BAYONET BATTLE TRAINING

The British Army’s stubborn attachment to the bayonet survived up to and beyond the Second World War, even though the trusty weapon had long been superseded by more technologically complex means of killing. The weapon’s use was encouraged more for psychological than practical reasons, since efficient skill in the bayonet, in the words of the author of this wartime booklet ‘develops a high standard of co-ordination between mind and muscular action, a fine sense of control, a quick eye and an ever-aggressive spirit’. The booklet covers ‘pointing’ and parrying, the stabbing of dummy sacks ‘and constructing a bayonet assault course. It is an excellent introduction to the raw and aggressive ‘spirit of the bayonet’. Reprint of the 1942 original edition.