The British War Office did permit the formation of an Experimental Mechanized Force on 1 May 1927, composed of tanks, lorried infantry, self propelled artillery and motorized engineers, but financial constraints prevented the experiment from being extended.

The French army of 15, 000 men took ground exactly opposite in a similar formation, cavalry on the wings, infantry, including the townsmen ( milice des communes ) in the center, Philip with the cavalry reserve and the royal standard, the Oriflamme, in rear of the men on foot.

Once the bombardment had disordered the infantry formation, cavalry were able to rout and pursue the scattered foot soldiers.

General Jean Mordacq intended to rebuild the Foreign Legion as a larger military formation, doing away with the legion's traditional role as a solely infantry formation.

The British defence of Ruweisat Ridge relied on an improvised formation called " Robcol ", comprising a regiment each of field artillery and light anti-aircraft artillery and a company of infantry.

The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies.

This left the formation fairly vulnerable — though near invincible to forwards assault, phalanxes like other infantry formations were fairly prone to flanking, and worse still tending to break up when advancing quickly over rough ground.

Once one side coaxed their opposing infantry into breaking formation, the cavalry would be deployed in an attempt to exploit the loss of cohesion in the opposing infantry lines and begin slaying the infantrymen in the pandemonium.

The development of pike and shot and later linear tactics with increased use of firearms by Europeans proved deadly against the massed infantry in close formation used by the Ottoman Turks.

In the 7th century BC, the Greeks evolved a new close-order infantry formation, the phalanx.

Upon the formation of Pakistan, Khan helped set up an officer's school in Quetta, and commanded an infantry division during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Gough laid down a new infantry formation of skirmish lines followed by " worms " on 24 August.

To deliver its 36 battalions of airborne infantry and their support troops to the continent, the First Allied Airborne Army had under its operational control the 14 groups of IX Troop Carrier Command, and after 11 September the 16 squadrons of 38 Group ( an organization of converted bombers providing support to resistance groups ) and a transport formation, 46 Group.

** Line infantry, a line formation of infantrymen who were part of the " Line Regiments "

Sappers could operate in support of a larger regular infantry formation, or as the main spearhead themselves, with regulars as backup.

Historians Victor Davis Hanson and Donald Kagan have argued that Epaminondas's so-called " oblique formation " was not an intentional and preconceived innovation in infantry tactics, but was rather a clever response to circumstances.

The new structure of the army will see a total of three armoured regiments, each assigned to a new " armoured infantry brigade ", alongside a formation reconnaissance regiment ( renamed as " armoured cavalry ").

At Gates suggestion, Congress confirmed his rank as a brigade general, with a special title of " Commander of the Horse ", and authorized the formation of a corps of 68 lancers and 200 light infantry.

Better-trained troops were capable of using the pike in an aggressive attack with each rank of pikemen being trained to hold their pikes so that they presented enemy infantry with four or five layers of spearheads bristling from the front of the formation.

As long as it kept good order, such a formation could roll right over enemy infantry but it did have weaknesses — as the men were all moving forward they were all facing in a single direction and could not turn quickly or efficiently to protect the vulnerable flanks or rear of the formation and the huge block of men carrying such unwieldy spears could be difficult to maneuver in any way other than straightforward movement.

In the battles of Grandson, Morat and Nancy, the Swiss not only successfully resisted the attacks of knightly foes, as the relatively passive Scottish and Flemish infantry squares had done in the earlier Middle Ages, but also marched to the attack with great speed and in good formation, their attack columns steamrolling the Burgundian forces, sometimes with great massacre.

Philip had about 16, 000 heavy infantry in phalanx formation, 2, 000 peltasts, 5, 500 light infantry from Illyria, Thrace, and Crete, and 2, 000 cavalry for 25, 500 troops overall.

* Antigua and Barbuda Regiment-comprises four line companies and is the infantry unit and fighting arm of the defence force.

An infantry fighting vehicle ( IFV ) is an armoured personnel carrier which can provide significant fire support.

An assault gun is a gun or howitzer mounted on a motor vehicle or armored chassis, designed for use in the direct fire role in support of infantry when attacking other infantry or fortified positions.

Of course importance is a matter of perspective ; what is important to a divisional commander is rarely the same as what is important to an infantry platoon commander.

To the infantryman, there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of a minor raid or as a major offensive, nor is it likely that he anticipates the future course of the battle ; few of the British infantry who went over the top on the first day on the Somme, July 1, 1916, would have anticipated that they would be fighting the same battle in five months ' time.

Today, a marine is actually an infantry regiment that sometimes fights solely on land and is no longer tied to the navy.

The classic characteristic of what is commonly known as " blitzkrieg " is a highly mobile form of infantry and armour working in combined arms teams.

Blitzkrieg ( German, " lightning war "; ) is an anglicised word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken, proceeding without regard to its flank.

John Ellis explained that “... there is considerable justice in Matthew Cooper's assertion that the panzer divisions were not given the kind of strategic mission that was to characterize authentic armoured blitzkrieg, and were almost always closely subordinated to the various mass infantry armies .”

" Addressing the faster rate at which defenders could reinforce an area than attackers could penetrate it during the First World War, Guderian wrote that " since reserve forces will now be motorized, the building up of new defensive fronts is easier than it used to be ; the chances of an offensive based on the timetable of artillery and infantry co-operation are, as a result, even slighter today than they were in the last war.

The cynical attitude toward recruited infantry in the face of ever more powerful field artillery is the source of the term cannon fodder, first used by François-René de Chateaubriand, in 1814 ; however, the concept of regarding soldiers as nothing more than " food for powder " was mentioned by William Shakespeare as early as 1598, in Henry IV, Part 1.

On the other hand, for Rommel the situation continued to be grave as, despite successful defensive operations, his infantry had suffered heavy losses and he reported that " the situation is critical in the extreme ".

In this last role, they often compete with the carbine, a short, light rifle, which is also usually issued to airborne infantry because of its small size.

A general-purpose machine gun ( GPMG ) is a belt-fed weapon used in a variety of roles, from bipod-or tripod-mounted infantry support to deployment as a helicopter door gun or a vehicle-mounted support weapon.

In later texts, the term hoplite is used to denote any armoured infantry, regardless of armament or ethnicity.

The role of the infantry is generally defined as engaging the enemy at close proximity and kill or injure them utilizing their rifle, pistol, bayonette, entrenching tool, or even their bare hands.

* The Australian Army defines the role of the infantry thus: " The role of the Infantry is to seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture him, to seize or hold ground and repel attack, by day or night, regardless of season, weather or terrain.

An infantry fighting vehicle ( IFV ), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle ( MICV ), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide fire support.

In its original sense, the term " tagma " ( from the Greek τάσσειν, " to set in order ") is attested from the 4th century and was used to refer to an infantry battalion of 200 – 400 men ( also termed bandum or numerus in Latin, arithmos in Greek ) in the contemporary East Roman army.

Although the Companion cavalry is largely regarded as the first real shock cavalry of Antiquity, it seems that Alexander was very wary of using it against well-formed infantry, as attested by Arrian in his account of the battle against the Malli, an Indian tribe he faced after Hydaspes.

The Aśvaka Kambojas are also attested to have fielded 30, 000 strong cavalry, 30 elephants and 20, 000 infantry against Alexander.