THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 21 (Supplement)

THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY.

MEMORABLE EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE

By

Charles Conway.

OCTOBER 25: THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT. FIVE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, on October 25, 1415, Henry V., one of Britain’s greatest warrior kings, gained his remarkable victory at Agincourt, in the North of France, where he routed afn army which outnumbered his own by at least five, if not ten, to one. In the summer of 1415 Henry V. landed in France with an army for the purpose of recovering some of England’s ancient French possessions, and, having captured and garrisoned the fortress &X Harfleur, he started to march on to Calais with a force of about 10,000 men. The French army, which numbered at least 50,000. and possibly over 100,000, fell back as the British army advanced, but it finally made a stand in a defile between two forests in the vicinity of the village, of Agincourt, through which the British must pass on their way to Calais. On the night of October 24 the two armies camped facing each other, and on the following morning Henry marshalled his men for the fray. He placed a strong force of archers in his front line, providing each archer with an ironshod stake, sharpened at both ends, which, placed obliquely in the ground before him, formed an admirable defence. He also despatched secretly two bodies of archers, one to make a circuit to the rear of the French army, and the other to lie in ambush on the enemy’s left flank. To offset the numerical odds against him, Henry had two things in his favour. First, the size of the French army necessitated its being formed in files thirty deep, and packed thus closely together it had but little freedom of movement in the narrow defile; while the smaller number of the British troops were spread out in files only four deep, which afforded them ample room for rapid manoeuvring. Second, rain during the night had converted the defile into a quagmire of slippery clay, which proved a serious obstacle to the French, who were mostly attired in cumbrous armour and mounted on heavily-barded horses, whereas the British army was mainly composed of lightly-clad bowmen, who were little handicapped by the state of the ground. The battle commenced at noon, when the British archers sent a storm, of arrows into the enemy’s closely-packed ranks, and thus provoked a charge by a large detachment or horse and foot, which suffered severely during its advance from the arrows of the bowmen in front, and in ambush. Tba French failed to break through the entrenchment of pointed stakes, and were forced to retire, while their horses, maddened by the stinging arrows, galloped back wildly through the French lines, spreading confusion and dismay. The English archers, abandoning their bows for hatchets and billets, followed closely behind, and hewed down the steelclad Frenchmen as they struggled helplessly in the sticky soil. Thus, the< first of the three divisions of the French army was almost completely destroyed, with the exception of a small remnant which found temporary refuge in the ranks of the second division. Henry then advanced at the head of his men-at-arms against the second division, and in the desperate bout of hand-to-hand fighting which ensued he was always in the thick of the fight, and had many narrow escapes. The French fought valiantly, but were speedily overcome, and with the rout of the second division the victory was won, for the third division fled from the field without striking a blow. The British losses only amounted to a few hundred men, but tha French casualties were enormous, amounting to considerably over 10,000, while several thousand more were taken prisoners. Henry’s men were too much exhausted to pursue their advantage, *and marched on to Calais unmolested. [Copyrighted.)