Bayonet battle. Russian Bayonet battle. Consistency in organizing hand-to-hand combat

The basics of a bayonet attack (and, in principle, hand-to-hand combat) have been taught to Russian soldiers since the time of Suvorov, who claimed that “a bullet is a fool, but a bayonet is a good man.” The Nazis were mortally afraid of hand-to-hand combat with the Russians - they went to their deaths with a smile that made the Germans’ blood run cold.

Why did Suvorov say that?

Alexander Vasilyevich, in his work “The Science of Victory,” called for energy-efficient use of ammunition: in those days, reloading a muzzle-loading rifle was a whole problem for a soldier, so the legendary Russian commander called on the infantrymen to shoot accurately, and in an attack to use the bayonet as efficiently as possible. Smoothbore guns were not a priori rapid-fire, so in battle the bayonet attack was given great importance - during such an attack, a Russian grenadier could kill up to four enemy soldiers with a bayonet, while hundreds of bullets fired by infantrymen flew “into the milk.”

The valor of the Russian hero of the bayonet attack was appreciated by Napoleon himself

Russian gunsmiths have never made mass-produced small arms without taking into account the bayonet in its design. For example, in the war with the French, a needle bayonet on a Russian gun more than once helped our soldiers in battle with the enemy.

As the pre-revolutionary historian A.I. Koblenz-Cruz wrote, the grenadier Leonty Korenny in 1813, in the battle of Leipzig, entered into an unequal bayonet battle with the French with a small unit. His comrades fell in battle, and Leonty, bleeding, continued to fight alone. He broke the bayonet and hit him with the butt. Wounded 18 times, exhausted, Korennaya fell among the French he had killed.

In captivity he was cured. Amazed by the valor of the Russian grenadier, Napoleon ordered the release of Korenny from captivity.

Consistency in organizing hand-to-hand combat

As domestic military historians write, the Soviet Army realized the importance of training in the basics of hand-to-hand combat in the Red Army after the Finnish campaign. Almost immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, despite the obvious losses of the Red Army in the first months of the battles, it turned out that in bayonet attacks the Red Army men most often prevailed over the Wehrmacht soldiers.

Lieutenant General A. A. Tarasov developed a visual aid (with illustrations) that described in detail the methods of destroying the enemy in a bayonet attack. The training units of mobilized fighters, trained in an accelerated manner, were required to study this technique - how to pierce with a bayonet (short, medium, long injections), with a knife (several options (techniques), and chop with a sapper blade (from different positions).

This was serious training, which later came in handy for many in close combat. As practice has shown, collective farmers with carpentry skills and builders worked especially well with sapper blades in the attack. In hand-to-hand combat they cut off the Germans' heads and severed their limbs. Literally from the first months of the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis avoided such clashes with horror.

Bayonet attacks with a smile

As the former commander of the 181st special reconnaissance and sabotage detachment of the Northern Fleet, Hero of the Soviet Union Viktor Leonov, wrote in his autobiographical book “Face to Face”, his sailors had to meet with the bayonet and with the elite of the Wehrmacht - the mountain rangers. The enemy mastered martial arts techniques, but our reconnaissance saboteurs still outnumbered the Nazis in hand-to-hand combat.

Leonov mentioned in his memoirs a detail very often found in the memoirs of Soviet front-line soldiers - the Red Army soldiers went into a bayonet attack with a smile that literally paralyzed (and ultimately demoralized) the Nazis - they believed that there was some kind of catch behind it. A smile plus a vest (the Germans were terrified of Soviet sailors) did their job - at the first stage of the bayonet attack, the Nazis were psychologically broken, and in the battle itself, the Red Army soldiers fought to the last.

The commander of the 62nd Army in Stalingrad, V.I. Chuikov, introduced close combat tactics in the city. Vasily Ivanovich recalled in his memoirs that fighters in such bayonet battles put Germans on their rifles like sacks of straw and threw them over themselves. They worked in houses and basements with knives and finks, did not retreat and fought to the death.

... Subsequently, historians of the Great Patriotic War calculated that in 80% of the bayonet battles of this war, it was the Red Army units that initiated it.

Two centuries ago, Lermontov wrote the immortal lines:

The enemy experienced a lot that day,

What does Russian fighting mean?

Our hand-to-hand combat...

Hand-to-hand combat during the Battle of Borodino meant not so much fist fighting as bayonet fighting. However, this concept is much broader, because it included blows with the butt of a gun, and everything that could help survive in a fight.

Only in peacetime was hand-to-hand combat understood as combat without weapons. During the war, hand-to-hand combat was all that could be done when there was nothing else to shoot.

We know from epics how our ancestors fought hand-to-hand in ancient times. And duels and fights between troops began with long weapons, with spears. Then clubs and swords or sabers were used, and when all the weapons were broken, the fighters switched to hand-to-hand combat. Here is an excerpt from the epic about Ilya and his son Sokolnichka:

They parted on their spears:

Their spears perished in their hands,

The spears crumbled into pieces;

They parted on battle clubs:

Their clubs perished in their hands;

The clubs broke off along the tops;

The swordsmen parted ways:

Their sabers died in their hands,

They chipped away at the chain mail armor,

Soon they dismounted from their good horses,

They grabbed hold of

They began to struggle and break.

