THE RECRUIT AND HIS BAYONET.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1915, Page 2

THE RECRUIT AND HIS BAYONET.

HOW HIS LEARX'S TO USE JT. "They can't stand the bayonet," :s what our soldiers say of the Ccrnians, for cold steel in the bands of the llriti-h soon makes the Huns break and run. The British soldier excels in this form of fighting because he is so thoroughly trained in the use of the bayonet. In the Army each bayonet instructor trai'is only lour pupils at a time, so that he can give every man individual tuition.

"Tommy's" first lesson with cold steel is to prod a padded jacket hung on a wall. He thus learns to thrust or parry and to jump forward or back. It ah.) in'-tils in him the important rule of always keeping his foe outside his steel blade, for once the enemy gets ''inside'' the point of the bayonet the soldier is practically helpless. In bayonet lighting in fact, the whole of the rifle must b" kept in front of the body, and the soldier never draws his weapon back before making" a thrust. After learning to attack, the soldier is taught how to defend himself against an onslaught by bayonet. He has U move his rifle quickly from right to left to throw aside, a bayonet thrust at his chest. If the attack is made low he swings down his rifle to parry it, his bayonet being slightly embedded in the turf. One of the most difficult forms of bayonet attack to combat is tb.it known as the "throw point." The soldier throws himself down on his left hand or his knee and gives an upward thrust with his bayonet, generally with disastrous results to his foe, unless the latter unarms his adversary with a sharp blow from his own weapon. At first recruits find it difficult in make the quick, short jabs characterstie of bayonet fighting, but their clumsiness is overcome by means of an ;n----genious machine. A square frame of wood about 10ft high is erected in the ground, and down the centre runs a wire on which are threaded a number of balls composed of thickly woven straw. A mechanical device releases them, and as they travel down the guide wire in rapid succession the man with the bayonet has to stab each one of them with a quick movement, withdrawing his instrument in time to hit the sphere following closely behind. The advantage of this machine is that not only docs it teach accurate bayonet work, but it develops the muscles of the wrist necessary to withdraw the weapon immediately it lias completed its deadly work.