[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (46 page)

Alan faced the men hidden in the woods
to the east
and again raised a fist, punching the sky. Twenty more archers began to rain death on the Danes from the trees
behind
them, arrows slamming into their undefended backs. Before they reached the row of defensive pits
closest to the
English
already more than
100
Danes
lay
dead, riddled with the longbow cloth-yard arrows.

The Danes had been channeled by the seemingly-innocu
ous pits into three areas each 25
paces wide, jostling each other and slowing their progress. As the first of the Danes burst out of the bottle-necks and surged forward, the
10
archers
behind
the
shield-wall
joined the fray, shooting point-blank into the faces and throats of the Danes running towards them. Each loosed
4
or
5
arrows at close range into the Danes, the arrows smashing through armour and flesh
. M
en dropp
ed
, some quietly and others screaming with p
ain from chest or belly wounds.

The English were deployed in chevron-shaped formation
s
in front of each of the three openings in the line of pits. The Danes burst out of the confined area
s
, spreading slightly as they charged.
Danes
fell left and right from the efforts of the archers and were trampled underfoot by those who followed. Alan could see behind his own line youths of ten or so years of age trundling hand-carts containing sheaves of arrows to replenish the supplies of the bowmen to the rear of the English line, as they loosed arrow after arrow, each sheaf of twelve taking less than a minute to use.

The men in the English shield-
wall were chanting the ancient Saxon battle
-
cry
.
“Out! Out! Out!”
They
hammer
ed
their spears or sword-hilts against their shields. The Danes roared their own battle cries as they closed the English line. Then the front ranks of the Danes struck the English shield-wall like three hammer-blows.

Usually the Danes used their own projectiles when close to the enemy, normally small throwing axes, but this time they were so keen to close with the enemy that they passed up the opportunity to pause and throw. The English swordsmen in the front rank,
many
experiencing their first taste of battle, quailed as the screaming Danes closed
with their
long
hair flying, mouths open screaming battle-cries or death-cries, faces bright red from the exertion of running
on soft ground in full armour.

The battle-chant, the press of men at each shoulder and the feel of the man close behind, the provision of mutual protection and support kept the English line together
. W
hen the Danes crashed into the shield
-
wall they were pushed back as the English warriors bent slightly and
shoved hard
just
as
the Danes hit. In the close confines of the battle, where there was hardly space to swing a
n axe or long
-
sword, the English swordsmen began to use their shorter one-handed swords to effect, stabbing towards the bellies of the invaders, facing them as they pushed forward and with the shield on their left arm protecting them from the blows of the Danes.

The use of the defensive pits and the positioning of the English shield
-
wall meant that
,
while the Danes outnumbered the English two to one overall, at the shield-wall there were two Englishmen for each Dane, with a large pack of other invaders pushing forward trying to get a place. While it was hot work for the English swordsmen in the front rank,
they held
a two to one advantage
on the shield-wall
and
a spear stabbing over each shoulder trying to impale the Danes if they dropped their guard for a moment, the English held and the Danish losses mounted quickly. In the press the dead, English and Dane alike, found it difficult to fall, being supported upright by the bodies of the living. Men pushed and shoved, shouted, screamed
,
thrust and slashed with weapons. Blood flew from strokes that hit their target, blood and guts from those who had been eviscerated made the ground slippery and the wounded who did fall to the gro
und were trampled as the shield-
wall surged back and forth.

Crammed together the Danish axe-men had no room to wield their weapons, and the swordsmen were restricted to bashing with their shields and trying to stab their opponent in the guts as any attempt at an overhand stroke would most likely lop off the head of the compatriot standing next to him. The fighting style of the Norsemen, trained for individual and not collectiv
e combat, counted against them.
Alan had specifically trained the Englishmen, including the fyrdmen, to fight in a shield-wall.

At Hastings the English had learned from the Normans that combat required men to work together in mutually supporting groups and that the importance of individual ability epitomised by the Berserker was largely a thing of the past. While being faced by a huge man wielding a massive battleaxe in both hands, hewing through his opponents like so much wood, slicing men and horses asunder, was enough to make even a brave man empty his bowels, properly executed coordinated close
-
combat made the
two-handed axe almost
redundant. If the axe-men were not killed by archers
when they stepped forward from their own shield-wall
, and the opposing swordsmen kept out of their reach but engaged their attention, the supporting spearmen and
bowmen
would account for them.
T
he local English fyrdmen had been taught well over the last two years.

Alan’s archers walked back and forth behind the ranked men of the shield
-
wall, shooting arrows into the faces of men they could almost reach out and touch. Again, many of them were in their first battle and the sight of the huge arrow
s
slamming into the face, throat or chest of men at very short range, the spray of blood from the arrow-strike and the eruption of blood from the mouth of the target as he fell screaming was very different from shooting at straw targets at
200
paces. Many were white-faced and looking
as if
they would vomit at any moment as they mechanically reached into their quivers for the next arrow and looked for their next target.

