Trench Fighting

A 1917 French Army Manual for Hand-to-Hand Combat.

By: [Translated] M.P. Lynch

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Formerly published under the title Hand-to-Hand Combat, this 1917 manual has been revised and colorized for clarity's sake. The Great War was entering its third bloody year, and even the proud and stubborn French command had to concede that old methods weren't working. To be sure, in a hypothetical situation wherein two infantrymen were rushing at one another across an open battlefield, the soldier with the 20 inch "épée bayonet" fixed on the end of his 51.2 inch Lebel 1886 rifle would appear to have the clear advantage over the German adversary with his shorter Mauser with Seitengewehr bayonet - the Frenchman would simply be able issue his fatal thrust sooner, and so prevail. But there were no such ideal encounters, as men could not engage in bayonet sparring while stumbling through muck and being raked by machine gun fire - not to mention that the enemy had little reason to abandon the safety of his position to engage in hand-to-hand. Thus fighting with cold weapons would unfold largely between the walls of a trench, and there a 71.2 inch weapon system such as the Lebel with its absurdly long Rosalie bayonet was next to useless. Indeed, in this confined area the German "Butcher blade" would have the clear advantage due to its slashing capacity, particularly if it were held in the hand, whereas the French bayonet was almost exclusively for thrusting (in keeping with the same French 'fencing with the point' tradition which has given us the modern sport). Illusions fell away, and the practical fighting methods we now refer to generally as "military combatives" were adopted. Blind the enemy with a thrown object or a thrust of the fingers, smash his face backward as you trip him, attack his fingers, lock his elbow, stomp his shin - anything goes, so long as it is brutal and gets the job done, putting him out of action.