Did shieldwalls by disciplined armies interconnect seamlessly as though they were lego pieces?

Griffith

Banned
I can't tell you how many times popular portrayals of shieldwall formations by disciplined armies were so well coordinated that they did not have any holes or gaps in them that no arrows can possibly hit a single soldiers in the ranks. In fact disciplined armies such as the Normans are often portrayed as being so interconnected in their wall formations that there is no way for even an opposing army without a shieldwall to inflict casualties. So long as you remain in the wall formation your shield will protact you from any direct blow and the enemy soldiers would have to either break the formation by overwhelming with sheer numbers or hit with weapons strong enough to pierce or smash the shields of individual soldiers.If they can't do that and if they fight otuside a shield formation, you're guaranteed to win with minimal or even no casualties.

Pop media portrayals of the Greeks and Romans take this up to eleven in specific film portrayals where the Greek Phalanx and (especially) Roman Tetsudo are done with such coordination and discipline that they LITERALLY CONNECT like Lego pieces!

The opening scene from Gladiators where Roman legions battle Germaic barbarians exemplifies just how "perfectly" connecting the Roman Tetsudo is portrayed in movies and shieldwalls are in mass media in general. Not a single gap enemy arrows could penetrate and despite the terrains Romans were able to hold a near perfect front wall shield row while on the march.

However I was watching a historical reenactment earlier this morning and I was absolutely shocked at just how much gaps there were int he Tetsudo formation just as practised by re-enactorrs. There was so much obvious holes that it looked like even a harpoon could enter the formation without a shield getting int he way and in the reenactment many participants admitted they were hit by arrows despite being in shieldwall.

In addition not counting the gaps, the shields did not look like they could connect perfectly like lego toys that is often portrayed in movies. Even when they stop marching and assume defensive position awaiting the barbarian rush the front row don't even look like a wall of shields more like individuals holding their shield outs. Despite attempting to interconnect their shields together as they awaited the Barbarian rush, they looked less like the wall in movies and more like barbarian hordes they were supposed to fight in the re-enactment.

Even the shields they wielded looked too bulky to ever "connect perfectly like lego pieces". I actually went and talk to some of the enactors to help me do an experiment in an attempt to imitate the Tetsudo in movies and when I tried to connect my shield to enacters side by side me, it was so damn difficult to literally make them touch each other and in fact the shields were of various sizes it was impossible to keep a symmetrical front row that looked perfect like in films.

Even when we did come close to copying placing the shields close together side by side, it was so skimpy trying to copy movie style shieldwalls that we could barely move forward in a march let alone swing our sword or thrust our spear. In fact in some attempts we were even literally touching each other should by shoulder and nd some of us got scratches and scrapes by our weapons and armor parts. We ultimately had to put some distance between our shields to effectively simulate swinging weapons.

I know we were just re-enacting but this event made me curious if the Shieldwall was not as fancy looking and perfect protection movies portray. The fact trying to connect it like lego pieces in the front row alone made it so tight we couldn't even march nevermind throw a spear. We even had difficulties getting out of the wall.
 
No shields aren't like legos, there are always gaps, small gaps but there are always gaps. Also don't use pop culture and movies to base your history knowledge.
 
Shields definitely do not "connect like Lego pieces". There's no interlocking, obviously. Also, the aspis is round, so you can't have them lined up side-to-side without gaps. Some scuta had straight sides (being either rectangular or oval), and almost as broad as a man's shoulders, so that it could probably make a "perfect shield wall", especially if people stand with their torsos a little bit to the side. But even still, those things were heavy, and it's asking a lot of anyone, even a professional soldier, to hold a shield together "like Lego", especially when trying to move. It sounds like you noticed these things.

A few things are important to note. First, Romans did not try to use weapons when in the testudo; they could move slowly, but it was more a temporary formation for taking fire while you approached, but the ultimate idea was to stay in formation until the enemy engaged you (and so would stop shooting), or just ran out of arrows. And the hoplites used spears, not shields, and were able to stick their spears over or under the shield "wall" where the shields came close to each other because the shields were circular.

