Andy kirjoitti: ↑tammi 9, 2020, 00.23 Tapettiinko niillä pistimillä muuten paljonkin argentiinalaisia?

The development of the bayonet in the late 17th century led to the bayonet charge becoming the main infantry tactic through the 19th century and into the 20th. As early as the 19th century, military scholars were already noting that most bayonet charges did not result in close combat. Instead, one side usually fled before actual bayonet fighting ensued. The act of fixing bayonets has been held to be primarily connected to morale, the making of a clear signal to friend and foe of a willingness to kill at close quarters.[35]

Andy kirjoitti: ↑tammi 7, 2020, 10.25

Väittäisin kyllä, että brittiarmeija ei ollut Falklandin sodan aikaan varustettu rynnäkkökivääreillä. Todisteena kuva tuon Scots Guards yksikön sotilaista Falklandilla.

For centuries, cold-steel assaults were part of nearly every infantry engagement, both large and small. But with the advent of semi-automatic rifles and rapid-fire machine guns, full on bayonet attacks were suddenly risky, even suicidal. Yet amazingly, there were a handful of occasions during the Second World War and in the decades that followed in which leaders in various situations would call out the words: “Fix bayonets!”

Charging Up Tumbledown

The Falklands War saw one of the few bayonet charges of the Post-War period. (Image source: WikiCommons)

British troops pulled off a number of bayonet charges in the brief campaign to boot Argentine forces from the Falkland Islands in 1982. Grunts from the Scots Guards and the Gurkhas chased 500 enemy troops off the summit of Mount Tumbledown in the pre-dawn darkness of June 14. The British suffered 63 casualties in the battle; 160 Argentine soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured. Two weeks earlier a 2 Para private by the name of Graham Carter led his comrades in a bayonet charge against a force of enemy troops across Goose Green.



21st Century Bayonet Charges
In the last ten years, British troops have resorted to the bayonet to break impasses in combat both in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May, 2004, a detachment from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders surprised a force of 100 insurgents near Al Amara, Iraq with a bayonet charge. British casualties were light, but nearly 28 guerrillas were killed. And as recently as October of 2011, a British Army lance corporal named Sean Jones led a squad of soldiers from the Prince of Wales Royal Regiment in a bayonet charge against Taliban fighters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. After being ambushed and pinned down by militants, the 25-year-old ordered his squad to advance into a hail of machine gun fire. “We had to react quickly,” Jones remarked. “I shouted ‘follow me’ and we went for it.” He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. Even in an age of GPS-guided bombs, unmanned drones and network-centric warfare, 300-year-old technology — like the simple bayonet — can still carry the day.