Pictures of British soldiers with bayonets

[John D Salt]

I remember seeing some guys doing bayonet drill with SA80s on TV and compared to the old SLR it wasn't a very effective improvised pole-arm. Soldiers trying to bayonet sandbags on the ground had to put their hand behind the butt of the rifle and push to get enough reach. It looked pretty comical at times!

The other problem is, of course, that with the amount of other gubbins a rifle section is carrying, usually only two blokes have weapons you can actually fit bayonets to.

Two men will be carrying Minimis, and another two LSWs, neither of which has a bayonet lug, as only the WW2 Japanese were mad enough to want bayonets on their LMGs.

Two men will be carrying UGLs, which the bayonet would interfere with.

That leaves only two men, who on the other hand will probably be JNCOs and therefore doubly not the sort of person you want running at you with a pointy steel thing.

Not that I suspect anyone is going to be doing too much running, with the amount of crap they are carrying and the heat.

All the best,

John.

[Sergei]

I wonder if the point (pardon) of teaching bayonet charges these days is that while it has been less than advantageous as such for quite some time, simply the act of charging, bayonets or not, can, when facing poorly disciplined guerrillas, scatter defenders. The bayonets are there just to give the assaulting men something to make them feel lethal, rather than good targets, something that charging with a bunch of bananas doesn't accomplish. So it'd be a matter of two-way headology. But I'm not sure, as reports such as above don't give clue as to whether the enemies who were killed died in hand to hand or by some other means.

[GSX]

Bayonet training is used to focus aggression. I served with the Gurkhas once, same with their Kukri, it focuses their mind. Oooh, can we have a Gurkha Mod? Small Nepalese blokes who like to gamble and make the best curries youll ever taste!

I remember one guy an ex Gurkha in Hereford in the 80's, he had a great curry house, youd fall out of the crystal Rooms and head straight there to have your head blown off!

[LukeFF]

[JonS]

Apparently, nothing focuses your attention quite like the order to fix bayonets ...

[Webwing]

And the star of the show in all it´s glory:

[Secondbrooks]

I wonder if the point (pardon) of teaching bayonet charges these days is that while it has been less than advantageous as such for quite some time, simply the act of charging, bayonets or not, can, when facing poorly disciplined guerrillas, scatter defenders. The bayonets are there just to give the assaulting men something to make them feel lethal, rather than good targets, something that charging with a bunch of bananas doesn't accomplish. So it'd be a matter of two-way headology. But I'm not sure, as reports such as above don't give clue as to whether the enemies who were killed died in hand to hand or by some other means.

Man has to be trained to sink his bayonet (or knife) into enemy other wise they might hesitate and lose that fight, i believe that is philosophy behind it. Risk of running out of ammo and no buddy to cover mag change in chaotic close combat (after forexample charge ) seems to be reasonable possibility with 30 round mags. Atleast finnish way it's reasonable to believe than guys would expends third or half and even more from mag while sprinting at enermy positions (depenedant of distance ofcourse) if they charge.

How much does that kind bayonet affect into bullets fight path moving sideways? In my mind large side of blade affects more to trajectory than thin back of blade.

[ChrisND]

I wonder if the point (pardon) of teaching bayonet charges these days is that while it has been less than advantageous as such for quite some time, simply the act of charging, bayonets or not, can, when facing poorly disciplined guerrillas, scatter defenders. The bayonets are there just to give the assaulting men something to make them feel lethal, rather than good targets, something that charging with a bunch of bananas doesn't accomplish. So it'd be a matter of two-way headology. But I'm not sure, as reports such as above don't give clue as to whether the enemies who were killed died in hand to hand or by some other means.

GSX is correct. The whole point of bayonet training is to bring out your inner bloodthirsty savage and use it to win (or at least die while making one hell of a conorted demon-face).

[jenrick]

Historical records tend to bear out that few folks are actually wounded or killed by bayonets. Most of the time historically one unit or the other breaks and runs before contact is made.

-Jenrick