I've always been fascinated by all things medieval. i've played games like Medieval: Total War and i've been a massive fan of Game of Thrones and Lord of The Rings because of it and i frequent quite a few medieval festivals.
But onto my question: I've always enjoyed the battles. When i've watched them part of me has wanted how they do work in terms of organisation. Its always fascinated me how people made do without instant communication, but what i want to know is how did each soldier know where their regiment was on the battlefield, and how did the regiments know where their commander wanted them to be, and how did orders get across? Thank you in advance to whoever enlightens me :)
how did each soldier know where their regiment was on the battlefield?
Flags, horns, and banners. The Taktika of Leo VI (a Byzantine military manual from the 10th Century) explains that soldiers were trained to stick by their banners on the battlefield. Each regional division and subdivisions all carried a unique banner which a soldier was "tied to". Leo advises soldiers lost in the thick of battle to "look for your banner" and return to the fight, unless ordered otherwise. In order to trick the enemy into thinking there were more troops than were actually there, sometimes the Byzantines deployed many banners in a single battlegroup.
how did orders get across?
Orders were distributed through a series of horns, flags, vocal commands passed down from the strategos (general) to the lower ranking officers. When first entering battle, Byzantine soldiers were ordered to be completely silent, except to say a prayer to God, and to suddenly yell a single battle cry of STAVROS NIKA ("The Cross Wins!") or KYRIE ELEISON ("Lord have mercy!") that was intended to startle the enemy. Keeping the army in silence was designed to be an intimidation factor, but it also helped orders to be heard. Officers and their attendants were told to check repeatedly for new commands from the various communications methods, and each officer was briefed by the strategos before battle as to the precise details of the battle plan.