0:00:27 > 0:00:34OK, when I give you the command "En garde!", you scream the words back and adopt a natural fighting stance.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39I want the enemy scared to death before you get there. ..EN GARDE!
0:00:39 > 0:00:41EN GARDE!
0:00:41 > 0:00:45- HIGH PORT!- HIGH PORT! - EN GARDE!- EN GARDE!
0:00:45 > 0:00:49The bayonet. For three centuries this crude weapon
0:00:49 > 0:00:53has endured as the infantry soldier's most indispensable tool.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59It's just a blade with a handle fitted to your rifle.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03'It is very much a symbol of what you're doing.'
0:01:03 > 0:01:05EN GARDE!
0:01:07 > 0:01:11The bayonet is a very nasty instrument of war.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15I mean, this is a Baker Rifle bayonet.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20It is an exceedingly nasty thing.
0:01:20 > 0:01:26The thought of that in your belly being twisted around would spoil your day!
0:01:26 > 0:01:33With the bayonet, you're dealing with a weapon that does nothing... does nothing at all.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36A rifle fires, grenades blow up.
0:01:36 > 0:01:42This thing is totally reliant upon its user to close with the enemy,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44look him in the eye and use it.
0:01:50 > 0:01:56The bayonet takes its name from Bayonne in France, where it was invented in the 1640s.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03Soldiers have been fixing bayonets ever since, especially in the British Army.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09This most basic weapon has remained virtually unchanged -
0:02:09 > 0:02:13a long steel blade attached to a rifle or musket,
0:02:13 > 0:02:19turning the soldier's firearm into a lethal stabbing weapon.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The earliest bayonet is this -
0:02:32 > 0:02:37the plug bayonet. It's shoved down the barrel.
0:02:37 > 0:02:45Essentially, prior to the existence of the bayonet, soldiers were either equipped with a musket
0:02:45 > 0:02:49or a pike, which was essentially a 16-foot-long spear.
0:02:49 > 0:02:57These weapons weren't that accurate, so you couldn't rely on firepower to keep the enemy at bay
0:02:57 > 0:02:59while reloading.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03The pikeman did that job for a long time.
0:03:03 > 0:03:12But something was needed to enable the musketeer to combine his firepower with defensive ability.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15The crucial point about the bayonet
0:03:15 > 0:03:19is it enables the same soldier to combine two weapons.
0:03:19 > 0:03:27What therefore happens is you have the infantry able to stand up against cavalry,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31you have infantry with firepower much, much greater.
0:03:31 > 0:03:39Every infantry soldier is now carrying a weapon that is both an offensive and a defensive weapon,
0:03:39 > 0:03:46a weapon with which you can fire and one with which you can stab, slash and defend yourself.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48AARGH!
0:03:48 > 0:03:55The British Army began using the bayonet against the Jacobite rebels in Scotland.
0:03:55 > 0:04:03This was an enemy which didn't fight with muskets and cannon. They relied on the Highland Charge.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Basically, a Highland Charge works on momentum.
0:04:07 > 0:04:14The men come thundering towards the enemy ranks. When they get close...
0:04:14 > 0:04:19bang! They fire a volley from their firearms.
0:04:19 > 0:04:26Then it's out with the broadsword, they drop their firearms, and the well-armed front-rank men,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31they break through, and the less well-armed men are behind them.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37So once they've shattered the line, the guys with a scythe from the farm...
0:04:37 > 0:04:42there's such chaos, it's their chance to get stuck in.
0:04:42 > 0:04:50Although regarded as primitive and savage, the Highlander was more than a match for a Redcoat soldier.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55The Highland Charge dates back to the early 1600s.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57The clansmen would rush forward,
0:04:57 > 0:05:02push him off, stab him in the arm, then slash with a sword.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07The only other documented technique was one to catch the bayonet drills.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12They would get just in front of the Redcoats, then drop to one knee.
0:05:12 > 0:05:20Then they would lunge forward, lifting the bayonet from the gun, and cut towards the body or legs.
0:05:20 > 0:05:27It meant the Highlanders went through the raw levies of the Government like a dose of salts.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Men who are not very battle-trained, when they see Highlanders coming,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37they're not going to stand around! They're going to be offski!
0:05:37 > 0:05:43This is exactly what happened at the Battle of Killiekrankie in 1689.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Plug bayonets were fatally flawed.
