[Zigûr]

I have something in the spirit of recent thread revivals. In the thread Sauron's Great Miscalculation there was some discussion of Sauron's Orc armies. A few quotes I found were as follows:

the Orcs of his own trained armies were so completely under his will that they would sacrifice themselves without hesitation at his command. (Morgoth's Ring)

many were by training as tough as Dwarves in enduring hardship (Morgoth's Ring)

a troop of heavy-armed uruks from Barad-dûr (The Lord of the Rings)

In the last years of Denethor I the race of uruks, black orcs of great strength, first appeared out of Mordor, and in 2475 they swept across Ithilien and took Osgiliath. Boromir son of Denethor (after whom Boromir of the Nine Walkers was later named) defeated them and regained Ithilien; but Osgiliath was finally ruined, and its great stone-bridge was broken. (The Lord of the Rings)

Kuruharan rightly pointed out that we see little evidence of Orcs as effective soldiers (they are not the main threat at the Pelennor, for instance) and that their tactics usually involved "human waves".

However, I've found myself lately wondering if there's a modern conceit in the conception of Sauron's Uruks. Is it at all possible that there is a latent idea, however underdeveloped, of trained soldier-Orcs being reminiscent of Great War era storm troops, who had special training and were deployed to make rapid advances into enemy territory, as the Uruks did in Ithilien in 2475?

I believe that in real life casualties were very high among such forces despite their formidable training and weapons, and this would seem to suit Sauron's callous disregard for life. However, perhaps someone who is more of a medievalist than I am can suggest a less modern alternative to whatever Professor Tolkien was musing upon when he made his observations about "trained Orcs" being utilised in this manner.