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    Cold Steel: The Knife in Army, Navy, and Special Forces Operations: Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare, #3
    Cold Steel: The Knife in Army, Navy, and Special Forces Operations: Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare, #3
    Cold Steel: The Knife in Army, Navy, and Special Forces Operations: Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare, #3
    Ebook73 pages57 minutes

    Cold Steel: The Knife in Army, Navy, and Special Forces Operations: Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare, #3

    By Martina Sprague

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    About this ebook

    Knives have been carried with enthusiasm as sidearms to swords since antiquity, and as sidearms to firearms into modern day. Knife combat involves strategy and tactics. Historically serving several missions, the knife has proven a good infiltration weapon when silence must be preserved. It has been used for killing sentries, and has come in handy in close quarters on the large battlefield; for example, in foxholes where firearms or grenades would have been impractical. Soldiers recognized early the benefits of carrying a small and lightweight weapon that could be concealed on one’s person, relied upon in the hand-to-hand fight, or deployed to finish an adversary at close range when one’s firearm malfunctioned.

    Although soldiers carry knives for a variety of purposes—not all knives are designed strictly for fighting but also double as tools such as trench digger, ration opener, parachute line cutter, etc.—this book concerns itself primarily with the role the knife has played as a combat weapon in near modern and modern warfare in the western world. Combat can further be broken down into the use of the knife to kill an enemy including sentry killings and trench raids, and the psychological use of the knife as a weapon of coercion or to send the enemy to flight. The book begins with a discussion of knife design and carry, which purpose it is to familiarize the reader with the many factors the knife smith must consider when crafting the weapon. Next it demonstrates the important function the knife has served as a battlefield sidearm in the different military branches. It then examines the effectiveness of the knife and how soldiers have trained to prepare for the possibility of using cold steel against an enemy combatant. The concluding remarks focus on the knife as a weapon of inspiration.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMartina Sprague
    Release dateMar 13, 2018
    ISBN9781386642725
    Cold Steel: The Knife in Army, Navy, and Special Forces Operations: Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare, #3
    Author

    Martina Sprague

    Martina Sprague grew up in the Stockholm area of Sweden. She has a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University in Vermont and has studied a variety of combat arts since 1987. As an independent scholar, she writes primarily on subjects pertaining to military and general history, politics, and instructional books on the martial arts. For more information, please visit her website: www.modernfighter.com.

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      Book preview

      Cold Steel - Martina Sprague

      SOME NOTES ABOUT THE KNIVES, SWORDS, AND BAYONETS SERIES

      ––––––––

      Knives, Swords, and Bayonets: A World History of Edged Weapon Warfare is a series of books that examines the history of edged weapons in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East and surrounding areas before gunpowder increased the distance between combatants. Edged weapons were developed to function in foot or mounted combat. The primary battlefield function often determined the specific design of the weapon. In poorer societies the general populace frequently modified agricultural tools into weapons of war. The techniques for employing these tools in civilian life translated into viable methods of combat. When the advent of firearms made certain edged weapons obsolete, close range combat continued to rely on foot soldiers carrying knives and bayonets as sidearms to modern artillery weapons. But even in ancient times edged weapons were seldom the primary arms, but were frequently employed as sidearms to long range projectiles. Rebel fighters of Third World countries have likewise used edged weapons extensively in near modern and modern wars.

      The Knives, Swords, and Bayonets series of books takes a critical look at the relationship between the soldier, his weapon, and the social and political mores of the times. Each book examines the historical background and metallurgic science of the knife, sword, or bayonet respectively, and explores the handling characteristics and combat applications of each weapon. The author suggests that the reader make specific note of how battlefield need and geography influenced the design of the weapon, the type of warfare employed (guerrilla, rebellion, chivalry, pitched battle, skirmishes, mass armies, etc.), and the type of armor available to counter the blow of a knife or sword.

      The historical treatment of edged weaponry could fill volumes. Because of the vastness of the subject, certain restrictive measures had to be applied in order to keep the series within a reasonable length while still giving adequate coverage. For example, the author has chosen to cover Chinese and Japanese but not Korean sword history. Every reader is thus bound to find some favorite details omitted. While many treatments of the subject focus exclusively on the technological aspects of weapons, this series also considers the political climate and the environmental or geographical factors under which the weapons evolved. Moreover, every culture, western or non-western, employs a number of subtleties that are exceedingly difficult to understand fully, unless one has spent time living in and studying the specific culture. The same can be said for every subculture (a culture within a culture), such as a military organization. The reader is reminded that, unlike science which is mathematically precise, history offers a broad range of perspectives on every issue.

      The narrative the author has chosen to write portrays the development and dynamics of edged weaponry from ancient to modern times, including the soldier’s training and his view of military service. The close relationship between military and political or social history also spurred the author’s desire to examine the carry of edged weapons as symbols of military rank and social status. Rather than covering battles in their entirety, the author has elected to illustrate bits and pieces of particular battles that exemplify how the weapon in question was used. The book series comprises ten books arranged by weapon type, geographical area, or time period, and is designed to introduce the reader to the great assortment of edged weaponry that has been used with varied success in most regions of the world. Each book in the series is an entity in itself. In other words, it is not necessary to read the books in any particular order. Hopefully, the series will provide the reader with a solid foundation for continued study.

      For her research, and in order to render an analysis that closely describes the dynamics of battle and the cultural aspects surrounding edged weaponry, the author has relied on a large number of primary and secondary source materials including historical treatises, artifacts located at museums, ancient artists’ renditions of war in sculpture, paint, and poem, eyewitness accounts to the events in question, books, articles, documentaries, Internet resources, university lectures, personal correspondence, and direct hands-on practice with weapons in mock battles. Note that source material is often contradictory in nature. For example, swordsmen of the same era and geographical region frequently differed in their views with respect to the conduct of battle or the best type of sword or battlefield technique. The reader is encouraged to keep an open mind and consider the different possibilities that the soldier faced, and why he would emphasize a particular type of weapon or combat technique over another. The endnotes provide additional information, clarification, and exceptions to commonly propagated historical beliefs.

      The author reminds the reader that despite their lethal features, edged weapons are not randomly chosen bars of steel that can cut and kill. The difference

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