0:05:46 > 0:05:54The main problem with the plug bayonet is that having shoved it into the barrel of the musket,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56you can't actually fire the weapon.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01The British Army came unstuck at Killikrankie because of this,
0:06:01 > 0:06:07where some of the troops fitted their plug bayonets, some didn't...
0:06:07 > 0:06:11and the British Army was swept away by a Highland Charge.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15Something better was needed.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21And the answer was found with THIS, which was the socket bayonet.
0:06:21 > 0:06:29The bayonet is now diverted away from the barrel, so the soldiers can fire while the bayonet is fixed.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34But it's still only as good as the troops that are holding it.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38It COULD be a devastating and intimidating weapon,
0:06:38 > 0:06:44but if the troops using it are nervous or poorly-trained, it's useless.
0:06:44 > 0:06:51So it proved. The socket bayonet alone was not enough to guarantee victory.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55For 50 years, the Highlanders triumphed.
0:06:55 > 0:07:03In 1745, another stunning victory at the Battle of Prestonpans marked the beginning of the rebellion
0:07:03 > 0:07:07led by Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11The Duke of Cumberland led 10,000 men north to stop him,
0:07:11 > 0:07:17but they, too, discovered the power of the Highland Charge at Clifton.
0:07:17 > 0:07:25The same happened at Falkirk. Cumberland spent the winter of 1745 devising a strategy for success.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31Cumberland had to think of a way to put down these clansmen.
0:07:31 > 0:07:37He began to think of ways of using the bayonet, common at this time.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41He began to drill his men in Aberdeen
0:07:41 > 0:07:49and they practised the drill of going to the right. He hoped this would break the Highland Charge.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Each soldier would not bayonet the clansman attacking him directly,
0:07:54 > 0:08:01but the one bearing down on his neighbour. He relied on the man to his left to do the same for him.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06To succeed, iron nerve and strict discipline were required.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11To strike to the side with a bayonet achieves a number of functions.
0:08:11 > 0:08:18First of all, the Highlanders attacking you expect to be attacked from the front.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22They can protect themselves against that with their shield.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27If they deflect the bayonet, they're pushing the musket aside, too,
0:08:27 > 0:08:32and they're protected against the bayonet AND the musket.
0:08:32 > 0:08:38But if you attack to the side, they lose the benefit of their shield.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44Instead, they have an UNDEFENDED side in which you can stab them.
0:08:44 > 0:08:50So that a line of men, because they're working in a disciplined way,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54can feel confident that the man next to them is covering them
0:08:54 > 0:09:02and can turn THEIR weapon against the undefended side of the person attacking their neighbour.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06Cumberland's army was ready to take on the rebels one final time.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11The two armies met on Culloden Moor on April 16th, 1746.
0:09:11 > 0:09:19The battle began with a barrage of fire from Government guns, but the Jacobites mounted a fierce charge.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24Cumberland was about to have his bayonet drill brutally tested.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28The attacking Jacobites reached the British line
0:09:28 > 0:09:34and at that point the bayonet was decisive.
0:09:34 > 0:09:41It enabled the British musketeers to put up a hand-to-hand fight against their assailants
0:09:41 > 0:09:48with an effective weapon and an effective drill... and they both worked.
0:09:48 > 0:09:55In a lot of the subsequent newspaper reports and correspondence by people who'd taken part in the battle,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00they emphasised the bayonet, that the bayonet had helped them to win.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07Having held the Highland Charge, the Redcoats poured in fire from both flanks.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10It was over in less than an hour.
0:10:10 > 0:10:17Cumberland gave full credit for the victory to the courage of his men and the effectiveness of his drill.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Some today remain less convinced.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23I think Cumberland's bayonet drill
0:10:23 > 0:10:28was TOTALLY unsuccessful.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33In a modern European war, both armies would face up to one another.
0:10:33 > 0:10:39They would exchange fire, one side would give and then be pursued off the field.
0:10:39 > 0:10:47The Highland clans didn't fight like that. They charged in a mass, then fought as individuals.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51In the bayonet drill, each man went for the man on the right.
0:10:51 > 0:10:59It's fine if they come in the same wave, but these men came at broken intervals. It wasn't a solid line.
0:10:59 > 0:11:06Common sense tells me that a front-rank man with a broadsword...
