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ABSTRACT
The bayonet has long been regarded as an obsolete piece of military technology. This article advances a proxemic account of close combat, which points to its continuing utility under modern battlefield conditions. It is argued that bayonet training remains an effective way of preparing soldiers to psychologically dominate contested spaces on the battlefield. Thus, although other weapons and techniques can fulfil the same role, it can nevertheless be argued that the bayonet’s enduring presence is not simply the result of some atavistic military mind-set.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the three anonymous referees for commenting on an earlier draft of this article.
Notes
1 For a review of the literature see John Stone, ‘The Point of the Bayonet’, Technology and Culture 53/4 (Citation2012) 891–3.
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16 For example, Edwin Halpain and Justin Walker, ‘Bayonets in Basrah – A Case Study on the Effects of Irregular Warfare’ (Shawnee, OK: Urban Warfare Analysis Center Citation2009).
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18 Charles Beneulyn Johnson, Muskets and Medicine, or Army Life in the Sixties (Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company Citation1917), 250, 253.
19 Harry L. Gilchrist, A Comparative Study of Casualties from Gas and Other Weapons (MD: Edgewood Arsenal Citation1928), 19, Chart No. VII.
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21 For example, Frank A. Reister, Battle Casualties and Medical Statistics: U.S. Army Experience in the Korean War (Washington, DC: The Surgeon General, Department of the Army Citation1973), 38–51, which contains wound statistics by type of weapon for both the Second World War and the Korean War.
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26 See the ‘Thoughts on Bayonets’ discussion thread on the ‘Gun and Game’ website, https://www.gunandgame.com/threads/thoughts-on-bayonets.123771/ (accessed October 2015).
27 ‘Soldier who led Afghanistan bayonet charge into hail of bullets honoured’, Telegraph, 28. September 2012. Jones’ own account of events can be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9571522/Soldier-who-led-Afghanistan-bayonet-charge-into-hail-of-bullets-honoured.html (accessed November 2013).
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29 Jomini, 302.
30 du Picq, 266.
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33 Jünger, 257–8.
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37 Moore and Galloway, 122.
38 Joseph L. Galloway, ‘Vietnam Story’, US News, 16 May 2008, http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/vietnam-story?page=7 (accessed May 2015).
39 Lowry, 205, 215.
40 Sean Rayment, ‘British officer wins two gallantry awards for fending off Taliban attack with bayonet’, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6178044/British-officer-wins-two-gallantry-awards-for-fending-off-Taliban-attack-with-bay-onet.html (accessed October 2015).
41 Ibid.
42 For example: FM 23-25 Bayonet, M1905 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office 1940), 5; FM 23-25 Bayonet (Washington, DC: War Department Citation1943), 1–2.
43 ‘Nerves of Steel’, Defence Management Journal 42, http://www.defencemanagement.com/article.asp?id=354&content_name=Education%20and%20training&article=10800, accessed June 2011.
44 For a more developed account of bayonet training as associative learning see Stone, 900-01.
45 Dave Grossman, ‘Trained to Kill’, Christianity Today 42/9 (Citation1998): 30–9.
46 Frederick P. Todd, ‘The Knife and Club in Trench Warfare, 1914-1918’, Journal of the American Military History Foundation 2/3 (Citation1938): 139–53.
47 ‘Marines Stuck on Tomahawk’, Pittsburgh Press, 25 February 1968.
48 USMC Manual Close Combat MCRP 30-02B, http://www.combatical.com (accessed October 2015).
49 FM3-25.150 Combatives (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army Citation2002), 1-1.
