Crouch.

This is coolbert:

From my last blog entry:

"The men on foot struggled forward against the chassepot fire, as if into a hailstorm, shoulders hunched, heads bowed"

Describing the advance of the Prussian Guard against the entrenched French troops firing their chassepot rifles with telling effect.

And from the book again, by Keegan, "The Face of Battle":

"In some battalions the men were able to walk upright, with arms sloped or ported, as they had been expecting. In others they were soon bent forward, like men walking into a strong wind and rain, their bayonets fixed and their rifles horizontal. 'Troops always, in my experience,' wrote Lord Chandos, whose observation this is, 'unconsciously assume this crouching position when advancing against heavy fire.'"

In the above excerpt, Keegan is describing how the British troops advancing into enemy fire on the first day of the Somme Offensive, 1916, behaved. What posture they "assumed".

"as if into a hailstorm".

"like men walking into a strong wind and rain".

"unconsciously assume".

UNCONSCIOUSLY ASSUME!!??

A natural reaction, instinctual in nature??!!

There does seem to be something to this.

In the annals of the Shanghai Riot Police, commanded by the famous Captain Fairbairn, an incident is related that seems to indicate that the crouching, hunched forward posture is something men [women??] NATURALLY AND INSTINCTIVELY ASSUME when in the presence of what they consider to be danger.

A particular incident occurred when a contingent of Shanghai police, with handguns drawn, pursued a group of Chinese villains [Tong gangsters??] down a darkened alleyway. An alleyway where it was so dark, that normal visibility was IMPOSSIBLE. And MADE SO by the villains [this alleyway was later determined to have been set up in advance as a route of escape for the gangsters]. Crouching, bent forward, handguns drawn, the police passed through the darkened alleyway unscathed, their quarry unfortunately escaping. It was only the next day [during daylight obviously] when the police found they had PASSED UNDER clothes lines that had been stretched across the width of the alley, at neck level, in a deliberate manner, meant to choke and "clothes line" pursuers [the police]. The police, without knowing the lines were there, simply by crouching and bending forward, passed UNDER and evaded the trap set for them.

And did this WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT!! Did so instinctively??!!

[please note the postures of the two men in the photo accompanying this blog entry. ANY QUESTIONS??!!]

coolbert.