Originally Posted by major liability

If he's not dead after 23 stabs, we DO need something better than a bayonet!

Extra ammo.

Well we're at it why not try to harness the force and fix light sabres?! That would be awesome. Back to reality the bayonet is a fine weapon that you might was well learn to use well. You can't be overtrained! It only takes once where you don't know the proper technique and your dead. GFT is a good example. Dont know what your doing and the enemy will kill you :[

Bayonet training...I remember the instructor showing us the bayonet and then tell us: "This is a bayonet, which you will only be issued for parade, guard duty or war."

So we trained bayonet fighting and rifle-fencing with "dummy-rifles"...

Later I read a statement from a military commission in the 1880's trying do decide what a new bayonet were supposed to look like, they were saying that the Norwegian soldier, with his norse temper and mentality, would be more likely to use the rifle as a club than actually stabbing someone with a bayonet..
But they opted for a new bayonet design none the less, it was required for parades and guard duty, so...

After boot camp we were told that the army showel, the entrencment tool, was our friend in hand to hand combat, and some of them even came ready sharpened.
A matter that was summed up pretty good in Remarque's most famous work: "All quiet on the Western Front"

"You shouldn't use the bayonet, it tends to get stuck between the ribs, and then you have to kick the other guy in the chest in order to get it free, gives the other guys plenty of time to ram their bayonets in your guts, use the showel instead."

But in a sentry box or on guard duty I wouldn't be without the bayonet for all the gold in Fort Knox, it has a psycological impact on intruders that a full magazine can't compete with.

And should the intruder pull a gun at you, shoot!

For those of you who think a bayonette is obsolete:

The British in the Falklands war conducted no less than 2 successfull bayonet charges, I belive in Wireless Hill, and on Mount Tumbledown...and the Highlanders had a very successfull bayonet charge as last as in 2004, near Amarah, iraq killing 35 insurgents in prepared positions.

Keep your bayonet sharp folks...

And for those of you who think the knife is obsolete, remember the Gurkha's!

Story goes that during the Falkland war a company of Argentine soldiers took off and ran for their life when their field chaplain told them that they were facing the Gurkhas, and that they used to cut the heads of their enemy with their curved "Kukri" knifes...

Truth or not, personally I wouldn't stay around to face a Gurkha in close combat.

Originally Posted by SHERMAN

Is this WWI or WWII?! I dont even want to think about byonets.... When a IDF officer in Gaza had a jam a few months ago he charged the terrorist with his helmet and beat him to death...IDF dosent even have byonets......

ah! must of been something to see

Originally Posted by Redleg

The reason why the bayonet isn't triangular (anymore) is that it violates the Geneva Convention to make weapons that's designed to harm and not kill.
And a knife shaped bayonet is much more effective in a close/unarmed combat situation, since you can both cut and stab with it.

When it comes to bayonet training in the Norwegian Army we can still train our soldiers to use it, but it's not standard in the basic training.
It depends if we have a certified instructor available or not.
To be allowed to instruct in the use of bayonets you must be a certified unarmed/close combat instructor.
(wich I am by the way... 8) )

This is off topic, but speaking of the Geneva Convention, are shotguns and flamethrowers outlawed?

whawhawhat!?!?! are they?

Shotguns aren't. I carried one in my hummer for 17 months loaded with 00 buck.

Shotguns are not "specifically" banned, however they do contravene the convention when used against personnel, in that: The Hague Convention of 1899 (and subsequently the International Humanitarian Law (drawn up at the Geneva Convention) in 1949 ratified by the USA on 2 Aug. 1955 ) forbade the use of expanding, deformable bullets in wartime, this specifically states that small arms ammunition will be of a metal jacketed type so as not to cause unnecessary suffering.

United States along with many other countries became signatories on 12 Aug 1949 http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebSign?...rm&id=375&ps=P and subsequently introduced a "Declaration of Reservation" in 1957 http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/NORM/D6B...0?OpenDocumentto allow such things as the death penalty.

Nowhere has the USA reserved the right too use shotguns as a weapon of war.