FM 21-150
COMBATIVES
MARCH 1969
Section 5 Knife Attack
para 91 sub para c. "....., you can slash to the left or right. ........,you can also slash in either directions."
para 94. Frontal Attack
sub para a. "The Throat. You can attack the throat with either a thrust or a slash."
sub para b. " The Stomach. Athrust combined with a slash to the stomach produces great shock."
sub para d. "The Wrist. A slash to the wrist will sever the radial artery......."
sub para e. "The Upper Arm. A slash to the upper arm just above the inside of the elbow cuts the brachial artery and causes death with in 2 minutes. (fig. 98) This artery is about one half inch below the skin surface. Unconsciousness occurs in about 15 seconds."
sub para f. "The Leg. A slash to the inside of the leg near the groin severs the arteries there and makes the leg useless."
Para95. Attack From the Rear
Sub para a. "The Kidney. .......with draw the blade, slashing as you do so,....."
sub para c. "The throat. A slash across the throat......"
sub para d. "The Subclavian Artery. ........as you withdraw the knife, slash to make the wound as large as possible."
I chose not to quote sections on the use of a bayonet while attached to a rifle as someone has opined that they need not be sharpened for such. Consider for a moment how effective any of the hand held knife attacks using the issue bayonet/knife would be with an unsharpened blade. Now consider the difference between a slash with a mounted blunt edged bayonet and a sharpened one against bare skin or lightly clothed skin.
As I wrote some units never sharpened bayonets. My company had no unsharpened bayonets.
As to the quality of bayonet steels let me say two words. no three, "Lowest bidder, MacNammara" I don't think the bayonet I have for my M-1 is "low quality" in terms of its construction. I also carried a different bayonet, an M5 A1 for years as a youth for a camp knife and still would had it not been stolen. The M7 Bayonets for the M-16 series rifle is what most folks base their bad steel and bad manufacture claims on. Some were awful right out of the wrap. A lot bore these od stirations like the cutting tools that made them had become worn in a regular pattern. Some seemed thinner and lighter than others. Some did crack at one of these stiraitions. When attempting to sharpen these monstrosities they frequently took on a saw toothed look and the tips of these resultant teeth were brittle enough to sometimes breack offThere were a few M7 bayonets floating around that had regular pre Mac Nammara M-3/4/5/6 blades of solid construction and I made sure one of those was in the sheath assigned to go with my rifle (we numbered the sheaths for arms room records rather than the actual bayonet the sheath number matched your rifle rack number).
The only good thing about the M-7 bayonet is that it caused enough fuss that the Infantry and Marines demanded a better bayonet knife. I am not saying that the M9 bayonet is the be all and end all of bayonets, but the quality is certainly better than most M7s I saw. I reviewed the Probis III design of the Buck M9 bayonet knife for the December 1987 issue of "Superguns Magazine" when I worked for Merion Riley-Foss at CFV Publishers. Not a great experience working there, but I had fun with the knife. I cut electric wire (exciting when it was charged), two strand barbed wire and chain link with the wire cutting feature, removed the butt screw from an AR15 with the screw driver, hacked some branches with it, sharpend one end and sawed the other flat to make tent stakes and then made some long that way and once imbedded in the ground sharpened the once flattened ends. I affixed the bayonet to an AR15 and AR-180 and danced about performing the old pre 1970s bayonet drill and flailed about with the newer "instinctive method" that replaced it( what instinct teaches one to effectively use a weapon?) I opened my mid after noon Doctor Pepper bottles using the bottle opener on the knife. I decided not to try to drive a nail or fence staple with the butt plate as it was a loaner. I discovered that the included Beretta mag pouch worked great for holding one of the larger Buck lock blades. I noted that the original design included a sharpening stone on the back of the sheath......odd that a bayonet would need a sharpening stone, according to some folks here abouts. The whole bayonet reminded me of a very beefed up version of the Stoner 63 bayonets which I also carried and used just long enough to decide they were more decorative than useful (except their saw did work nicely).
Anyhow if you want to leave your bayonet "as issued" feel free and collectors may well thank you in some distant future, but be aware that some atleast got sharpened by the users.
Oh to the guy with the Enfield #4 rifle spike bayonet, it was war time and the makers were in a hurry, there was also a cruciform bayonet and ia bowie style bladed one. There was a shovel with removable spade blade or pick that used a mounting that would also allow the bayonet of the #4 to be mounted on the handle to allow the bayonet to be used more like a knife. One wonders if British soldiers wanting a better shovel attached the spade blade to their rifles and plugged the barrel to use the rifle as a spade. Such devices were in use in some armies in the 1800's.
-kBob