0:11:06 > 0:11:14You think the man striking across will stop him, but by this time he's felled the guy in front of him.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20- I don't think it's gonna stop one of these guys.- I- wouldn't have tried it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24The effectiveness of Cumberland's plan remains controversial,
0:11:24 > 0:11:32but it proved that the bayonet's power lay as much in the minds of those using it as in any drill.
0:11:32 > 0:11:38Whether the drill WORKED doesn't matter.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41It gave the soldiers confidence.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46It gave them enough confidence to stand, confidence in their weapon.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51And it's the confidence which they gained with the bayonet there,
0:11:51 > 0:11:56which let them think, "We've got a weapon which works defensively.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00"Let's see if we can use it offensively."
0:12:00 > 0:12:06The bayonet proved as formidable in defence as the clansmen in attack.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10One British general came up with an extraordinary idea.
0:12:10 > 0:12:17Why not combine the aggression of a Highland Charge with the discipline of a line of bayonets?
0:12:17 > 0:12:23Somebody present at Culloden was a bit of a genius - James Wolfe.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28When he saw the offensive capacity of the Highlanders, a light went on.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33He said, "If we could recruit them, they'd make terrific fighters."
0:12:33 > 0:12:40If you combined the bayonet with the Highland Charge, you got a good weapon for colonial wars.
0:12:40 > 0:12:47The ironic thing is that the bayonet which was first used against Highland Charges
0:12:47 > 0:12:51was combined with the ferocity of Highland regiments
0:12:51 > 0:12:59to provide one of the main weapons of the British Army in the later part of the 1700s.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03It was General Wolfe who secured Canada as a British colony.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07Thanks to him, the bayonet, especially with Highland regiments,
0:13:07 > 0:13:15became the linchpin of British Army tactics, the weapon of first choice in the expanding Empire.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21The real impetus came from the colonies, particularly in India,
0:13:21 > 0:13:26where the British forces were often outnumbered by the Indian armies.
0:13:26 > 0:13:34They found that the only way they could survive, let alone win, was by acting very aggressively indeed.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40The British Army gradually developed its unique technique
0:13:40 > 0:13:45of advancing at speed, halting, firing a single volley,
0:13:45 > 0:13:50then lowering the bayonet and charging through the smoke.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53It became a well-honed technique.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57One general really exploited the power of the bayonet.
0:13:57 > 0:14:03The most spectacular of his victories was at Assaye in 1803,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08when he drove off a 60,000 strong Indian army with just 5,000 men
0:14:08 > 0:14:10"and was back before breakfast"!
0:14:10 > 0:14:15He was Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20In 1808 he commanded the British Army in the Spanish Peninsula.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24When Wellington took over in the Peninsula,
0:14:24 > 0:14:31his years of experience in India had taught him to GO at the enemy.
0:14:31 > 0:14:38There was no question of standing churning out volleys, in the hope of chewing up enough French.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43It was one volley and then charging through the smoke with the bayonet,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48hit them while they're still dazed and kick them off the premises.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53A bayonet is most effective when it's not actually used physically.
0:14:53 > 0:14:59The idea with a bayonet is to intimidate the enemy and make him run away.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04Wellington was trying to drive the French away rather than kill them.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09The wars against Napoleon gave the British their greatest victories.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13These were years of triumph and swagger.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15A line of men with fixed bayonets
0:15:15 > 0:15:23came to represent the perfect marriage of regimental precision and personal courage.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28The end of the 18th century saw some quite shameful reverses,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and the loss of the US colonies.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36Then, at the beginning of the 19th century - a string of victories.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41Fear is the enemy. Face him, front him, and kill him!
0:15:43 > 0:15:49It's fast work. If we're slow, he'll come on us.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53So keep going forward. And get them bayonets in!
0:15:53 > 0:15:59Sharpe does reflect the general run of Peninsular officers.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05If you read their memoirs, they were very fond of the bayonet.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11The French point of view... The French are very noisy as they attack.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16The British are waiting very quietly in a long, long line.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21The French get more and more excited. The drums and the cheering...
0:16:21 > 0:16:27As they got closer, the Redcoats didn't make a sound. They didn't move.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32And this is beginning to worry them. It really did. We know that.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Their diaries tell us they didn't like that stillness.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42They go up the hill, closer and closer, and still that damn volley doesn't come.
0:16:42 > 0:16:49But they know when it DOES come that it is going to be very, very nasty indeed. And it IS.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55Five or six hundred musket balls converging on the front of the column.
