After the introduction of
firearms, the use of the cavalry charge as a common
military tactic waned.
Infantry shock action required the holding of fire until the enemy was in very close range, and was used in defence as well as attack. The favorite tactic of the
Duke of Wellington was for the infantry to fire a volley and then give a loud cheer and charge. During the
Second Italian War of Independence, the French Army used shock tactics to overcome the superior range of the Austrian
Lorenz rifle, quickly closing into Austrian lines with bayonet charges with 100-men battalions, six men deep, making use of loose line formations and taking advantage of the Lorenz curved trajectory to minimize casualties. The Austrians emulated these tactics against the Prussians during the
Austro-Prussian War, but without success. In fact, the Stoßtaktik ("shock tactics") negated the Lorenz range and muzzle velocity advantages over the
Dreyse needle gun used by the Prussian Army. The increasing firepower of
machine guns,
mortars, and
artillery made this tactic increasingly hazardous.
World War I saw the infantry charge at its worst, when masses of soldiers made frontal, and often disastrous, attacks on
entrenched enemy positions. Shock tactics began to be viable again with the invention of
tanks and
airplanes. During
World War II, the
Germans adapted shock tactics to modern
mechanized warfare, known as
blitzkrieg, which gained considerable achievements during the war and was afterwards adopted by most modern armies. The United States tactic of
shock and awe during the
Second Gulf War was a shock tactic based on overwhelming military superiority on
land and unchallenged dominance in
naval and
aerial warfare. ==Famous examples==