When the Danes were fully engaged, separated into three untidy gaggles partly in front of the defensive pits and partly still
a
waiting the opportunity to move forward, Alan let loose h
is
cavalry
. They
charged
from the
ir hiding place in the
woods
,
through a corridor in the ditches left for their use and smashed into the right flank of the Danes
from behind
. With the din of battle the Danes did not hear the drumming of the
horses’ hooves as they closed.

The first target of each horseman was speared with a lance in his side or back. Some lances broke at the first contact, others lasted to account for two or three of the enemy before the shattered wood had to be discarded and the horseman drew his
long sword
and began to deal death with each swing of his arm
,
as the arrow-head
formation
of
the
cavalry smashed through. As the momentum of the charge was lost and the Danes realised what was happening and turned to defend the flank, the cavalry drew back to collect new lances and reorganize for another charge. More than
100
Danes lay dead along the path of the charge, along with six horses and four cavalrymen.

In a few moments the Danes on the
ir
right flank
, the English left flank,
had been virtually annihilated. With nearly half their number dead or wounded and with their leaders having been specially targeted by the archers, in particular Owain, it took some time before the men on the
Danish
left flank and in the centre realised their predicament
,
and the rear ranks
to
start
trying to extricate themselves.

Many
Danes
in the centre were looking across at where the cavalry were lining up for their next charge, knowing they would be the target. As the Danes tried t
o pull back, the English shield-
wall swarmed forward,
maintaining
the pressure. The Danes slowly retreated, trying to keep a coherent force and maintain discipline. The English cavalry charged down another path through in the trenches and hit the Danish centre like an Act of God,
again
cutting a swathe through the struggling foot-soldiers like a scythe through grass.

The Danes routed and fled to the south towards the ships.

It was then the second part of Alan’s plan became evident.
Havørn
and
Alekrage
had rowed into Barfleet Creek just as the Danish infantry had started to march north. Being
snekke
build by the Danes and with Norwegian captains, they had encountered no difficulty in mingling with the ships of the invaders, with Sven shouting replies in Danish and Norwegian to the few shouted questions he heard
. T
he English crewmen kept their mouths shut and heads down. When the battle on shore was joined and the attention of the Dan
ish anchor-guard
was distracted, Sven and Lars had quietly taken action against the Danish ships, which
by now
had floated off the
mud bank
with the incoming tide
and were
secured fore and aft by an anchor. Both of the English longships had towed a
sunnmørsfæring
, a Norwegian four-oared rowing-boat, and positioned themselves about
70
yards distan
t
from each other along part of the line of Danish ships, which
stretched
in total for about
200
yards. There were
six
Danish ships between the
two
English longships
and
three
Danes to the south of
Havørn
, with the rest of the Danish ships being north of
Alekrage.

Wh
ile
this
occurred
, o
n land the Danish troops
had
j
ust reach
ed
the English shield-
wall. Distance and the dust thrown up by hundreds of feet made it impossible for those who had remained with the ships to see what was happening, but to a man their attention was drawn north-west, interest piqued by the shouts, screams and din of battle that could now be heard.

The English rowed out with ten men crammed into each
sunnmørsfæring
, each
targeting
the ship next to their own in the group that was flanked by the two English ships. The first ship the men from
Havørn
approached never even saw them, the four
men on anchor-
watch standing together near the bow and were dispatched by a silent rush of knife-wielding
Saxons
. The next ship w
as
slightly more watchful, and Sven waved a large earthenware jar of aqua vitae in each hand before inviting himself and his men aboard, clambering over the stern of the ship and having his men take down t
he three unsuspecting watchmen.

The third ship saw them coming and some instinct or surliness made the senior watchman wave away the rowing boat. Now with only six men aboard Sven decided to quit while he was ahead and turned to row back to the
Havørn
, just as shouts were heard from the ship one further along, which was being attacked by the men from
Alekrage
.

“That’s put the cat amongst the pigeons!” commented Sven casually as he stood and nonchalantly lobbed a small flask containing Wildfire onto the ship that had just refused to allow him to
board
, starting an instant conflagration. In the meantime ten men had moved from
Havørn
and
Alekrage
to crew each of the five captured ships. Anchor ropes were cut at the bows of each ship and the ships hauled backwards into the main stream of the creek using the kedge anchors. Even with skeleton crews the seven ships had little to fear from the
Danes, as only an anchor-
watch had been left on the Danish ships with barely enough men to raise an anchor and certainly not enough to row the ships.