Forlorn hope

A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high.

Such a band is also known as the "enfants perdus".

The term comes from the Dutch verloren hoop, literally "lost troop". The term was used in military contexts to denote a troop formation.

The Dutch word hoop (in its sense of heap in English) is not cognate with English hope: this is an example of false folk etymology. The mistranslation of verloren hoop as "forlorn hope" is "a quaint misunderstanding" using the nearest-sounding English words. This false etymology is further entrenched by the fact that in Dutch the word hoop is a homograph meaning "hope" as well as "heap", though the two senses have different etymologies.

While the word hoop has many equivalents in English, including 'pile' and 'accumulation' perhaps the nearest English translation that most accurately captures the sentiment, at least in military affairs, is lost bunch or lost crowd given the slender expectations of those given such a high-risk assignment.

In the German mercenary armies of the Landsknechts, these troops were called the Verlorene Haufen, which has the same meaning as the Dutch term, the word Haufen itself being a general term for a loosely organised group of men. These men carried long double-handed swords, with which they had to hew their way through the massive pike formations opposing them. They also had to withstand the first wave of attacks when defending a breastwork. Members of the Verlorene Haufen earned double pay, thus giving them the name of Doppelsöldner ('Double-wagers'), but since there were not enough volunteers, criminals that had been sentenced to death were taken into the ranks as well. As a field sign, the Verlorene Haufen carried a red Blutfahne ('Blood Banner').

By extension, the term forlorn hope became used for any body of troops placed in a hazardous position, e.g., an exposed outpost, or the defenders of an outwork in advance of the main defensive position. This usage was especially common in accounts of the English Civil War, as well as in the British Army in the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, and in the days of muzzle-loading muskets, the term was most frequently used to refer to the first wave of soldiers attacking a breach in defences during a siege.

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