battle rifle book 7

BATTLE RIFLE BOOK 7

WAR SURPLUS

Just as I’ve covered a small amount on pistols for the sake of discussion which pertains to rifles, even though this book is NOT about pistols, so too must I cover the subject of war bolt actions even though this book is about semi-auto’s, for the simple fact that without understanding the predecessors of today’s arms you can’t adequately decide which firearm is best.  If someone had ONLY researched the bayonets of WWI, their understanding would be that some crazy Cracker general officers somehow had the notion that charging the enemy with sharp pointy things ( in effect, a spear ) would frighten the enemy into surrendering. 

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Notwithstanding the fact that the Maxim machinegun made bayonets obsolete, and the White on White spear fighting was amusingly reminiscent of colonial conquests against Other Colors. What you first had to understand is WHY bayonets were invented in the first place.  It wasn’t because spears were a good idea in the age of gunpowder.  It was because of horses.  Horses as in cavalry.  Infantry sucks against horses.  PRIOR to gunpowder.  It was the transitional period between muscle powered weapons and chemically propelled weapons, where it was beyond expensive to arm everyone with firearms, where there was still a reason to have cavalry. 

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Gunpowder formations were rare and scarce or mostly artillery ( the primitive metal working of the day called for bulky and heavy ball shooters.  The light and portable was still being worked on ).  Horse still worked good against infantry since they had yet to face mass gunpowder fire.  Because there were not enough infantry gunpowder weapons, the formations best suited to thwart cavalry was the pikes.  Think a long ass spear, held in formation like a giant porcupine.   Yet these didn’t work financially all that great because an unorganized mob of peasants couldn’t just hold up pikes and be effective.

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Pikemen had to be organized professionals and that costs money.  Most armies would rather get free mobs rather than pay for expensive professionals ( which is why the Italian and like crossbowmen didn’t stand much of a chance long term ).  Peasants lives were cheaper than mercenaries who had to be accommodated by keeping them alive if possible.  So as soon as armies had enough infantry transitioned over to gunpowder, the pike was almost obsolete.  The bayonet cemented its death.  Now horses could be stopped by volley fire and/or a bayonet wall.

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And yet, looking for another two-fer, because after all cannon and gunpowder are really friggin expensive in a pre-carbon fuel economy, it was noted that the same tactics stopping horse also worked rather well stopping other infantry.  They could be stopped by either volley fire or by a bayonet wall.  The only difference was that against each other, the wall could move.  Against horse, the wall stayed put.  In many ways, everything the infantry did was a counter to horse rather than against other infantry, and weapons and tactics reflected that. 

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The large ball calibers were certainly necessary with a low velocity black powder, yet mostly used because it stopped a horse.  The bayonet was primarily used to stop cavalry, but the British put it to very good effect against other infantry formations.  They were so good at it that it took a lot less infantry to build their global empire than would have otherwise been the case.  Just like with pike, a British infantry bayonet charge was the job of professionals, not amateurs.  But the cost was lower than compared to merely paying mercenaries and the primary cost was training.  And like with the Germans of last century, that institutionalized infrastructure militarily ended up being not so much a factor of money but of organization.  Not duplicated by many simply because they hadn’t built that infrastructure.

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The British bayonet tactics still worked as long as they did because muzzleloaders allowed a bayonet charge to succeed.  Even with rows of alternating shooters to achieve a near continuous volley fire, it wasn’t practical for several different reasons to make the columns too many rows deep ( logistics and expense, not to mention training and the retention of so many bodies ), and with the proper training but more importantly the proper discipline and motivation, you could still disrupt the enemy line with a bayonet charge.  Now, this certainly did NOT all by itself win the Limey’s an empire.  But the success of the empire certainly highlighted the tactic and won it favor in military circles.

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All in all, military leaders are a bit retarded.  The ones that aren’t stand out.  They looked at a successful empire which was primarily won by the new form of private centralized banking ( financing won, not the military ) and instead thought the tactics won them the empire.  Like all empires, the formation depended on a confluence of factors, not just one, but it is human nature to look for singular cause and effect.  Being military, the generals saw the military tactic and wished it into primary cause.  Their little pea brains couldn’t work out things beyond that.

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As a result, WWI started with tactics that were thought to be the best ones, ones that had worked in the past.  Nobody thought that perhaps with smokeless powder a bayonet charge wasn’t feasible anymore ( to be fair, the German’s weren’t as big of idiots as the others ).  As I said, spears didn’t work for the native who were JUST defeated by Maxin gun and the breech loading rifle, and yet White soldiers ran at each others machineguns with modern spears.  Dumb asses.  Just like today, when the US Navy thinks it can rule the world with aircraft carriers than can be scuttled with missiles.

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World War one finally made the bayonet obsolete as all but a last ditch personal defensive weapon, but just as all the leaders had forgotten why the bayonet worked or didn’t work, no one was paying attention to that large ass caliber everyone was firing to stop cavalry.  This chapter will continue.

( .Y. )

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note: no, Spanky, no one knows exactly what happened on 9/11.  It is easy to surmise the official story is crap.  Kerosene burns through steel as well as a single magical bullet defies physics in Dallas.  All conjecture NOT the official story is just that.  But logical guesses are not only fun, they underline the need to be skeptical of everything you hear, on all subjects.  This video really held my interest click here .
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