What were last melee type weapon used by infantry?

[Glamdring]

I know Calvery used sabers well into the gun age. Anyone know how effective they were in actual combat?

Did infantry actually use anything besides musket/rifle & bayonet once the gun age was in full swing?

What I want to know is was there an actual benefit to sword, spear, etc over guns for a while? I'm thinking that the slow loading of matchlocks for instance would allow sword to be more effective in some situations. Also some of the comments in Book of Five Rings seem clear that he felt that way. But I don't know enough about the period weapons to know if that feeling was based on reality or on cultural ideas of "good weapons".

 

[MrAcheson]

Hand to hand combat weapons were still popular until the coming of the repeaters. Once revolvers started to become more common, they began to really disappear.

In the Napoleonic Wars, sabers (infantry and light cavalry) and straight blades (heavy cavalry and highlander units) were fairly common. Likewise mounted lancers were still used against infantry since a long lance could outrange a bayonet. Furthermore halberds were occassionally used to help defend the regimental standards.

You really should define the "gun age" better. The modern "gun age" doesn't really begin until WWI or the Spanish American war. Oh and its "cavalry", "calvery" is where Jesus died.

 

[Joe Demko]

Even during WWI, a variety of clubs, axes, bludgeons, and maces were used by the troops during close combat in the trenches; not to mention the ongoing use of the entrenching tool as an implement for parting brains from skull.

 

[s&w 24]

I'd have to say the last big engagment that I can think of of the cuff is the polish lancers charging the german armored section in WW II. Also they had for sale at cold steel surplus sabers that were made post WW II for some pacific rim country and used by there military up to the 80's.

 

[mete]

In Keith 's "Sixguns" there are excellent comments about this . In the civil war cavalry troops carried two or more revolvers and they were much more effective than the saber. After all a saber only works within three feet ! Then there were those that lived in the past and ordered cavalry charges against machine Guns !! This in WWI. In fact the brits finally decided on an official saber pattern in 1916. When it really gets close and heavy you use anything thats handy, knives, machetes, shovels etc.

 

[Ol' Badger]

In my book "Kill Without Joy" there is a picture of a headless Kraut and some Gurkas digging in nearby. It also has numerous pictures of clubs used in WW1.

 

[Quartus]

Falklands war saw some impressive "message sending" by Ghurkas with reeeely sharp knives and very quiet feet. When you wake up and find the guys on both sides of you lying in a pool of blood, it sorta makes you consider retirement.

E-tools were used in VietNam when needed. As long as it's possible for ammo to run out, weapons will be improvised.

 

[CWL]

Machetes and bolos are still used in Africa and Asia to settle disputes. Armies to this day carry them, also Indonesian pirates.

Vietnam was probably the last American war where HTH weapons were used, though not in great numbers by USA. Tomahawks were carried by some rangers & SOF for HTH.
The NVA and VC sappers conducted HTH during overruns.

WWII had many desparate HTH battles on the Eastern Front btw Germans & Russians. Bayonets & entrenching tools were the preferred weapons. Bayonets were used as knives and held in hand for close up work.

WWI probably had the last large scale HTH battles. Specific melee weapons included bayonet, knuckledusters and German maces. I think that small bucklers were once issued as well.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Last big massacre in the Congo, about 1,000 people were killed predominanty with spears, machetes, and bows and arrows.