Bayonet charge

“ It was at this moment the Duke of Wellington gave his famous order for our bayonet charge, as he rode along the line: these are the precise words he made use of—"Guards, get up and charge!" We were instantly on our legs, and after so many hours of inaction and irritation at maintaining a purely defensive attitude—all the time suffering the loss of comrades and friends—the spirit which animated officers and men may easily be imagined. After firing a volley as soon as the enemy were within shot, we rushed on with fixed bayonets, and that hearty hurrah peculiar to British soldiers. ”

“ Admittedly, it requires more than ordinary courage to face a bayonet charge, just as it calls for a high order of valor to use that deadly weapon. Instances are given of young soldiers experiencing a sinking sensation, a feeling of collapse, at the order "Fix Bayonets!" their hands trembling violently over the task. But when the bugle sounds the charge, and the wild dash at the enemy's lines has begun, with the skirl of the pipes to stir up the blood, the nerves stiffen and the hands grip the rifle with grim determination. ”

“ Bayonet crosses bayonet in rapid thrusts, fearful shrieks of agony are mingled with the shouts and curses of infuriated men, the floor is cumbered with the fallen and slippery with blood; the gallant Coldstreams are alone and unaided, and every moment fresh foemen rush into the deadly mêlée. Hundreds fall before the fatal bayonets of the dauntless Guards—their places are supplied by hundreds more, fresh and unwounded. In front, on either side, they swarm around, ferocious and malignant. Back to back, the English heroes meet their tremendous charge. ”

“ When a charge is ordered, the bayonet is fixed on to the end of the rifle-barrel, and is used as a thrusting-sword. British soldiers have always been famous for their prowess with the bayonet. A bayonet charge usually occurs when an enemy has been beaten by gun fire, and his trenches are carried by a final rush.
Each battalion has with it two machine guns, manned by an officer, a sergeant, and sixteen men. Two wagons accompany this section to convey the guns and their ammunition.
A machine gun is nothing but a rifle barrel fixed into a machine so that it becomes self-firing. ”

“ What the bayonet is in military, that the submarine is in naval warfare. The increasing range of rifle and cannon enable both combatants, if well entrenched, to blaze away at one another and do very little damage, and the necessity therefore arises, if a definite conclusion is to be reached, for some sharp and sudden blow to be delivered at close quarters that shall cause the enemy to evacuate his position and beat a hasty retreat. A bayonet charge is a desperate affair no doubt, but 26owing to the modern art of entrenchment, recourse must be had to it if the enemy is to be shifted. ”

“ Not a shot was to be fired in our charge.
Meanwhile our ships were firing on the enemy's trenches. At 10.25 the order rang out, "Cold steel!" We fixed our bayonets. At 10.30 the bugles sounded the charge. Fifty men fell while getting out; but in ten minutes we took the Turkish trenches. Our losses were 250 killed and 200 wounded.
It is almost impossible to describe a bayonet charge. On the instant of the order you spring out, jump or crawl from the trenches, with bayonet fixed, and charge on the double. Sometimes you have to creep to make [149] an attack. ”

“ The Germans were wonderful with the machine guns—it's a wicked thing, a machine gun. But they couldn't touch us with the bayonet. Every time the men came back they had bayonet practice, and they got awfully good. You know when you thrust at the Germans—so—if you miss him, you bring your rifle back sharp, with a round swing, so that the butt comes up and hits up under the jaw. It's one movement, following on with the stab, you see, if you miss him. It was too quick for them—But bayonet charge was worst, you know. Because your man cries out when you catch him, when you get him, you know. ”

“ As before stated, the rebels drove our force toward the gunboats, taking colored men prisoners and murdering them. This so enraged them that they rallied, and charged the enemy more heroically and desperately than has been recorded during the war. It was a genuine bayonet charge, a hand-to-hand fight, that has never occurred to any extent during this prolonged conflict. Upon both sides men were killed with the butts of muskets. White and black men were lying side by side, pierced by bayonets, and in some instances transfixed to the earth. ”

“ Each man who was in the front rank prior to deployment, as soon as he recognizes the command or signal, suspends firing, quickly fixes his bayonet, and immediately resumes firing; after which the other men suspend firing, fix bayonets, and immediately resume firing. The support also fixes bayonets. The concerted fixing of the bayonet by the firing line at drill does not simulate battle conditions and should not be required. It is essential that there be no marked pause in the firing. Bayonets will be fixed generally before or during the last, or second last, advance preceding the charge. ”

“ Already it has been observed that much of the surprise and confusion which terrifies those who have no bayonets, when subjected to a cannonade and at the same time brought face to face with a bayonet charge, arises from the fact that they cannot see to shoot straight, owing to the haze produced by the smoke and its blinding effects upon the eyes. ”

“ In an actual charge our present rifle is more than useless—it is an encumbrance, and when at grips with the enemy in his own trenches it is often a fatal handicap. With a bayonet at the end it is far too long, and in a trench two to four feet wide it cannot be used with much effect. I have known our men repeatedly to unship the bayonet and take it in their hands, throwing the rifle away. ”

“ The companies made a magnificent response and all rushed forward, crossed the muddy water-logged No Man's Land with their left 200 or 300 yards from the river, and gained the objective, though not without losses. No pause had been made for firing for the bayonet was the weapon our men trusted. More and more it is proved that the bayonet is the weapon that wins the trench, the rifle the defensive weapon that holds it. Yet though no pause had been made our losses in that charge were severe. Major Hamilton Johnston was struck first by bullet and then, almost at once, killed by shell ”

“ It is no use telling men not to drive their bayonet in more than three or four inches, for in the speed and fury of a charge they will always drive it in right up to the hilt, and while we retain this out-of-date weapon we should certainly put a guard on it not further than six inches from the point. ”