And your point about the shieldwall being sort of loose and not a perfect wall - that's fine! An arrow could enter! A javelin could enter! Except that no one can aim a javelin with that sort of precision, and the soldier could try and move his shield to block it. And arrows were almost always launched in volleys from a distance - in all but the very heaviest barrages, the odds of an arrow penetrating the odd crack or seam are very low. Arrows also probably wouldn't come in from immediately in front, taking more of an arcing trajectory, for what it's worth. Could a marksman put an arrow through a gap the width of a hand? Maybe; probably. But at battlefield distances? Less likely. And even if so, harming one man (but probably not killing, since all his important bits are covered by a shield) won't have much of an affect on the battle. So, no, the shieldwalls probably weren't as perfect as in Rome: Total War.

And one final note on your difficulties - as I pointed out earlier, shields are heavy. Moving in tight formation is hard. Even without shields or weapons, trying to move in a formation where you're almost shoulder to should and you'll basically kick the man in front of you when you walk if you're not careful is very difficult. Soldiers that fought in shieldwalls trained for it. Many Roman and Greek soldiers were either professionals or amateurs that took their duties very seriously. The Germanic shieldwall typically put huscarls and the like (heavy, quasi-professional infantry) in the front, leaving the levied masses behind a wall of steel and muscle, where they could sort of poke spears forward as they wished. The Flemish shield-wall was done mostly by amateurs, but like the Greeks, the Flemish militias took their duties seriously and trained quite a bit.

Think of a sport like soccer: even people who practice once a week are going to be ridiculously better than people who have never played, in strength and stamina and technique; and those who do it professionally are in a completely different league.

tl;dr shield walls aren't perfect and don't need to be; they're also more perfect than you guys were able to do.

EDIT: testudo fix
 
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Even the shields they wielded looked too bulky to ever "connect perfectly like lego pieces". I actually went and talk to some of the enactors to help me do an experiment in an attempt to imitate the Tetsudo in movies and when I tried to connect my shield to enacters side by side me, it was so damn difficult to literally make them touch each other and in fact the shields were of various sizes it was impossible to keep a symmetrical front row that looked perfect like in films.

Even when we did come close to copying placing the shields close together side by side, it was so skimpy trying to copy movie style shieldwalls that we could barely move forward in a march let alone swing our sword or thrust our spear. In fact in some attempts we were even literally touching each other should by shoulder and nd some of us got scratches and scrapes by our weapons and armor parts. We ultimately had to put some distance between our shields to effectively simulate swinging weapons.

I know we were just re-enacting but this event made me curious if the Shieldwall was not as fancy looking and perfect protection movies portray. The fact trying to connect it like lego pieces in the front row alone made it so tight we couldn't even march nevermind throw a spear. We even had difficulties getting out of the wall.

Reenactment shields tend to be much thicker than historical examples. Reenactors might be fighting every month or week, and don't have to march everywhere with their shield. Therefore, they use heavy shields since they don't want to have to replace them constantly. Actual pre-modern fighters would only be fighting relatively rarely; getting a shield that needs to be replaced after every battle is a small price to pay if it means you get tired slower, parry faster and can march further.

What types of shield where the Reenactors using? An Aspis(hoplite shield) or early medieval round shield are well suited to forming an overlapping shield wall, but the Scutum(Roman shield) or the high medieval heater shield are questionable at best for forming a true shield wall. Meanwhile, things like the medieval Pavise and ancient Persian Spara could be propped up on the ground to form a literal wall of shields, while missile troops shoot from behind it.
 
Others have already said what needed to be said.

I'll just chime in and say that shield walls are created by individual warriors cooperating with each other and working as a team. There wasn't just one type or style of shield wall, it varied from culture to culture, from period to period, and even on the basis of an individual team of fighters.

Whether there were gaps between shields ?

Depends on the construction of the shield and how it was used. Shields that were handheld but used for more static protection would be bigger, used in a less mobile manner, and they would be built to overlap a lot more with each other. Case in point: Phalanx spearmen and their large, round shields, from behind which they stuck out their pike-like sarisa long spears.

Gaps between shields could be functionally useful, if you wanted to use a handheld melee weapon as a semi-offensive element of the shield wall. I've already covered this extensively in this recent post, where I talk about Roman legionaire usage of "sticking the gladius through a gap between the shields", and using it for added, stabbing-based protection when enemies start assaulting the shield wall up close, bashing into it and all.
 
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