Why aren’t trench knives used more commonly in warfare?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “trench knifes“
About Melanie
Written by: Melanie
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Why aren’t trench knives used more commonly in warfare?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “trench knifes“
About Melanie
They are a weapon of last resort! Hopefuly your enemy never gets so close that a knife blade is long enough.
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If the enemy has got close enough that you’re knife-fighting with them, they’re probably winning, and the exact design of whichever knife you’ve chosen is largely irrelevant: where’s your rifle, where are your squadmates, why aren’t the rest of your unit slotting the enemy before you have to go all Mr Stabby on him? (And conversely, how are you still alive, on your feet, alone and unsupported, fighting just one enemy who hasn’t shot you yet, and when do his friends arrive?) It’s not that knives are never useful, but it’s rare and notable when they become so.
The sort of bloodcurdling “trench knives” and “trench clubs” carried by WW1 soldiers seem to have been more about intimidating prisoners than about actual combat value, outside some fairly horrific situations like the underground wars (when both sides were tunneling under the others’ lines, usually to plant explosives as at Messines Ridge, and countermining led to fighting in three-foot-high muddy tunnels in the dark… though even there, cut-down rifles seemed more popular than knives or clubs, if the museum at Ypres is any guide)
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I don’t know if there is an official answer to this, but I’ll answer it from my own perspective.
While a trench knife seems like a reliable handheld weapon for a single grip it seems to have the following short comings:
*If I want to change my grip from over hand to under hand I have to remove each of my fingers from the holes which takes time and will require my other hand being occupied.
*This trench knife is clearly a weapon and I would be hard pressed to justify it as a tool. I can have a normal buck style knife seen and people not know if it’s a tool or a weapon, with a trench knife in my hand everyone knows I have it for the intention of slashing or pushing it into another human.
*It would take longer to bare the knife. Instead of just needing to grab the hilt and pull, I need to lace my fingers properly into it. This takes time, and I may not have time to spare.
Just my surface thoughts on the negative. It does have some obvious positives though such as harder to misplace, use of fingers if I’m willing to loosen my grip, brass knuckles if I want to be less than lethal, etc.
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