| For many historians, it has been an accepted truism that the bayonet was an inadequate weapon in the Great War. And yet, in spite of this historical conclusion, soldiers of the Great War seemed oblivious to what seems so obvious to critics ninety years removed; they quite liked their bayonets and they used them---often. Their chain of command saw the value of the bayonet as well. Between 1914 and 1918, training in bayonet fighting increased, largely in response to what was happening at the front. Official records, battalion histories and soldiers accounts provide numerous examples of the bayonet being used in battle. The question posed by this thesis is simple: if the bayonet was so obviously inadequate why did soldiers continue to fix bayonets before going into battle? This question is answered through the detailed examination of the bayonet in the training literature, official records, battalion histories, and personal accounts of soldiers of the Canadian Corps. This thesis exposes the historical myth of the bayonet's obsolescence and demonstrates its importance in Anglo-Canadian attack doctrine during the Great War.;Keywords: Bayonet, First World War, Great War, Canadian Corps, shock tactics, infantry tactics, attack doctrine. |
