A charge is a maneuver in battle in which soldiers advance towards their enemy at their best speed to engage in close combat. The charge has been the key tactic and decisive moment of most battles in history.

The basic process operating in a charge is speed of advance against rate (or effectiveness) of fire (firepower). If the attackers advance at a more rapid rate than the defenders can kill or disable them then the attackers will reach the defenders. Of course there are many modifiers to this simple comparison - timing, numbers, covering fire, organisation and formation, terrain, etc, etc. A failed charge will often leave the would-be attackers extremely vulnerable to a counter-charge.

There has been a constant rise in an army's rate of fire for the last 700 years or so, but while massed charges have been successfully broken they have also been victorious. It is only in the last 150 years that straight charges have become less successful, especially since the introduction of the self-acting machine gun and breech-loading artillery. They are often still useful on a far smaller scale in confined areas where the enemy's firepower cannot be brought to bear.

Famous charges

• Pickett's Charge (July 3, 1863) at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War
• Charge of the Light Brigade (October 25, 1854) at the Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War
• Charge of the 21st Lancers in the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898: the last cavalry charge in battle by a British cavalry unit.
• Battle of Krojanty, a cavalry charge that gave birth to the myth of Polish cavalry charging German tanks

Ground warfare

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