0:16:55 > 0:17:02Suddenly, an organised column is turned into chaos. The front and sides are full of dead and dying.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06The rest are trying to step over them...
0:17:06 > 0:17:13They're losing the cohesion. Still the drums are going. Any surviving officers still push them forward...
0:17:13 > 0:17:18And before them is a great rill of dense smoke.
0:17:18 > 0:17:26Out of the smoke will come five or six hundred guys with 17-inch blades on their muskets.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31It's bye-bye. It's turn round and run. It's..."Sauve qui peut".
0:17:31 > 0:17:39Or the usual French battle cry - "We are betrayed!" as the Imperial Guard fled at Waterloo.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41And it happened again and again.
0:17:41 > 0:17:48You almost get the point where you think these people must be mad to go on doing this!
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Even Wellington seemed disappointed.
0:17:50 > 0:17:56They came on in the same old way and we saw them off in the same old way.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00The second use of the bayonet is to see off horsemen.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03We get squares against cavalry.
0:18:03 > 0:18:09That's where the bayonet IS a decisive weapon, a war-winner.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14If Ney had broken the British squares, they'd have won Waterloo.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19Agreed, the musket-fire is keeping the French out of the squares.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24But also keeping them out is these bristling bayonets.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29No horse in the world will charge through a line of bayonets.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37By the late 19th century, British cold steel was an imperial myth.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41One of the most famous paintings depicting the bayonet -
0:18:41 > 0:18:47The Thin Red Line, painted by Robert Gibb in 1881.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50It's an episode in the Battle of Balaclava
0:18:50 > 0:18:55when the 93rd Highlanders brought down a charge by Russian cavalry.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59An image of the bayonet, but somewhat misleading.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04It's really the rifles, whose flashes you see in the background,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08that stopped the Russians at about 600 yards.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13So in fact stopped them without any chance of physical contact.
0:19:13 > 0:19:19But, interestingly, by emphasising the bayonet rather than the rifle,
0:19:19 > 0:19:27it brings us right back to the idea of PERSONAL strength and valour - the quality of British heroism.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32And this is fundamentally a painting about character.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But it is misleading
0:19:34 > 0:19:41because it gives us no sense of the way in which battles, by this period, were being fought.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Relatively few died through bayonet wounds.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Most people died as a result of rifle power.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54So what this does is show us a world that is passing.
0:19:54 > 0:20:02If you look to the future, we are next to see, in terms of image, images that are still alive today -
0:20:02 > 0:20:04the image of the bayonet in WWI.
0:20:04 > 0:20:12Soldiers advancing slowly, carrying their rifles, the sun glinting on the bayonet...
0:20:12 > 0:20:14..to be machine-gunned to pieces.
0:20:14 > 0:20:22The horrors of the Somme destroyed the myth of the irresistible thin red line once and for all.
0:20:22 > 0:20:30For massed ranks, the bayonet was useless. But still it refused to become obsolete.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35Although the bayonet's use in battle is becoming ever more limited,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38it has a function in training -
0:20:38 > 0:20:43training a soldier to be aggressive with this sharp bit of steel.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48When a soldier comes to bayonet training,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53that is when he starts to learn about aggression.
0:20:53 > 0:20:59And aggression is very much part of an infantry soldier's make-up.
0:20:59 > 0:21:05Because he's called on to do jobs... and the bayonet comes into it a lot of times.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11When it comes to bayonet training,
0:21:11 > 0:21:16he'll hate it... but he'll HATE the enemy.
0:21:16 > 0:21:23That's the sort of personality we want to build up. He'll hate it but he'll hate the enemy.
0:21:23 > 0:21:31Even in peacetime, bayonet training refused to die, as ex-National Servicemen remember.
0:21:31 > 0:21:38There would be some dummies stuffed with straw, on a wooden frame.
0:21:38 > 0:21:45And you were taught that you made the initial thrust with your bayonet when you ran toward the enemy
0:21:45 > 0:21:48into the stomach or the groin area.
0:21:48 > 0:21:55You then placed your foot on the fallen "enemy"...
0:21:55 > 0:22:03dispatched him with another thrust of your bayonet, and then moved on to the next. This is the theory.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06To this day, nothing has changed.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09ARGGGH! COME ON! LET'S GO!
0:22:09 > 0:22:12It's like a surge of electricity.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16You know, you feel stronger.
0:22:16 > 0:22:23ARGGH! AND AGAIN! KEEP GOING!
