The Dark Truth About the Bayonet Charge
No Man's Land
7,184 views
How Hopeless Was a Bayonet Charge, Actually?
Out of 266,112 battle wounds in one army's own hospital ledger, exactly 245 were from a bayonet. So why did every soldier in the trenches spend months training to use one?
We go back into a 1916 jump-off trench to answer the question honestly: how hopeless was a bayonet charge, actually, and hopeless at doing what? Along the way we get into the numbers the textbooks round off, the wound-site data that proves this war was decided at a distance, the cult of the offensive that drilled the blade anyway, the Pattern 1907 and why it was built so long, the training-manual order to fire a round to free a bayonet stuck in bone, the sawback propaganda panic, and a real bayonet charge fought at Danny Boy in Iraq in 2004.
Enjoyed this one? More forensic deep dives into the trenches here: @nomanslandchannel
WW1 history, trench warfare, and the reality of the Western Front, one primary source at a time.
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The phrase "thrust, twist, remove" represents the three classic steps
of close-quarters bayonet combat taught by modern militaries.
• Thrust: Driving the blade into the target using momentum and body weight.
• Twist: Rotating the blade 90 degrees while inside the target.
This widens the wound channel, creates suction-breaking space, and ensures
the blade does not get jammed or wedged between the ribs or bones of the opponent.
• Remove: Extracting the weapon cleanly so the soldier is immediately ready to defend
themselves or engage the next target.
The Dark Truth About the Bayonet Charge
No Man's Land
7,184 views
How Hopeless Was a Bayonet Charge, Actually?
Out of 266,112 battle wounds in one army's own hospital ledger, exactly 245 were from a bayonet. So why did every soldier in the trenches spend months training to use one?
We go back into a 1916 jump-off trench to answer the question honestly: how hopeless was a bayonet charge, actually, and hopeless at doing what? Along the way we get into the numbers the textbooks round off, the wound-site data that proves this war was decided at a distance, the cult of the offensive that drilled the blade anyway, the Pattern 1907 and why it was built so long, the training-manual order to fire a round to free a bayonet stuck in bone, the sawback propaganda panic, and a real bayonet charge fought at Danny Boy in Iraq in 2004.
Enjoyed this one? More forensic deep dives into the trenches here: @nomanslandchannel
WW1 history, trench warfare, and the reality of the Western Front, one primary source at a time.