<P> Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire . The term is generally used in situations where combatants are forced to deliberately fight against hopeless odds (with the foreknowledge that they will suffer extremely high casualties) in an effort to achieve a strategic goal; an example is the trench warfare of World War I . The term may also be used (somewhat pejoratively) to differentiate infantry from other forces (such as artillery troops, air force or the navy), or to distinguish expendable low - grade or inexperienced combatants from supposedly more valuable veterans . </P> <P> The term derives from fodder, as food for livestock . Soldiers are the metaphorical food for enemy cannon fire . </P> <P> The concept of soldiers as fodder, as nothing more than "food" to be consumed by battle, dates back to at least the 16th century . For example, in William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 there is a scene where Prince Henry ridicules John Falstaff's pitiful group of soldiers . Falstaff replies to Prince Henry with cynical references to gunpowder and tossing bodies into mass grave pits, saying that his men are "good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better (men)..." </P>

Where did the term cannon fodder come from