Forlorn hope

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Forlorn hope

Forlorn hope is a military term that comes from the Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
verloren hoop, literally "lost heap", and adapted as "lost troop". The Dutch word hoop (in its sense of heap in English) is not cognate

Cognate

Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
with English hope: this is an example of false folk etymology.

In the days of muzzle-loading musket

Musket

A musket is a Muzzle -loaded, smoothbore long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder.Usually, the musket is thought to be the weapon that replaced the arquebus, and was in turn replaced by the rifle....
s it was most frequently used to refer to the first wave of soldiers attacking a breach in defences during a siege

Siege

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Forlorn hope is a military term that comes from the Dutch

Dutch language

Cognate

Musket

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by Battle of attrition and/or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit." A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender ....
. It was likely that most members of the forlorn hope would be killed or wounded. The intention was that some would survive long enough to seize a foothold that could be reinforced, or at least that a second wave with better prospects could be sent in while the defenders were reloading or engaged in mopping up the remnants of the first wave.

A forlorn hope was typically led by a junior officer with hopes of personal advancement. If he survived, and performed courageously, he was almost guaranteed both a promotion and a long-term boost to his career prospects. As a result, despite the risks, there was often competition for the opportunity to lead the assault. The French

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
equivalent of the forlorn hope, called Les Enfants Perdus or The Lost Children, were all guaranteed promotion to officers should they survive, so that both men and officers took up the suicidal mission as an opportunity to raise themselves in the army.

There was a symmetry between the risks faced by the forlorn hope and those faced by the defenders. Once a breach suitable for assault had been made in the walls, defenders were usually given a chance to surrender

Surrender (military)

Surrender is when soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their commissioned officers....
safely. The defenders had already shown their determination and there would be no loss of honour in surrender. If however they chose not to take this opportunity, forcing the attackers to undertake an assault, the usages of war made them subject to massacre

Mass murder

Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people, typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. Mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations....
, and made the position (often a town or city) that they were holding subject to being sacked and pillaged

Looting

Looting , to rob, sacking, plundering, despoiling, or pillaging is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe or riot, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting....
as described by Shakespeare's Henry V

Henry V (play)

Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in 1599. It is based on the life of King Henry V of England, and focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War....
before the walls of Harfleur

Harfleur

Harfleur is a communes of the Seine-Maritime d?partement in the Seine-Maritime departments of France of the Haute-Normandie region of northern France....
:

How yet resolves the governor of the town?

This is the latest parle we will admit;

Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves,

Or like to men proud of destruction

Defy us to our worst;

By extension, the term forlorn hope became used for any body of troops placed in a hazardous position; e.g. an exposed outpost, or the defenders of an outwork in advance of the main defensive position. This usage was especially common in accounts of the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
, as well as in the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
in the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War or Spanish War of Independence was a contest between First French Empire and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Kingdom of Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars....
of 1808-1814.

Forlorn hope

See also