Green Martian Organization

A green Martian community will field 400 to 500 troopers. All green Martian warriors are cavalry whom typically Troopers ride five abreast. In addition, to its warriors a community, also supports 200- 300 youth as well as 200- 230 adult females. Each adult female commands a spacious, three-wheeled chariot followed by a calot and pulled by a zitadar upon whom sits a GM youth. (PM VII, XV)

“The training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by the women, who not only attend to the education of the young in the arts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Marians. They make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare they form a part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even greater intelligence and ferocity than the men.

“The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the laws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency. They are unfettered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law.” (PM IX)

The regular military units are organized into squads of twenty which are lead by a lieutenant or padwar. Five squads equals a company which is commanded by a chieftain. A community has 10 to 15 chieftains that are overseen by a jed. There exists upon Barsoom about a dozen large tribes of green Martians that are 10 – 60 communities in size. These massive tribes (Thark, Thurd, Torquas, Warhoon) are lead by a jeddak and derive their name from the deserted city that serves as their capitol.

“This, then, must be the notorious Hortan Gur, Jeddak of Torquas, the fierce old ogre of the south-western hemisphere, as only for a jeddak are platforms raised in temporary camps or upon the march by the green hordes of Barsoom. As the Heliumite watched he saw another green warrior push his way forward toward the rostrum. Beside him he dragged a captive, and as the surrounding warriors parted to let the two pass, Carthoris caught a fleeting glimpse of the prisoner.” (TMM V)

Due to their determination, strength, lethality and training, it is estimated it takes 10 unentrenched red Martian infantry warriors to oppose a single green Martian trooper. The greatest detriment of the green trooper in battle is his own bellicose nature. Tribalism runs deep and alliances do not last long.

“Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows, must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you! A people without written language, without art, without homes, without love; the victim of eons of the horrible community idea. Owning everything in common, even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in common. You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves.” (PM X)

Although green Martians have no aircraft, no artillery and no permanent fortifications, their skill with their rifles makes them a threat to the mighty armadas of the red Martian navies.

“The fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I afterward learned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley, which caught the ship's crews entirely unprepared and the sighting apparatus of the guns unprotected from the deadly aim of our warriors.
“It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for his fire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare. For example, a proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct their fire entirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus of the big guns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends to the smaller guns in the same way; others pick off the gunners; still others the officers; while certain other quotas concentrate their attention upon the other members of the crew, upon the upper works, and upon the steering gear and propellers.
“Twenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailing off in the direction from which it had first appeared. Several of the craft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the control of their depleted crews. Their fire had ceased entirely and all their energies seemed focused upon escape. Our warriors then rushed up to the roofs of the buildings which we occupied and followed the retreating armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly fire.” (PM VIII)

Image is from DC Comics 196?