The Bayonet part 2

The spreading popularity of the plug bayonet through Europe at the beginning of the XVIII century also changed the way infantry was used. Now, as the musketeers could easily defend themselves from cavalry charges, the pike became obsolete. All of the Europe superpowers took on and adopted the bayonet as the main melee weapon and at the same time making the musket the main ranged weapon.

 The Line formation golden era. Battle of Fontenoy 1745.

The standard hide-behind-the-pike-square tactic which was used before, was not adaptable anymore and with almost 90% of the men carried muskets. The method of using infantry in the open field changed, as they now needed space and visibility to aim and fire their guns. Thus the"line" was invented. Straight, long and highly dangerous for everything withing 150 meters of it. Consisting of four and later three lines of musketeers that were able to fire withing 90 degrees in front of them.

Ring Bayonet

But still there was a slight problem... when the men plugged the bayonet in the barrel, they had only a 1.8 meter "spear" and were unable to fire. Almost immediately the engineering minds came with a solution - Ring Bayonets. Simple idea - instead of plugging the wooden handle in the barrel, you would be able to attach the bayonet using two steel rings that should fit on the barrel. This way, it did not prevent loading and firing. The issue was that if the rings were not matched properly with the barrel - the bayonet was very eager to fall off.

The improving of the bayonet continued...

Stay sharp and see you on the next post!