The Bow
The
English enjoyed a
strategic advantage from having excellent native
yew trees available. Also, the English peasants, not allowed to own swords, were adept at making and using bows for hunting. Most
Continental forces used crossbows and
ballistas for
long-range fires. The English were thus able to deploy the equivalent of
artillery, and archers were able to move and maneuver much more easily than mechanical
siege engines, as well as being much more easily massed for effect. The power of the longbow was such that even near its maximum range, the
ash arrows could penetrate handheld wooden shields and light armor as they rained down on their targets.
Some historians credit the longbow with the famed lopsided victory won by Henry V and his troops over the French at Agincourt.
The Helo
In modern military
parlance, 'Longbow' is used to refer to the most recent revision of the
AH-64 Apache attack helicopter used by the
U.S. Army. Its most notable upgrades include
millimeter-wave radar with matching millimeter-wave seekers on improved
Hellfire missiles for increased 'fire-and-forget' capability.