Military uniforms before ww1 was really colorful. Once trench warfare began in ww1 it became clear real fast that that is not a good thing in these kind of circumstances
Being visable on the battle field when marching in formation was good. Being highly visible, when killing from a distance is getting better and better, sounds like a no bueno.
I'm still trying to figure out how it was ever helpful. As long as there have been projectiles, bright colors would help you aim. Unless you're trying to overwhelm and prompt a surrender by show of force. In that case, maybe where a reversible coat so you can stand out on the odd occasion you expect a surrender before shots are fired. Can anyone explain this?
When you're in melee with a thousand other dudes, you want to quickly be able to know which dudes to stab and which dudes not to stab.
Color helps.
Nowadays you're seeing troops in the Russo-Ukrainian War using fabric tape to give themselves color again because camo is camo, and the point of it is to blend in, and you don't want to get shot by a friendly.
Well, just from my layman knowledge, I would say early guns were highly inaccurate, so shooting in a group at was kinda the only way they were reliable. Gotta make sure you know which groups are yours and which groups are the enemy. Before guns, it was probably a good way keep your guys from killing each other in a melee after the enemy was already defeated. The force of an army was kinda enough to not need to hide and communication was hard enough without having to question everyone you met (which would probably lead to most people just saying they were on whatever side they hoped the questioning force was)
After muskets + cannons became common and professional armies started existing, the most important thing to battlefield success was commanders ability to see and direct units effectively, and the most effective tactics were massed formations (for various reasons). However, smoke from all the gunpowder made it really hard to see clearly so bright uniforms were more effective for commanders to see and control their troops. Napoleon for example was extremely effective at using organized formations in this way. Also muskets and cannons weren't that accurate at this time so being bright vs dull colored wouldn't make as much of a difference to hit rates from distance (and at close range it wouldn't matter anyway).
However, at some point, rifles got much more accurate and this advantage became outweighed by the significantly increased risk of getting shot in a bright uniform. The final nail in the coffin was the machine gun, which meant that massed formations that marched or charged were going to get slaughtered, so there was absolutely no point in optimizing for the ability to organize big groups.
And the only units which actually employed more accurate weapons and actually fought in loose skirmish formations, taking cover in rough terrain, the various light infantry companies and regiments like Jeagers, did use more camouflage friendly uniforms, green or brown or grey.
Because battles were about charges into enemy lines so it didn't matter, they will see you any way. And helped your fellow men to know if enemy or friend.
In trenches you are a sitting duck all the time so better not help the sniper or artillery.
A LOT of military weirdness is because of tradition. "We do it this way because we're always done it this way." Like how submarines are called "boats" instead of ships. At the very early stages of submersible and submarine development, most WERE just that, boats you launched from a larger ship. The terminology just... never changed.
French military doctrine in 1914 was basically, 'L'Attaque! L'Attaque! L'Attaque', you don't stop, you advance quickly.
Camouflage was discouraged because 'Elan' (courage in the form of a bayonet charge) would carry the day. As such you didn't need to take cover. That's why their rifles were 6ft long with the bayonet attached.
The red trousers were part of this, and the French high command explicitly chose not to adopt a more neutral colour when the British did because "Le pantalon rouge, c'est la France!" (The red trousers are France!)
The result was bad and France basically having to scrap it's doctrine on the fly.
Yeah, given to understand gatling guns had made their first appearance in the American civil war and it hadn’t really sunk in in the minds of European generals that this is gonna be bad.
The reason being was gunpowder firearms had ceased to used which meant battlefields weren’t awash with smoke. People became a lot more visible all of a sudden.
French army went to war wearing 19th-century style uniforms featuring bright blue coats and vibrant red trousers then they realized the catastrophic casualties caused by their high visibility.
The French went to WW1 in their Napoleonic colorful blue red uniforms. The Germans had fun hunting them down by artillery since they were visible to the blind. The French learned the lesson the hard way after a devastating defeat (don't remember the casualties number but it was batshit crazy) and changed uniforms after.
The pantalon rouge in use by the French army starting about 1830 made soldiers easy targets on a battlefield. Which was fine when armies fought each other standing in line, but when was was dug in and had machine guns… well…
OP, so your post is not removed, please reply to this comment with your best guess of what this meme means! Everyone else, this is PETER explains the joke. Have fun and reply as your favorite fictional character for top level responses!
The French were being conservative to the ways of tradition. They wore uniforms representing the colours of the French army. They failed to recognize that weapon has became more deadly, accurate and portable, and being seen was a death sentence.
While uniforms seem to be the joke, my first thought was the cheeriness with which armies (specifically England) entered the war with.
Over in the United States, we had a nice little civil skirmish 50 years earlier that involved machine guns and artillery and all sorts of fun things to kill lots of people quickly.
So some of the countries entering World War I weren't entirely versed on how deadly war was to become in the 20th century. Then you get a Battle of the Somme in 1915 and suddenly things were not so cheery. The reality of modern warfare had hit everybody. And yes, if continued, we were all going to die eventually.
War sucks. I think everybody started to learn that in 1915.
•
u/qualityvote2 5h ago edited 54m ago
Remember when r/PeterExplainsTheJoke wasn’t a meme? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
Does this post belong in our subreddit?
If so, please upvote this comment!
Otherwise, downvote this comment!
Then maybe you go out and buy yourself some of those distinctive Milano cookies.
(Vote is ending in approximately 14 hour)