0:22:23 > 0:22:28They get you hyped so your aggression's built up.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33And once you charge, you won't have any second thoughts.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37If he's the enemy, he's taking it. End of story.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42ARGGH! GET HIM!
0:22:42 > 0:22:50It's frightening, isn't it? And it's tried and tested in all theatres of war. And it works.
0:22:51 > 0:22:57It's the nearest thing to what you might call battle inoculation.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00And it wasn't unknown...
0:23:00 > 0:23:05to get from a butcher the gizzards and innards of an animal,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and put them inside these dummies.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12Just to get a feel of... the real thing.
0:23:12 > 0:23:19The real thing happened in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22On the night of June the 13th,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Robert Lawrence and his platoon fixed bayonets
0:23:26 > 0:23:30to attack an enemy stronghold high on Mt Tumbledown.
0:23:30 > 0:23:38That was the first time that you could expect to start looking at the use of bayonets for real.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42And it was only eventually when I led my platoon
0:23:42 > 0:23:46against a machine-gun post at the end of Tumbledown,
0:23:46 > 0:23:51that we really took on the classic bayonet charge
0:23:51 > 0:23:53of the movies, as it were.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00Obviously, there's a great deal of ammunition being used as well,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04so the bayonet is more a symbol of your intention
0:24:04 > 0:24:08than it is something you're actually using.
0:24:08 > 0:24:15They WERE used. They were used when we closed with the enemy, and proved themselves invaluable.
0:24:15 > 0:24:23By the time you use it, you've been firing on each other with modern weapons, often under artillery fire,
0:24:23 > 0:24:30grenades being used, anti-tank rockets being used, machine-guns...
0:24:30 > 0:24:35By the time you close with the enemy, the blood-lust is certainly up,
0:24:35 > 0:24:40and the bayonet...isn't a precise business at that point.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43You just use it. You kill him any way you can.
0:24:43 > 0:24:51Even in an era of smart bombs and missiles, the bayonet remains an essential part of the soldier's kit.
0:24:51 > 0:24:57This is the SA80 - standard issue weapon of the British Army.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01This is the bayonet. It comes with the weapon.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10It's designed so that, when thrust point-first into an enemy,
0:25:10 > 0:25:15it will part the ribs without sticking in the bone.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18At the rear, this little lug
0:25:18 > 0:25:27holds the bayonet on to the weapon, and that will stop it falling off in a contact situation.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31It has a multi-purpose scabbard.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Firstly...
0:25:35 > 0:25:38It's got a multi-purpose saw.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45At the front, it's got this little lug, which is for bottle-opening.
0:25:45 > 0:25:53To be honest with you, I've never opened a bottle with it, and it's a bit dubious as to why it's there.
0:25:53 > 0:26:00This little lug here fits in conjunction with the bayonet to produce a wirecutter - very handy.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08It's fitted to the side where the soldier can get at it
0:26:08 > 0:26:11and use it whenever required.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16There'll always be a future for the bayonet,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20in that it is a weapon which carries you forward.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24You can shoot until the cows come home.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30But you WIN by taking the fight to the enemy's ground and standing on his ground.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32You may need the bayonet to do it.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37As long as we do have wars, and we need a show of strength,
0:26:37 > 0:26:45bayonets are an important part of that, even in parades, when they parade with fixed bayonets on.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49It's a sight which makes you think twice.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Especially if you have been in wars and you know what it's for.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00It's glistening there for some particular reason.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06I think that as long as you need infantry, you're going to need the bayonet.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Anyone that's ever taken part in close-quarter combat,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15where you're fighting hand-to-hand with bayonets...
0:27:15 > 0:27:20I think that can only ever just stay with people who've done it.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25Because, by its nature alone, you are within feet of this man -
0:27:25 > 0:27:30you can hear him, you can see him, you can smell him -
0:27:30 > 0:27:32and, ultimately, with a bayonet,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37you're only ever killing him at a maximum of three feet, say.
0:27:37 > 0:27:43With small arms, pistols or whatever, yes, they are close-quarter weapons.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45But there is a detachment.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48When you stab someone with a bayonet,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53you're holding on to one end of something that's stuck into him.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58You are physically joined. You're not ten feet away with a pistol.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03So it's a very memorable, em... difficult event,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06which is the true nature of warfare,
0:28:06 > 0:28:11much, much different to pressing a button that releases bombs.