BAYONETS
I have always been interested in Bayonets, and thought it would be a good idea to
create a small section on the site with some history and facts about them displaying some of my own collection. The History and development of the bayonet is a very interesting subject. Hopefully these pages will give an insight into its development and use.
' A wall of cold steel ' The 93rd Sutherland Highlanders in the famous painting ' The Thin Red Line '
stop a Russian Cavalry Charge on the 25th October 1854, during a critical stage in the Crimean War
" To attack with the bayonet efectively requires Good Direction,
Srength and Quickness, during a state of wild excitement and probably physical exhaustion. The limit of the range of a bayonet is about 5 feet ( measured from the opponents eyes )
but more often the killing is at close quarters at a range of 2 feet or less, when troops are struggling in trenches or darkness "
Thus reads the opening paragraph of the 1916 Canadian Army manual ' Bayonet Training.' later sections go on to indicate the best targets for the bayonet point, the throat, face, chest, abdomen and thighs; or when an opponent was in retreat, his Kidneys.
A penetration of four to six inches was considered enough to incapacitate an enemy, any greater penetration may have made it impossible to withdraw the blade; making it necessary to fire a round to break up the obstruction.Few bayonet training manuals leave any doubt as to the wholly offensive nature of the bayonet. It was designed as a tool for killing and in most cases little more than that.
The shout of " Fix Bayonets " has been a feared war cry for almoest 400 year. It is more than just an order for soldiers to attach an edged weapon to their rifles. Commanders use the order to boost the aggression of their troops and get their " blood up " their adrenalin pumping as they advance close enough to the enemy to impale him with their bayonet. Once soldiers have fixed bayonets, they know hand to hand combat is near and they should streel themselves to either kill or be killed. There is no going back. In the 20th century the bayonet has remained one of the infantryman's key weapons of war. Almost all rifles or assault weapons have been provided with either fixed or detachable bayonets. Infantrymen the world over spend days in basic training perfecting the art of stabbing mannequins, while shouting blood-curdling curses.Early in the First World War, bloody battles led to the destruction of whole battalions, yet bayonet charges still took place against an enemy entrenched with modern weapons, such as the machine gun and artillery. Tactics used by Generals who fought in wars where the bayonet ruled. Yet bayonet charges still took place throughout the Great War. There were firm believers in the ' Psychological ' impact of cold steel. in situations where the enemy were close at hand bayonet charges proved very effective, but sometimes very costly in men.On most occassions the enemy would surrender or run. If they chose to fight it was man against man, steel against steel. The stronger and better trained would survive.It literally would be " Blood, sweat and guts "
In the Far East and the Pacific during the Second World War, the Japanese made suicidal banzai charges with the bayonet, but were often mown down in large numbers by the defenders, who were normally well sited and determined.
During the 20th century the bayonet has been seen as a weapon for use in hanad to hand combat between infantrymen .
However the origins of the weapon go back to the age when cavalry ruled the baatlefield and infantrymen were struggling to find ways of defending themselves against their mounted foes. Most historians attribute the anteccedence of the bayonet to the seventeenth century and the small town of Bayonne in the French Pyrenees, near the border with Spain. Here a group of Basque Musketeers found themselves surrounded by a superior force of Spanish cavalry. Without the usual six metre pikes to keep the cavalry at bay, the musketeers were soon running short of ammunition and in danger of being overrun. In desperation, one of the soldiers pulled out his short knife and forced it down the barrel of his musket. Instantly turning the weapon into an improvised pike. His comrades followed suit and the Spaniards were soon put to flight. The site of the battle on a ridge outside Bayonne quickly became known as ' La Bayonette '
The exact date of the creation of the first purpose-designed and manufactured bayonet is unclear. Throughout the 17th century
there are references in numerous journals to soldiers from the Bayonne region arming themselves with knives designed to be pushed into the end of a musket. Local worthy Jacques de Chasternet described in 1647 how his men were armed with ' ' ''bayonettes' having thirty-centimetre handles and similar length blades.Over the next hundred years the bayonet caught on in armies throughout Europe. They saw the potential for providing musketeers with a means of fighting off cavalry. These early weapons were known as ' plug ' bayonets because they effectively plugged or screwed into the barrel of the musket. By the begining of the 19th century pikemen had all but disappeared as bayonets became standard equipment for infantrymen. Despite its widespread adoption the plug bayonet had one major disadvantage: for the musket to be fired the bayonet had first to be removed.
