Wheeling with a moving pivot and forming

One of the advantages in having the pivot move was that the manoeuvring sub-unit vacated the pivot point as quickly as possible, so that the following rank or sub-unit could occupy it. This avoided queuing. A disadvantage was that a moving pivot marched on an arc and a right-angled turn on the spot was no longer possible. Forming, however, allowed such a turn whilst, at the same time, removed the pivot from the pivot point and was altogether a more flexible means of changing direction through 90 degrees.

Forming, although frequently referred to as wheeling with a moving pivot is not, strictly speaking, wheeling at all insofar as the rank does not come round as one. In simple terms this manoeuvre required the pivot to execute a turn towards the required direction and march onto the new alignment. The remainder of the sub-unit marched in files and fell in on the new alignment, dressing on the pivot. This manoeuvre can be seen being performed at the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, when the 90 degree turn is made before passing in front of the saluting base.

The importance of the sub-unit and the command element

Although wheeling was a means by which a column or line changed direction or front, either on the march or at the halt, the ability to wheel in one form or another was a fundamental skill which was vital to a significant number of essential conversions. Wheeling, like all manoeuvres, was conducted by individual sub-units and it was the movements of these component parts of the battalion that were choreographed into conversions.

There is, however, an impression that a battalion was a unitary body that moved as one. Nothing could be further from the truth. It moved by its component parts and to help illustrate what this entailed, detailed diagrams showing French and Prussian companies deployed in line are at Illustrations 5 (top) and 6 (middle), [10] and the Prussian angriffs-colonne at illustration 7 (bottom). [11]