page_title: Volley fire
section_title: Types of weapons
hierarchical_section_title: Volley fire / Types of weapons
caption_attribution_description: English: From a letter that William Louis of Nassau wrote to his cousin Maurice of Nassau illustrating his idea of the musketry volley technique (countermarch). Each of the letters "a," "b," "c," etc. represents one soldier. Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg letter to Maurice of Nassau, 8 December 1594.
context_page_description: Volley fire, as a military tactic, is in its simplest form the concept of having soldiers shoot in turns. In practice, it often consists of having a line of soldiers all fire their weapons simultaneously at the enemy forces on command. This is usually to make up for the inaccuracy, slow rate of fire, and limited range of a weapon which requires extensive effort to reload. The volley fire, specifically the musketry volley technique, also known as the countermarch, requires lines of soldiers to fire on command and march back into a column to reload while the next row shoots and, hence, repeat fire. While this tactic is usually associated with Dutch military thinkers in the late 16th century, its principles have been applied to crossbow infantry since at least the Tang dynasty.
caption: Diagram of a 1594 Dutch musketry volley formation.
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