt they were always pretty good. :-)

>> On advantage of any self bow is that it can be made in the field

That's true as far as it goes. But IIUC making arrows is basically a lot
more work than making bows anyway, so I'm not sure it's that important.

I'm guessing the self bow's tolerance for moisture was pretty important to
the English. The classic way to waterproof wood is varnish but you can't do
that with wood that bends so composite bows were always vulnerable to
water. Hence composite bows being more common in dry places.

-----
David
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