A typical plug bayonet
To get round this problem the ' socket ' or ' ring ' bayonet was developed. Introduced by the Swedes in 1696, it was in widespread use early in the 17th century; the British Army adopted its first socket bayonet in 1720. As the name implies, the socket bayonet fitted round the muzzle of the musket and allowed the weapon to be fired with the bayonet in position. Its attachment was a metal tube that passed over the end of the musket barrel and held in place by a variety of means including studs, screws, leaf springs, or locking rings. Early designs were far from ideal with defective securing catches often resulting in the bayonet being propelled towards the enemy when the musket was fired.What is more, 18th century breach loading muskets were difficult to reload in the heat of battle and the attachment of a bayonet did not make this any easier.The first socket bayonets were akin to spikes, rather than edges, swords or knives. They were also largely triangular in shape, which provided strength and killing power. They were rarely sharpened so were not very good for slashing, but when thrust into the opponent's body or face inflicted dreadful wounds.The socket bayonet was to be the standard in bayonet design for over a hundred years until fashions led to a demand for so called ' Sword ' bayonets, which clipped underneath or on the side of a rifle's muzzle. There is some debate whether this trend was driven by ceremonial considerations rather than military practicality. During the late 18th century and throughout the Napoleonic wars sword bayonets were mainly employed by riflemen or shirmishers such as the british 95th( rifle ) Regiment. Their famous Baker's rifle were the first in the British service to use sword bayonets. Riflemen were attracted to them largely because they were long and heavy enough to chop wood and butcher meat rather than because of their value as weapons of war.
Left, a typical sword bayonet the 1856 ' Yataghan ' bayonet which was issued to troops armed with the short rifle including sergeants of infantry and all ranks of the Rifle Brigade. This example is infact an Enfield Artillery bayonet of 1856.
After 1873 many of the 1856/58 bayonets were converted for use with the Martini Henry rifle.At the end of the 19th century numbers of thses were shortened for issue to cadet units currently armed with the Martini Henry artillery carbine. The 1856/58 short bayonet can be encountered in a number of minor variants, some having had the muzzle ring finial removed, others can be found without the quillon. The different blade point styles encountered are either rounded or pointed. The example on the left is distinctive with long recurving blade , this has a steel hilt and quillons, with black chequered leather grips.Blade length is nearly 23 inches, overall length is 28 inches
During the latter half of the 19th century the threat from cavalry was still considered serious enough for the major European armies to retain long sword or knife bayonets, often up to a metre in length. Experience in colonial conflicts also reinforced the military's interest in long bayonets that allowed the infantryman to duel at some patity with spear carrying tribesmen. There was also a feeling among high level miltary commanders that the longer the bayonet, the greater psychological advantage over the enemy. This theory was found to be fatally wanting in the first months of the First World War, when the psychological reassurance of a long bayonet was wiped away on the killing fields of France and Belgium. Once across ' no man's land ' and through the enemy wire, if you were lucky to get that far, trenches and dugouts had to be cleared. As soldiers piled into the enemy's trenches it was every man for himself, stabbing, clubbing and shooting with whatever was at hand.In some period photographs when there is a group of soldiers clearing a trench the man in front always has his bayonet fixed. By the start of the Second World War the British Army and others had introduced the short spike or ' Pig Sticker ' bayonets which were under half the length of their predecessors. The Japanese for idiosyncratic reasons retained their long sword bayonets and every weapon including heavy machine guns had to be capable of fielding one for the Banzai charge. Likewise in Burma , because of the unique requirements of jungle combat, the British and Indian armies started to revert to knife rather than spike designs, yet other British regimets continued to use the sword bayonet in places such as North Africa. Since World War Two short bayonets have become the norm. Russian and Chinese weapon manufacturers came up with designs that involved folding bayonets permanently attached to the rifle.This saved the resources needed for bayonet scabbards and ensured that conscripts were never seperated from their bayonets.
left, bayonets of The Great War could sometimes be restricted in the confined spaces of the treches. Items like this original ww1 trench knife were often home made or adapted and carried by troops on trench raids, or even in their tunics and boots for hand to hand fighting. It can be seen from this knife that the blade is very narrow and long and has only one sole purpose and that is to kill, it has purely been made for stabbing. Blade length is 8 inches, overall length is 12 inches .
The Russians also led the way in diversifying the use of the bayonet with the bayonet / wire-cutter, which used the scabbaed to form a cutting device. During the post - Second World War period the Russian idea has however been copied by a number of armies, including the British which used it on the SA-80 series of weapons. The SA-80 family also returned to a socket bayonet design albeit with modern stylistic features, indicating that the bayonet design is an art form somewhat lacking in originality.
Increasingly after the Second World War, the bayonet was seen as a multi purpose tool rather than as simply an extention of the soldier's weapon system. Bayonets had to be useful in knife fighting, killing wild animals for food, preparing field defences or even as mechanical tools. Insome cases the attachment of the bayonet to the rifle was seen as an after thought. One major small arms manufacturer, Denle in South Africa even stopped making bayonets for its assault rifles in the 1970s.
As we enter an even more sophisticated era of warfare when targets can be hit from miles away without the enemy even knowing, it will be remembered that with all this technology at hand it was the Infantry soldier that slogged across the Falkland Islands and it was the British Infantry soldier who got to grips with the enemy at such places as Mount Longdon, where the
Scots Gaurds used the bayonet to kill the enemy and clear them form that position. Even as recent as the Iraq war a group of British Soldiers who were out numbered by a large group of the enemy, decided to bayonet Charge and killed 35, the rest ran off.
( i will cover this incident later )
