Light infantry

Light infantry (or skirmishers) are soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry. Heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight formations that were the core of large battles. Light infantry fought in open-order, often in close co-ordination with heavy infantry, where they could screen the heavy infantry from harassing fire, and the heavy infantry could intervene to protect the light infantry from attacks of enemy heavy infantry or cavalry. Heavy infantry originally had heavier arms and more armour than light infantry, but this distinction was lost as the use of armour declined and gunpowder weapons became standardized.

History of the light Infantry

Antiquity

The concept of a skirmishing screen is a very old one and was already well-established in Ancient Greece and Roman times in the form, for example, of the Greek peltast and psiloi, and the Roman velites. As with so called 'light infantry' of later periods, the term more adequately describes the role of such infantry rather than the actual weight of their equipment. Peltast equipment, for example, grew steadily heavier at the same time as hoplite equipment grew lighter. It was the fact that peltasts fought in open order as skirmishers that made them light infantry and that hoplites fought in the battle line in a phalanx formation that made them heavy infantry.

Light infantry (disambiguation)

Light infantry is a military unit that fights on foot without or with few heavy weapons and armor.

Light infantry may also refer to:

The Light Infantry

The Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Light Division.

History

The regiment was formed on 10 July 1968 as a large regiment by the amalgamation of the four remaining light infantry regiments of the Light Infantry Brigade:

On 31 March 1969 the 4th Battalion The Light Infantry (formerly The Durham Light Infantry) was disbanded leaving three regular battalions.

The regiment was active all through The Troubles in Northern Ireland with eight soldiers from the regiment killed in the Ballygawley bus bombing.

The remaining battalions remained in service until 1993 when they merged to form two battalions renamed 1st and 2nd Battalions.

Territorial Army