a return to the spike trench knife? Now lets take a step back here.
Combat knife fighting has like so much of actual combat been kinda Hollywood mythologized and turned into some kind of dance.
However when push comes to shove, In battle Bayonet fencing was Tried and failed.
In the Trench war of World war 1, And the Trench war shares so much with modern battle. before WW1 they thought they were going to have troops fencing with Bayonets and sabres with intricate fencing. . When the battle started the long blades and long rifles proved impossible to use.'
So back to the basics. The Trenches were a simple and proven counter so the solutions were simple and proven. The Troops went back to medieval. The long bayonet was replaced with short knives and grenades and Clubs and short Spades.
No fancy blades little more then a kitchen knife if that. One simple solution was
They basically took a stake for stringing barbed wire had the unit blacksmith turn one side around into a simple hand guard then flatten out the other side and sharpening it it that. One simple proven fact is that sashes are easy to treat but impalings are nasty, And Stilettos and Spike blades are killers. The Stab wound was lethal and quick and easy to train. No black belt needed. So they had things like this US M1917 Trench knife .
Knuckle dusters for breaking a face and a spike to impale even the but of the handle has a Bolt to keep it together that can he used to pummel a SOB. It's Brutal, simple and nasty. No Bruce Lee no Steven seagal, this is Cave man beat down.
Another weapon that proved exceptionally efficient was the E-tool The Handel off a Short spade was a simple Club. It was known for centuries that blunt force trauma from a simple weighted would kill an armored knight. The Australians issued an alternative head to there spades that turned the wooden handle into a short mace. And then There was the
for when you really really wanted to get medieval.
Lots of troops would take the short spade and sharpen the head and use it a a hatchet. Even today Russian Speznats are known to train for using Spades as hand to hand weapons.
Modern body armor will stop a slash but not a Ice pike stab or a weighted club to the head. If the fighting gets belt buckle grab close It's going to get primitive.
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