bayonet/long gun combination style

[Phil Berghan-Whyman]

[Colin]

I mentioned bayonet fencing in passing with Colonel Biddle above. Yes, it was taught. Biddle, for example, made some modifications in how to parry the outside line (though nothing terribly drastic that I couldn't point out the equivalent in various smallsword treatises doing similar).

Bayonet fencing competitions continued into the 20th century.

The WWII British bayonet training manual that I've got "Small Arms Training: Volume 1, Pamphlet No.12, Bayonet, 1942" is very simple. It is far more simple than Biddle's one. It certainly doesn't bother to trace its origins.

Hard to say who invented bayonet fencing first. At a guess French, but I've got nothing to back that up with (except a bit of etymology). It is solidly based on "civilian" fencing methods. There were plenty of 19th century bayonet manuals written. At some point I intend to teach it.

As a point of interest le Baton in savate was based originally on bayonet fencing and was used by the French in WWI.

[pmel018]

Bayonet fencing seems to have begun as the weapon that the bayonet was attached to became more efficient, more accurate, reliable and had a longer range. The bayonets original purpose was to do duty as a pike, and as such allowed every musketeer(for want of a better term)a method of defense against cavalry while the complicated and time consuming proceedure of reloading was carried out. So essentially the bayonet was a defensive arm, this mindset perhaps best demonstrated at the Battle of Warerloo when the British infantry, drawn up in squares, managed to hold off the best cavalry that the French had.
As both artilery and smallarms increased in range power and accuracy the notion of standing ones ground in neat lines became suicidal. Both Crimea and the American Civil War demonstrated the carnage that was posible. However the main infantry weapon was still a single shot musket and it was still necessay for a soldier to defend himself against cavalry as well asadvance offensively in open order once the single shot was expended(and before a reload was possible)It is around the middle part of the 19th C that the idea of bayonet on bayonet combat organised and taught in a methodical and comprehensive really flourished. bayonet drill was, and still is, seen as a method of instilling an aggresive spirit in an infantrymn. By the end of the 19C repeating rifles were in service with all modern armies and the machinegun was appearing all over.Nevertheless the long bayonet was still seen as a valid weapon and methods were continually developed and refined, practised as bayonet fencing. as colin points out many manuals were produced right up to the latest U.S.M.C H2H manual. The last one i have seen that promotes the use of the bayonet in the classical fencing format is John Styers "Cold Steel" which owes a considerable debt to Biddles "Do Or Die" After this point the wepons begin thbecome more compact, lighter and more especially shorter.The US army now uses pugil sticks tosimulate bayonet fighting.
At Fightcamp last year there was a demonstration of WW1 British bayonet training and it ain't as easy as it looks.
Phil

[conal]

John Styers "Cold Steel"
-http://www.vrazvedka.ru/main/learning/ruk-b/styers.html

Cheers Phil.