Bayonet Training 1918

The heroic war poet Siegfried Sassoon gives an unforgettable description in his 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' of a bayonet instruction course he attended - and the fierceness of the training given. This 1916 booklet - re-issued in 1918 - which details all aspects of bayonet training, bears out his emphasis on the importance the Army still placed in this simple but trusty weapon. 'The bayonet is an offensive weapon, ' it instructs. 'Go straight at an opponent with the point threatening his throat and deliver the point wherever an opening presents itself.'