thumbA
sword bayonet is any long, knife-bladed
bayonetA bayonet is a knife-, dagger-, sword-, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle barrel or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear. It is a close quarter battle combat or last-resort weapon.-History: The origins of the bayonet are...
designed for mounting on a
musketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder.Usually, the musket is thought to be the weapon that replaced the arquebus, and was in turn replaced by the rifle...
or
rifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
. Its use is thought to have begun in the 18th century and to have reached its height of popularity throughout the 19th and into the early 20th centuries. When unmounted from a musket or rifle, sword bayonets with their typical
hiltThe hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
s and long blades also could be wielded as short swords. While modern military bayonets typically have
knifeA knife is any cutting edge or blade, handheld or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of rock, flint, and obsidian; knives have evolved in construction as technology has with blades...
blades, they are usually too short to be called sword bayonets and are more akin to
fighting/utility knivesA combat knife is a knife designed for military use. A common misconception is that "combat knives" are specialized for close combat, whereas since the end of trench warfare, military knives have been primarily designed for utility/tool use...
.
A typical example of an early sword bayonet is the 58 centimetre (23 inch) blade variety designed for the Infantry rifle, later called the
Baker rifleThe Baker rifle was a flintlock rifle used by the Rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces....
of the
Napoleonic eraThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
.
thumbA
sword bayonet is any long, knife-bladed
bayonetA bayonet is a knife-, dagger-, sword-, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle barrel or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear. It is a close quarter battle combat or last-resort weapon.-History: The origins of the bayonet are...
designed for mounting on a
musketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder.Usually, the musket is thought to be the weapon that replaced the arquebus, and was in turn replaced by the rifle...
or
rifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
. Its use is thought to have begun in the 18th century and to have reached its height of popularity throughout the 19th and into the early 20th centuries. When unmounted from a musket or rifle, sword bayonets with their typical
hiltThe hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
s and long blades also could be wielded as short swords. While modern military bayonets typically have
knifeA knife is any cutting edge or blade, handheld or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of rock, flint, and obsidian; knives have evolved in construction as technology has with blades...
blades, they are usually too short to be called sword bayonets and are more akin to
fighting/utility knivesA combat knife is a knife designed for military use. A common misconception is that "combat knives" are specialized for close combat, whereas since the end of trench warfare, military knives have been primarily designed for utility/tool use...
.
A typical example of an early sword bayonet is the 58 centimetre (23 inch) blade variety designed for the Infantry rifle, later called the
Baker rifleThe Baker rifle was a flintlock rifle used by the Rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces....
of the
Napoleonic eraThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
. It was intended, when fitted to the bar on the side of the muzzle, to provide a more lethal defence against
cavalryCavalry were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat. Cavalry were historically the second oldest and most mobile of the combat arms...
when combined
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of the Combat Arms they are the backbone of armies...
formed
squaresAn infantry square is a combat formation an infantry unit formed in close order assumes when threatened with cavalry attack.-Very early history:...
, and, it was hoped, a better hand-to-hand combat weapon when used detached. In truth, most riflemen found it worked better for cutting brush and roasting meat over a fire. (
see Rifleman Harris, Costello's, Simmons's diaries) Riflemen also found that when the sword fitted, the Baker rifle became unbalanced and less effective for loading and then shooting accurately. Riflemen therefore removed the sword when shooting.
The German
Schlachtmesser (butcher knife) was better in this respect. With the appearance of the hiltless sword bayonet, such as the
socket-mountedA bayonet mount or bayonet connector is a fastening mechanism consisting of a male side with one or more pins, and a female receptor with matching "L" slots and spring to keep the two parts locked together....
variety, their use on the end of the musket or rifle also became a hindrance during the reloading of the
muzzle-loadedA muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun...
longarmThe term long gun is used to describe classes of firearm and cannon with longer barrels than other classes. In small arms, a long gun is designed to be fired braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, while in artillery a long gun would be contrasted with a howitzer or carronade.-Small...
, (a common problem to all muzzle-loading infantry weapons). A bayonet of similar style and dimension was used on the
Lee-EnfieldThe Lee-Enfield bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire/Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. It was the British Army's standard rifle from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957...
rifle of the early 20th century.
However, the advantages of sword bayonets over spike bayonets are evident. Where a
spike bayonetA spike bayonet is a blade attachment for a firearm taking the form of a pointed spike rather than a knife. Most early musket bayonets were of this type. From around 1800 knife- or sword style bayonets began to appear, which could also be wielded by hand...
turns the rifle into a spear, a sword bayonet turns it into a
glaiveA glaive is a polearm consisting of a single-edged blade on the end of a pole. It is similar to the Japanese naginata and the Chinese Guan Dao. However, instead of having a tang like a sword or naginata, the blade is affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head. Typically, the...
. Unlike spike bayonets, which can be used only for thrusting, sword bayonets can also be used for slashing. Twisting a sword bayonet in the wound was especially lethal. Before the advent of modern medicine after WWI, a soldier struck by a sword bayonet was very unlikely to survive.
While most sword bayonets have straight blades, a popular variant in the 19th century featured sinuous, S-curved blades like those found on the Balkan's and Middle-East's sword called the yataghan. Today, sword bayonets of this style are said to have "yataghan" blades, or to be "yataghan-bladed".
Both sword and spike bayonets lost their popularity after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. While sword bayonets can be effective as short swords, they proved to be too unwieldy in cramped quarters in
trench warfareTrench warfare was a form of warfare in which both combatants occupied static fortified fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops were largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and were substantially sheltered from artillery. It has become a byword for stalemate in...
, although spike bayonets continued to be used throughout most of the 20th century. A shorter version of the sword bayonet, the
knife bayonetA knife bayonet is a knife which can be used both as a bayonet or fighting or utility knife. The knife bayonet became the almost universal form of bayonet in the 20th century due to its versatility and effectiveness...
, was developed. Today, the majority of modern bayonets are knife bayonets.