The Infantry, the supreme warrior…

The term « infantry » comes from the Italian word « infante », meaning footsoldier.

From time immemorial, the infantry has always constituted the bulk of troops who fight on foot. At first, their main arms were double-edged swords, pikes, bows and arrows, after which came the arquebus, muskets, grenades and all the new weapons man, over the centuries, has been inventing all in a bid to ‘’elegantly’’ squeeze life out of his fellow brother.

During the Napoleonic era, and subsequently during the XIX century, the infantry considerably retained the role it had been playing as far back as the period of the Roman legions when it used to be at the heart of battles, breaking through enemy fortifications and putting up resistance to contain attacks.

It can be said that prior to World War I, the infantry had been the supreme warrior. During the First World War, artillery and machine guns were massively used against regiments of infantrymen. This resulted in real blood-baths as these unfortunate footsoldiers, who in groups made rash attacks, became « cannon fodder ».

With the advent of modern sophisticated equipment, weapons and devices such as tanks, aircrafts and missiles, the role of the various units of the armed forces have changed remarkably and the resources of the infantry have increased considerably.

Though motorized infantry troops are transported in trucks, they still fight on foot. The mechanized infantry operates just like Armoured-Calvary arm units. It uses all terrain vehicles for transportation, or sometimes amphibious vehicles equally used in fighting. As for parachutist infantries and commando units, they are transported by air in aircrafts or helicopters but, like the other infantry units, they too fight on foot.