The much-feared longbow men at Agincourt, Oct 25th 1415.

Being so devastating, it was the French custom to remove the first two fingers of an English bowman to prevent any future attempt to draw the bow, thus the two-fingered "salute" was an aggressive and appropriate warning to the enemy that the bowmen still had their capability to unleash devastating fire.

In actuallity the tiny English force of just 5000 archers and 900 men-at-arms was sick, exhausted and almost starving; it faced a French army of some 20,000 to 30,000 men with a substantial contingent of mounted cavalry. However, the battlefield was chosen by the English with forest either side to funnel the French onto the archers, having brought down the initial charge the remaining forces floundered on the dead and dying men and horses of the first wave and were themselves slaughtered by a steady downpour of armour-piercing, bodkin-point, arrows. Paradoxically it was the large size of the French forces that told against them.

R.