Brits kill 35 in bayonet charge

[pretorian669]

Not fresh news but maybe some of you didn't hear about this...


OUTNUMBERED British soldiers killed 35 Iraqi attackers in the Army’s first bayonet charge since the Falklands War 22 years ago.
The fearless Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders stormed rebel positions after being ambushed and pinned down.

Despite being outnumbered five to one, they suffered only three minor wounds in the hand-to-hand fighting near the city of Amara.

The battle erupted after Land Rovers carrying 20 Argylls came under attack on a highway.

After radioing for back-up, they fixed bayonets and charged at 100 rebels using tactics learned in drills.

When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway — and more were floating in a nearby river. Nine rebels were captured.

An Army spokesman said: “This was an intense engagement.”

The last bayonet charge was by the Scots Guards and the Paras against Argentinian positions.


http://lightfighter.net/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=7336015661&f=5606084761&m=964102462

[Sir Zach of R.]

Wow. Seriously, that's all I can say. :D

[Minjin]

Good ol' Highland Regiment charges. Gotta love em.


I read an eyewitness account of the Highlanders' charge at the battle of Quebec in 1757 (I think it was) and they even scared the native warriors...great stuff!!

[flickme]

wow, thats intense.

[Secret Squirrel]

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14928&highlight=bayonet

[Gringo]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

[Gringo]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

[pretorian669]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

B..b..b..bayonet? :oops:

[Gringo]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

B..b..b..bayonet? :oops:

what about the bayonet?

[Steve Andrews]

It was the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment - not the Argylls.

http://img17.exs.cx/img17/7204/tigers1.gif

[pretorian669]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

B..b..b..bayonet? :oops:

what about the bayonet?

Never mind. There was a discussion earlier about the place of the bayonet in the modern battlefield. I was going in that direction...
:oops:

[Gringo]

what be this doing in the equipment and gear?

B..b..b..bayonet? :oops:

what about the bayonet?

Never mind. There was a discussion earlier about the place of the bayonet in the modern battlefield. I was going in that direction...
:oops:

oh. It's kind of a last resort situation to use it.

[Roger Rabbit]

In the other topic on this it was mention the use of fixing the bayonet when assualting and clearing an enemy position was standard practice.

Edited to make slighlty more sense than before

[Sabre]

It is standard practice, at least it is in the british army. The idea is that it can't hurt (well not you, anyway) to have an extra weapon when in close quarters with the enemy.

If your weapon were to have a stoppage, for instance, then you would look a bit of a tit if you were suddenly unable to fire at the enemy 1 metre away from you. More to the point (no pun intended) you would come off the worse unless you had your bayonet to use instead.

Also, we assault in pairs. If you just posted your grenade in to the trench and jumped in after your oppo, you may not want to be spraying rounds all over the shop with your oppo in front of you, so you use the bayonet.

There is some talk of it putting you in the right frame of mind before an attack if you 'fix bayonets', it also gives you some added sense of security (as it would do, for the above reasons).

Interesting fact to note is that the RGJ and the LI call their bayonets 'swords'. So their command is to 'fix swords', rather than 'fix bayonets'. This comes from their joint ancestry in the 95th Rifles, where Riflemen were issued with swords rather than bayonets for their Baker rifles, which were shorter than the muskets used by the rest of the army, for use in close engagements.

[Royal]

This comes from their joint ancestry in the 95th Rifles, where Riflemen were issued with swords rather than bayonets for their Baker rifles, which were shorter than the muskets used by the rest of the army, for use in close engagements.

They wern't actually swords, they were sword bayonets as I'm sure Chris1 will testify.

Sorry for splitting hairs!

[sgt.pepper]

what is the highland charge?

[Steve Andrews]

It was the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment - not the Argylls.

http://img17.exs.cx/img17/7204/tigers1.gif

Not a Highland Charge. A Southern England and Channel Islands Charge..

[notmesir]

what is the highland charge?

IIRC The highlanders were famous for starting (and ending) a battle with a massed charge of hairy, skirt wearing, sword weilding maniacs when fighting against the English. It forced the english army's bayonet drills to evolve and involve the protection of the man to his right as he would be able to thrust into the right armpit of the attacker. Took some balls to rely on the guy to your left to look after you tho!

With regards to the sword-bayonets there is a little bit here about them: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~rifles95/sword.htm

[sgt.pepper]

i think that during culloden battle english infantry defeated massive scottish charge by using improved bayonet fighting tactics