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      "Un engin de torture, une baïonnette à crochets; une arme blanche déshonorée": an historicalarchaeological evaluation of the Sawback bayonets of the Deutsches Heer

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      Author(s)
      Bennett, Julian
      Date
      2019
      Source Title
      Journal of Conflict Archaeology
      Print ISSN
      1574-0773
      Electronic ISSN
      1574-0781
      Publisher
      Taylor&Francis
      Volume
      14
      Issue
      2-3
      Pages
      99 - 125
      Language
      English
      Type
      Article
      Item Usage Stats
      173
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      148
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      Abstract
      The Imperial German Army (Deutsches Herr) was unique among the combatants in World War One (WW1) in issuing to a proportion of its soldiers a bayonet whose blade back was fashioned as a saw. A common belief developed quickly among the Allies that these sawback bayonets were weapons specifically intended to inflict a particularly vicious type of wound. After setting out the origins of this class of weapon and explaining their real purpose, the two main types of sawback bayonet available to the Deutsches Heer during WW1 are then concisely described. Its reputation as a weapon of especial barbarity is outlined, along with an overview of bayonet use in combat between the mid-nineteenth century and 1918, as evidenced by official sources, highlighting the lack of any specific contemporary references to the use of or the wounds caused by sawback bayonets. The article concludes by detailing the contemporary German sources relevant to its withdrawal from service use in 1917.
      Keywords
      Sawback bayonets
      Seitengewehre mit Säge
      German Imperial Army
      Deutsches Heer
      Bayonet wounds
      Permalink
      http://hdl.handle.net/11693/76068
      Published Version (Please cite this version)
      https://doi.org/10.1080/15740773.2019.1730074
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      • Department of Archaeology 124
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