Bayonet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A bayonet is a knife- or dagger-shaped weapon designed to fit on or over the muzzle of a rifle or similar weapon. It is a close combat weapon.
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History
The evolution of the bayonet can be traced to a certain extent to a fortuitous accident. In the mid-17th century irregular military conflicts of rural France, the peasants of the Southern French town of Bayonne, having run out of powder and shot, rammed their long-bladed hunting knives into the muzzles of their primitive muskets to fashion impromptu spears, and by necessity created an ancillary weapon that was to influence Western European infantry tactics until the early 20th century.
The benefit of such a dual-purpose arm contained in one was soon apparent. The early muskets fired at a slow rate (about a round per minute when loading with loose powder and ball), and were unreliable. 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 approx 100 yards/metres at the most optimistic) at the expense of perhaps only one volley from their waiting opponents. A foot long bayonet, extending to a regulation 17 inches (approx 43 centimetres) during the Napoleonic period, on a 6 foot (almost 2 metre) tall musket achieved a reach similar to the infantry spear, and later halberd, of earlier times.
Early bayonets were of the "plug" type. The bayonet had a round handle that fit directly into the musket barrel. This naturally prevented the gun from being fired.
Later "socket" bayonets offset the blade from the 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. Hugh Mackay, a British general, is often credited with this innovation.
Many socket bayonets were triangular in order to provide sideways stability of the blade without much increase in weight. This design of bayonet did not include a handle to use the blade apart from the gun. 18th and 19th century military tactics included various massed bayonet charges and defences. The British Army was particularly known for its bayonet use, although towards the early 19th century and the flowering of Napoleonic warfare, the primacy of regular and speedy volley-fire saw the British eclipse their opponents in line to line infantry combat.
Bayonets were experimented with through much of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the United States Navy during the American Civil War, bayonets were even affixed to single shot pistols, although they soon proved useless for anything but cooking. Cutlasses remained the favoured cutting weapon for the Navy at the time.
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-style bayonet of the type outlawed by the Geneva Accords, 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 and increase the stiffness of the blade. 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
Even in modern warfare, bayonets are still used as weapons because, although most combat occurs at a distance, troops are always required to close with an enemy to "mop-up". British forces for example performed bayonet charges during the Falklands War and the invasion of Iraq [1].
A bayonet also remains useful as a utility knife, and as an aid to combat morale. Training in the use of the bayonet (i.e. fixed to a rifle and used to impale hanging sacks of straw) has been given precedence long after the combat role of the bayonet declined as it is thought to increase desired aggressiveness in troops. Despite the limitations of the bayonet, it is still issued in most armies and most armies still train with them.
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. Some production runs of the M9 have a fuller and some do not, depending upon which contractor manufactured that batch and what the military specs were at the time. The M9 Bayonet partially replaced, but is used in addition to the older M6 and M7 Bayonets, introduced in 1957 and 1964 respectively. Many troops have retained the M7, since the M9 has a reputation for breakage, due to a combination of its thin blade and varying quality among the various contractors used. As of summer 2004, the US Marine Corps is also issuing small quantities of new bayonets of a different design from the M9, with an 8" Bowie knife-style blade and no fuller, manufactured by Ontario Knife Company of Ontario, New York. This new bayonet, the OKC-3S is cosmetically similar to the Marines' famed Ka-bar fighting knife.
Social impact
The push-twist motion of fastening the modern bayonet has given name to several connectors and contacts including the bayonet-fitting light bulb that is standard in the UK (as opposed to the continental screw-fitting type), and the BNC ("Bayonet Neill-Concelman") RF connector. Bayonet-type connections are also common among detachable lens for cameras.