“ They likewise display much of personal vigour, being strong, athletic and well-formed, so that when a charge is to be made, the bayonet in their hands becomes a most dangerous weapon, the effect of which has been severely felt by their enemies in every corner of the globe. ”

“ If they are built that way, and an opportunity offers, they will "satisfy the lusts of the flesh."
When there is real fighting to be done the dangers of the after-reaction are intensified. You who sit at home and read of glorious bayonet charges do not realize what it means to the man behind the bayonet. You don't realize the repugnance for the first thrust—a repugnance which has got to be overcome. You don't realize the change that comes over a man when his bayonet is wet with the blood of his first enemy. ”

“ When we make an attack on the Boche, we don't double over No Man's Land with bayonets fixed, shouting and cheering and making a terrible din. To be sure, the bayonet plays an important part in this great war as a weapon of warfare, but it is only used when you get to close quarters. While a man has any cartridges left in his magazine, he is not likely to use the bayonet. ”

“ But there yet remains to be discussed the question of the arme blanche—the bayonet, the weapon with which our gallant army has won so many of its victories. I have heard not a few officers declare that this war will be known in history as the last war in which a British soldier carried a bayonet. But is the discarding of the bayonet to be one of the results of the use of the new rifle and the smokeless powder? When fighting against an enemy who does not carry it, the force which is armed with a bayonet has a tremendous moral superiority. ”

“ Lying very thick near the lip of their own trench, the bodies formed a sort of wedge, thinning toward the point as they had been decimated, and that point was one great bearded Frenchman, his body all a mass of bloody rags, who lay with his eyes fiercely open to the enemy and his outthrust bayonet almost in the emplacement where the Boche guns had been.
The company, which had learned its own bitter lesson in frontal attacks on machine-guns, gave passing tribute. “Them Frogs, they eat machine-guns up. ”

“ If a night attack or close approach by the enemy is expected, troops in a prepared position should strengthen the outguards and firing line and construct as numerous and effective obstacles as possible. Supports and local reserves should move close to the firing line and should, with the firing line, keep bayonets fixed. If practicable, the front should be illuminated, preferably from the flanks of the section.
510. Only short range fire is of any value in resisting night attacks. The bayonet is the chief reliance. ”

“ The bayonets, and all the other parts of which the musket is composed are subjected to tests, different in character indeed, but equally strict and rigid in respect to the qualities which they are intended to prove, with that applied to the barrel. The bayonet is very carefully gauged and measured in every part, in order to make sure that it is of precisely the proper form and dimensions. A weight is hung to the point of it to try its temper, and it is sprung by the strength of the inspector, with the point of it set into the floor, to prove its elasticity. ”

“ They scale the walls of his fortress in the very teeth of a fierce cannonade of imprecations—burst the barriers of bedclothes—penetrate the abatti of woolen socks and tightly-tied drawers—and though, even after gaining the inside of your works, they are subjected to a deadly cross-fire of small arms, yet they invariably "attain the object of their reconnoissance." The bayonet is powerless against them, and they never draw off from the attack till fairly exhausted with the feast of blood. ”

“ He must never pause in his attack until he has killed his enemy. He must follow each vicious attack with another, remembering that if he does not kill his opponent, his opponent will kill him. Hesitation, delay, and excess maneuvering may result in death. The primary aim of the bayonet fighter is to get his [Pg 11] blade into the enemy. All defensive moves, butt strokes, and footwork drive towards this end. They are actions taken to enable the bayonet fighter to sink his blade, for it is the blade that kills. He aims for the vital areas of the enemy. ”

“ These bayonets, of which several other fans are composed, are of the first invention, they having plug handles which go into the muzzle of the gun, instead of over it, and thereby prevent the firing of the piece, without shooting away the bayonet. ”

“ And trained Americans fight best with rifles. Men get tired of carrying grenades and chaut-chaut clips; the guns cannot, even under most favorable conditions, keep pace with the advancing infantry. Machine-gun crews have a way of getting killed at the start; trench-mortars and one-pounders are not always possible. But the rifle and bayonet goes anywhere a man can go, and the rifle and the bayonet win battles. Toward midday, this 6th of June, 1918, the condition around Hill 142 stabilized. ”

“ If no opening is obvious, one must be created by beating off the opponents weapon or making a "feint point" in order to make him uncover himself.
Hand to hand fighting with the bayonet is individual, which means that a man must think and act for himself and rely on his own resources and skill; but, as in all games, he must play for his side and not only for himself. In a bayonet assault all ranks go forward to kill or be killed, and only those who have developed skill and strength by constant training will be able to kill. ”

“ Their ammunition was carried in side pouches, and they had a serviceable water-bottle. The bayonet was totally unlike any used by the various other troops, and was a most cruel-looking article. About 18 inches long, with a white metal handle, and a good method of attachment, its extraordinary feature lies in the blade. It can be likened to nothing better [288] than a long steel used for sharpening knives, yet it was not so thick, and it had four deep grooves running along it from the base to within an inch of the point. It certainly looked a very deadly weapon, but appears to lack strength. ”

“ To transform a sword into a pruning hook is a matter for a skilled smith, but to change a bayonet into a poker is within the capacity of the least mechanical. All that is needed is to cause the bayonet to forsake the murderous rifle barrel and cleave to a short wooden handle. Henceforth its function is not to thrust itself into the vitals of men, but to encourage combustion on winter nights. ”

“ It gives the infantryman courage and confidence, provided he is properly trained in its use. It gives individual infantrymen a more offensive attitude, and better enables them to accomplish their mission in the final assault. It gives them a means of personal protection, contributing to their security and safety. In addition to its offensive roles, the bayonet can serve as a last ditch protective measure. ”