Large Fierce Mammal

A glimpse inside the LFM armory. (Mrs. LFM photo) Click the image for a sharper view.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood ….

~ MacBeth, Act 2, Scene 1 ~

Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

~ Arms and the Boy, Wilfred Owen (first verse) ~

The blade strikes more primal fear into the hearts of men than the bullet. Possibly this is because few people have ever been shot, but sooner or later everyone will cut themselves to a greater or lesser degree. Thus there is a clearer understanding of just how bad things can get when the blade is delivered to flesh in the heat of an adrenalin rush, but who really cares? It works.

Click to enlarge.

Since the inception of reliable repeating firearms as the primary weapons of the soldier, its gleaming, bloodthirsty companion, the bayonet, has remained a constant. A crowd faced by resolute soldiers who pause to fix bayonets is far more likely to disperse – and quickly – than one faced with conventional riot batons and shields. In recent military history, the British Army has won the day with bayonet charges in the Falkland Islands (1982) and Iraq (2004). In each case, a smaller force pinned down by enemy fire, outnumbered and at risk of being overrun, fixed bayonets and charged. What might be considered a bravely suicidal last ditch tactic instead resulted in a victory of amazing proportions with casualties massively skewed against the superior force. A line of determined, fiercely screaming men intent on slicing you to ribbons is just as demoralizing now as it has always been – even more so in this ‘modern” age of computer game mayhem, action movies, fantasy fiction, and over confidence in the almighty gun.

The psychological effects of Commando training photos like this being leaked are not hard to grasp.

In early World War 2, reeling under the aftereffects of the debacle at Dunkirk and faced with a need to do a lot of damage with less than ample resources, Britain created and fielded the Commandos. Trained to infiltrate occupied Europe by stealth and guile, each Commando was equipped with whatever conventional infantry weapons were necessary to his mission, but with one little addition – a specially designed dagger with which he had been trained to kill the enemy with silent ruthlessness. The news spread, and one can only imagine the mental state of the average German soldier as he stood guard duty.

In the 20th century, the mystique of the blade has seen further exploitation – somewhat exaggerated t’is true, but all really good tales must contain their parcel of truth. The Gurkhas of Nepal, serving with the British Army, are renowned for their fighting spirit, and famous for their use of the Khukuri – the large, downward curved knife of their nation. In the Pacific theatre of World War 2, word spread that the Gurkhas would collect the boot laces of sleeping Japanese soldiers who only learned of what had happened when they woke, that creeping upon a line of sleeping soldiers they cut the throat of every second man, or that of the men sleeping at both ends of the line, posted sentries notwithstanding. True or not, for the potential victims, such tales take on a life of their own.

In the Falkland Islands, the fearsome reputation of the Gurkhas continued to trouble the minds of their adversaries. So feared were they by Argentinian troops that Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, quoting witnesses reported Gurkhas, “… beheaded Argentine soldiers with their assassins’ scimitars and were so bloodthirsty that the English had to handcuff them to stop further killing after the Argentines had surrendered.” In the current Middle Eastern theatre of operations, similar stories are spread, with predictable effects on the morale of those who may face the Gurkhas in combat. The men from Nepal are fearsome adversaries to be sure, but crazed murderers they are not – however it never hurts to keep the enemy wondering, and nothing I write here should be taken as a guarantee.

So much panic from the keen gleaming blade, and its grim wielder. Now go and rewatch your favourite slasher movie and think on this.