Bayonets by nation
- Afghanistan - UK 1903
- Argentina - 1875, 1875 carbine, 1880 carbine, 1891 (alloy and Brass), 1909 Argentine and German made, 1891 converted to M1,M1, FN FAL
- Australia - 1907, 1, Owen, L2A1 and No6 trials(?), replica Machete MkI fake commando knife,
- Austria - 1849, 1867, 1870, 1873, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1895, Ersatz, Ersatz NCO, Glock
- Belgium - Terssen, 1889 long, Long export, 1916, No4, 1949, FN FAL
- Brazil - 1904s, 1903
- Bulgaria - 1888,1893NCO, 1895 cavalry and NCO, 84/98, 84/98 dress, AK47 and AK74
- Canada - 1893, 1907, ROSS, No4
- Chile - 1895, Dress
- China - Mauser, Arisaka, 1920, Belgian ersatz's, SKS AK47, AKM, Fake T100
- Colombia - Gallil, AKM
- Cuba - AKM
- Czechoslovakia - 1895, 98/05, VZ24, VZ33, M52, M58
- Denmark - 1889, 1914, M1 Garand, Madsen
- Eire - No9
- East Germany - AKM, Trainer
- Egypt - 1867, Snider (both versions), 303 Remington, 1876, 1903, 1907, FN49, Hakim, AKM Type II
- Ethiopia - SKS, VZ24
- Finland - 1927, 1928,1939 fake, Rubber training
- France - 42, 42/59, 1866, 1874, 1874 Telegrapher, 1886, 1892, 1913 cut down, MAS, MAS 1956
- Germany - Werder, 60/98, 1871 1871 sawback, Siamese 1888, 1898, 71/84, 98/05, KS98, Gottscho, 84/98, 84/98 Pioneer, 1914, 88/98 - ersatz - (various), Russian 1891, French 1866, M7, KCB, G36
- Greece - 1895, 1903 (Italian made)
- Guatemala - 1968 CETME
- Haiti - US M5, US M6
- Holland - 1873, 1895, M4
- Hungary -1985 bone gripped, 1895 cavalry, 1935, 1935 Cavalry, AKM type 1
- India - 1903, P1907, GR1, GRII, GRIII, GRMK ?, SLR long blade, INSAS
- Iran - 98/22
- Iraq - UK No4, AKM
- Ireland - 1874 Gras for GEW88, 1893, 1904 Irish Mannlicher,
- Israel - Yugo 1924, Belgian 1949, German 84/98, 84/98 clone, UK No6,
- Italy - 1891 Carcano, Bersaglieri , TS, 1891 Carcano, 1891TS, 1870 Vettereli, Beretta 38, 38 Fixed, Berretta, Latchlock, SMLE, BM59
- Japan - Arisaka, SMLE, KIFFE M4
- Korea - 1842
- Korea (North) - AK47, AKM
- Korea (South) - T30 Arisaka, M4, M5, M7
- Lebanon - AKM
- Luxembourg - FN49
- Malaya - UK No 5
- Mexico - 1899, 1912
- Nepal - Fake Kukri
- New Zealand - 1905, 1907, No4
- Norway - 1867, 1914, 1913 (US), 1894, M44, 84/98, M4, AG3
- Pakistan - No9, G3 including bowie blade version, MP5
- Panama - AKM (Cuban)
- Peru - 1909, VZ24
- Persia (IRAN) - 98-22, G3
- Philippines - M7
- Poland - WB 22, WB 29, AKM, Trainer
- Portugal -Guedes, 1904, 1934, SMG, G3
- Rhodesia - FN FAL
- Romania - 1888, 1893 NCO, 1895, VZ24, AKM, AK74
- Siam - 1920, 1896
- Serbia - 1899
- Slovakia - VZ24
- South Africa - 1907, No4, No9, R1, M1, R4
- Spain - 1893, 1893 short dress, 1936, 1941, 1943, 1969
- Sudan - AR10
- Sweden - 1896, 1914, 1915, FN FAL trials, AG3
- Switzerland - 1878, 1878 Musicians, 1881, 1895, 1895/99, 1906, 1914, 1918, Favor, 1957, M7, SIG530 M70
- Taiwan - M1 Garand, Commercial M9
- Turkey - Peabody, 1890, 1903, 1903 telegraphers, 1935's, 1907, FN FAL, large number of conversions to German Ersatz, and other blades to 35 export pattern
- United Kingdom -Baker, Vivian Carbine, Constabulary Carbine, Brunswick, 1855 Sappers&Miners - LANCASTER , 1856 Infantry, 1856/58 Infantry, 1858 Infantry, 1860 Infantry, Volunteer Infantry, 1863 Whitworth, 1870 Elcho, Martini Henry, 1871 Cutlass bayonet, 1876, 1887 MkI, 1887 MkIII, 1887 MkIV, 1888, 1903, 1907, 1913, Ross, Arisaka, Pritchard, Farquhar Hill, No 4, STEN, US Model 1917, No 5, No 7, No 8, No 9, X2E1, L1A1, L1A3, L1A4, L3A1 (SA80)
- Uruguay - 1937, unknown designation converted Belgian
- USA - Dahlgren, Remington socket, Remington No5, 1913, 1917, M1, M4, M5, M7, M7 MILPAR commercial M9, OKC3C, M11
- USSR - 1891/30 Nagant, Winchester 1914, SVT38, SVT40, 44 Carbine, AK47, AKM types I and II, AK74
- Veenezuala - 1900, 1949
- Yugoslavia - 1924, 84/98, 1956, AKM
- Zimbabwe - AKM
