"The History of Weapons" ZDF Studios, Ep. 3

    "The History of Weapons"
      Produced by: ZDF Studios

   *Continued from Intro, Ep.1, Ep. 2






 Episode 3: Close Combat

                                          

                                                               Common War Hammer
                                            By Samuraiantiqueworld - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,                                                                     https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27716648 


   This episode focuses on up-close and personal hand to hand weapons; namely the Roman gladius (short sword) the warhammer and bayonet.

  As discussed in the ranged weapons episode, the primary tool of the Roman soldier was the Pilum; the next phase of attack though, was a steam-rolling by a shield wall with a bunch of sharp pointy bits sticking out. The Roman gladius was meant for one purpose, to thrust. Its deep, finely-honed point could pierce light armor with little effort, and it was narrow and deep enough that a single jab was generally enough to hit a vital organ or artery. Because of the way the shield wall worked, the gladius was generally thrust into the belly or neck as this could be done without creating a gap in the shield wall. It was an up-close and personal weapon, you pressed against the enemy ranks with your shield wall and thrust with your gladius all in one deadly motion. Anyone unlucky or crazy brave enough to try and counter this strategy with brute forced often ended up full of holes before being trampled upon as the shield wall advanced.  


  Next up is the warhammer. With the advent of firearms, knights and mercenaries countered the initially weak projectiles with full-plate steel armor. The armor was also highly effective at stopping a slashing or thrusting weapon, making a well armored combatant a true force to be reckoned with when things got personal. To counter this, armorers started producing hammers that could smash the armor with concentrated brute force; it could crack a skull, break bones or stop a heart. On the opposing side of the hammer-head was a square spike. Concentrating the force of the swing into a small point could pierce even the strongest steel plate armor. People often think of plate-clad knights wielding a sword and shield and following code of chivalry, but that's mostly visions of tournaments and whimsy, not actual combat. In those days, axes and warhammers were the hand to hand weapon of choice, and for good reason. A well placed hit from the warhammer could knock down an armored knight; the coup de grace being a spike to the head once they were rendered prone.

  Lastly, we have the bayonet. Originally designed to make a musket more versatile when muskets were inaccurate, unreliable and unwieldy to load; the bayonet is both a physical and psychological weapon. Typically a volley was fired, followed by a charge, bayonet out front. The musket then became a spear and club. Even as firearms got more accurate and quicker to reload, the bayonet was still kept; a unit in a charge could close the distance between them and their adversary faster than they could reload, so a charge into hand to hand combat was done in an attempt to rout the enemy. Somewhere along the line someone realized that triangular wounds were near impossible to suture, leaving the wound open to bacteria and air, which would all but guarantee a slow painful death from infection; that's if you didn't bleed out first. This is why socket bayonets of later wars were triangular bladed, a terrible weapon and end for those unlucky enough to have met the wrong end of one. Even as weapons got more accurate and small unit tactics were employed, hand to hand combat became far less frequent. Even so, the bayonet is still issued to modern combat soldiers. (as in the U.S. M9) Not only does it serve as a multi-purpose tool, but it's been shown to be both effective at terrorizing the enemy AND giving the soldiers wielding it a certain sense of comfort, knowing that if their weapon fails, they run out of ammo or things get hairy, they have a last-resort weapon that could potentially save them and their fellow combatant's lives.