A steel blade, thought to have been invented in Bayonne, France, in the 17th-c, which turns an infantryman's firearm into a thrusting weapon. Originally plugging into the end of the musket, by the early 19th-c bayonets were designed to fit into a slot beneath the muzzle, allowing the weapon to be fired at will. The bayonet was sheathed in a short scabbard when not in use. Modern infantry weapons still retain a facility for taking a bayonet, and modern bayonets have become more universally functional, including such tools as wirecutters.
A bayonet (from French baïonnette) is a knife- or dagger-shaped weapon designed to fit on or over the muzzle of a rifle barrel or similar weapon.
History
The evolution of the bayonet can be traced to a certain extent to a fortuitous accident. Bayonets provided a useful addition to the weapon-system when an enemy charging to contact could cross the musket's killing ground (a range of approximately 100 yards/metres at the most optimistic) at the expense of perhaps only one or two volleys from their waiting opponents.
Early bayonets were of the "plug" type. The bayonet had a round handle that fit directly into the musket barrel. In 1671, plug bayonets were issued to the French regiment of fusiliers then raised. The danger incurred by the use of this bayonet (which put a stop to all fire) was felt so early that the younger Puysgur saw a ring-bayonet in 1678 which could be fixed without stopping the fire. Soon "socket" bayonets offset the blade from the musket barrel's muzzle. The bayonet attached over the outside of the barrel with a ring-shaped socket, secured on later models by a spring-loaded catch on the muzzle of the musket barrel.
A trial with badly fitting socket or zigzag bayonets was made after the battle of Fleurus, 1690, in the presence of Louis XIV, who refused to adopt them. Henceforward, the bayonet became, with the musket or other firearm, the typical weapon of infantry.
Many socket bayonets were triangular in cross-section in order to provide stiffness in the blade without much increase in weight. This design of bayonet did not include a grip for using the bayonet apart from the gun. The triangular bayonet also created wounds that were difficult to stitch when attended to by a medic, as it is more difficult to stitch a three-sided wound than a two-sided one, thus making the wound more likely to become infected. Similarly, in the Soviet Union, bayonet blades were stiffened with a cross-section in the form of a cross.
18th and 19th century military tactics included various massed bayonet charges and defenses. This implies that the bullet of a musket was wildly inaccurate (which was true in most cases), but with the close quarters of bayonet fighting, it was hard to miss.
Bayonets were experimented with through much of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the United States Navy before the American Civil War, bayonet blades were even affixed to single-shot pistols, although they soon proved useless for anything but cooking. The hilt usually had quillons modified to accommodate the gun barrel, and a hilt mechanism that enabled the bayonet to be attached to a bayonet lug. When dismounted, a sword bayonet could be used in combat as a side arm. World War I saw the shortening of sword bayonets into knife-sized weapons, usable as fighting knives or trench knives, so that the vast majority of modern bayonets are knife bayonets.
Design
Modern bayonets are often knife-shaped with handles and a socket, or permanently attached to the rifle as with the SKS. Depending on where and when a specific SKS was manufactured, it may have a permanently attached bayonet with a knife-shaped blade (Russian, Romanian, Yugoslavian, early Chinese), or a cruciform (late Chinese) or triangular (Albanian) spike bayonet, or no bayonet at all.
Most modern bayonets have a fuller (visible on the top half of the blade shown above), which is a concave depression in the blade designed to reduce the weight while keeping the blade's stiffness. Some speculate that this design feature makes a bayonet easier to withdraw after a stabbing attack by allowing air into the wound it produces, or to allow blood to drain from it, but in fact fullers have not been experimentally shown to have such an effect.
Modern use
The advent of modern warfare in the 1800s decreased the bayonet's usefulness, and as early as the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) the bayonet was ultimately responsible for less than one percent of battlefield casualties. Modern warfare still sees the use of the bayonet for close-quarter fighting. The U.S. 27th Infantry Regiment during Korea once took out a Chinese Machine gun position with bayonets, led by Lewis L.
In the US Marine Corps, trainees at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego for instance get their first instruction in using the bayonet as a lethal weapon on their 10th day. The essence of bayonet fighting is to spring forward from a modified crouch and thrust the blade into the enemy. Recruits are taught to slash an enemy diagonally from shoulder to hipbone and how to use a bayonet to push aside an enemy's weapon.
In a modern context, bayonets are known to be particularly good for controlling prisoners, poking an enemy to see whether he is dead and for when the fighter is out of ammunition or so close to the enemy that firing a round is impossible.
A bayonet also remains useful as a utility knife, and as an aid to combat morale. Training in the use of the bayonet has been given precedence long after the combat role of the bayonet declined as it is thought to increase desired aggressiveness in troops.
Commonwealth armies
In close-order drill the command to fix bayonets is a two-part command. The commands to "Fix" and "Unfix" bayonets are among the only drill commands not executed in a specified cadence.
The United States
The modern sawback U.S. M9 Bayonet, officially adopted in 1984, is issued with a special sheath designed to double as a wire cutter, developed by Phrobis III. The M9 Bayonet partially replaced, but is used in addition to, the older M6 and M7 bayonets, introduced in 1957 and 1964 respectively. As of 2002, the U.S. Marine Corps is also issuing small quantities of new bayonets of a different design from the M9, with an 8-inch Bowie knife-style blade and no fuller, manufactured by the Ontario Knife Company of New York. This new bayonet, the OKC-3S, is cosmetically similar to the Marines' famed Ka-bar fighting knife. The new bayonet -- with a steel blade 8 inches long, 15/16 inches wide, and weighing 1¼ pounds with its sheath -- is slightly longer, thicker, and heavier than the current M9.
Cultural impact
The push-twist motion of fastening the older type of bayonet has given name to:
The "bayonet mount" used for various types of quick fastenings.The bayonet has become a symbol of military power. The term "at the point of a bayonet" refers to using military force or action to accomplish, maintain, or defend something.
An assault rifle mounted chain-saw bayonet (the Lancer) also appeared in the videogame Gears of War.
The shoulder sleeve insignia for the 10th Mountain Division in the U.S. Army features crossed bayonets.
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