I possess a copy of my father's old Guidebook for Marines, which has a small section on the bayonet.

It got me wondering what other kinds of bayonet manuals exist? I recall a person I know on my college campus mentioning he had a few books on the subject (but I cannot borrow them for some time as I believe he is working from them). He mentioned two by name, one of which was Victorian era, and the other of which was a WW1 manual. Unfortunately I've not been able to get ahold of him, so I was hoping someone here knew the titles of these (likely out of print) books, in the off chance they might be on the internet (scribd) somewhere.

Any leads?

M.

Dear M.,

On Wednesday 29 July 2009, you wrote:

I possess a copy of my father's old Guidebook for Marines, which has a small section on the bayonet. It got me wondering what other kinds of bayonet manuals exist? I recall a person I know on my college campus mentioning he had a few books on the subject (but I cannot borrow them for some time as I believe he is working from them). He mentioned two by name, one of which was Victorian era, and the other of which was a WW1 manual. Unfortunately I've not been able to get ahold of him, so I was hoping someone here knew the titles of these (likely out of print) books, in the off chance they might be on the internet (scribd) somewhere. Any leads? M.

Manuals for bayonet fencing were written throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. Many of them will be available on the Web--I know that Google Books has several. Search for the following names in combination with "bayonet":


American (all of these are translated or adapted from French sources, some of which appear below):
R. Milton Cary
John Kelton
George B. McClellan

British:
Richard Burton
Anthony Gordon
Alfred Hutton

French:
Chapitre
Chatin
Gomard


These books, which are the first ones that come to my mind--I'm not familiar, for example, with the German, Spanish, or Italian material--cover bayonet fencing with weapons of different lengths and weights. Hutton's book in particular is for a shorter and lighter weapon than most of the others. His Fixed Bayonets also has a bibliography of contemporary bayonet manuals, and you should be able to find several of them.

I hope that this proves helpful.

Best,

Mark Millman

Thanks. Scribd decided to start working for me again, and I found two interesting manuals:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11621186/1913-Army-...he-Bayonet

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12980824/1943-US-Ar...-65p-Knife

I found Skirmisher's Drill and Bayonet Exercise by Cary, though Google Books cuts most of it out so I will need to buy a copy.

M.

Burtoniana.org has Sir Richard Burton's 1853 manual:

http://www.burtoniana.org/books/1853-A%20Comp.../index.htm

Thanks! It's certainly earlier than my other stuff; I'll check it out.

M.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/librar...ch7.htm#p2