Ilya’s right hand waved away,

The left leg sprained,

Ilya fell on the damp ground.

Sokolnichek sat on his white chest,

He took out a knife-dagger...

This is how the princely squad fought, and the militia fought the same way, except that they had a different set of weapons. There were also volunteer soldiers from among the urban population, warriors. Peasants and townspeople fought annually during various holidays, such as Maslenitsa, in wall battles and duels.

But, in addition, during the difficult times of Rus', military training was held almost every year, during which everyone who wanted to was trained to fight on foot. The warriors also learned to fight from the window, that is, on horseback. But this is a special, so to speak, professional training that I am not considering now. My task is to talk about hand-to-hand combat.

Hand-to-hand combat in the meaning of bayonet fighting has its origins in spear fighting. A spear is much simpler than a sword or saber. You can learn spear fighting in a matter of days, while you need to devote your whole life to sword fighting. Therefore, the militias armed themselves with spears. And the regular army in the old days, first of all, was an army of spearmen.

Each country had its own methods of spear combat. Naturally, they grew out of those movements that were most familiar to man, which means that the origin of spear techniques is labor. However, in Europe the development of fencing techniques with swords, daggers and spears began quite early. The art of fencing, as we know it now, is a rather artificial construct. And although European spearmen were famous for their skill, thanks to their training, our troops successfully resisted them throughout the Middle Ages. This means that the training of Russian spearmen was no worse!

In both the Livonian War (1558-1583) and the Swedish War (1590-1593), our archers, armed with arquebuses, sabers and reeds, repelled the first-class infantry of the Swedes, Poles, Germans and Hungarians, who were famous as the best spearmen and fencers. They also beat the Turks, holding the Turkish saber fighters with spears and bayonets.

Alexei Tolstoy in Peter the Great describes Russian bayonet fighting:

“I saw only the broad backs of the Preobrazhensky men working with bayonets, like pitchforks - like peasants...

In most cases, Russian men dressed in uniforms acted with a fusée like a spear or pitchfork.”

This is exactly what Russian bayonet fighting was like, which by the end of the eighteenth century was considered the strongest in the world.

For an uninitiated person, the mention of simple, peasant work with a bayonet, like a pitchfork or a spear, may seem ridiculous. How can a Russian peasant resist the best fighters in Europe, who were taught by world-famous masters? Yes, easily! Habitual work with a pitchfork allowed the Russian peasant not to get tired, even if he swings a bayonet all day.

The strength in these movements was such that a European had never dreamed of, since each movement of the fork had to carry a heavy armful of hay or an even heavier lump of manure. Anyone who has tried it knows.

Working with a spear is a hunting art. A Russian peasant used to go and hunt a bear with just a shoemaker, but with a spear it was a matter of daring and youth. But any hunter knows that the bear is a lazy and slow lump only in cartoons. In life, this is a very fast and cunning animal, catching up with a moose while running and capable of flying several meters in a jump.

Russian bayonet fighting had an excellent basis, to which all that remained was to add techniques against two-legged predators.

These techniques began to be developed by Peter. In the “Institution for Battle” of 1708, Peter wrote:

“...the first rank should never shoot unnecessarily, but, having attached baguettes, that is, bayonets, hold the gun. In the same way, through a person, there will be pikemen and they will be taught the use of pikes; three ranks, taking turns, shoot from the shoulder..."

At the same time, the pikes were stuck into the ground, and if the enemy cavalry broke through our formation, the bayonets came into play. If, after shooting, the horsemen were too close, the first rank, shooting from the knee, rose and the entire army rushed into a bayonet counterattack.

After Peter, Suvorov made a breakthrough in hand-to-hand training. His “Science of Victory” taught:

“The bullet will be damaged, but the bayonet will not be damaged. The bullet is a fool, but the bayonet is great! If only once! Throw the infidel with the bayonet! - dead on a bayonet, scratching his neck with a saber. Saber on the neck - jump back a step, strike again! If there is another, if there is a third! The hero will stab half a dozen, and I have seen more. Take care of the bullet in the muzzle! Three will rush in - stab the first, shoot the second, bayonet the third with a karachun.”

This is exactly how our miracle heroes beat the Turkish Janissaries.

Before the Italian campaign of 1799, Suvorov wrote how to beat the Austrians, who were weak fighters with bayonets:

“...and when the enemy approaches thirty steps, the standing army itself moves forward and meets the attacking army with bayonets. The bayonets are held flat with the right hand, and stabbed with the left. On occasion, it does not interfere with a butt to the chest or head.

...at a distance of a hundred steps to command: march-march! At this command, people grab their guns with their left hands and run at the enemy with bayonets, shouting “Vivat”! The enemy must be stabbed in the stomach, and if he is not pinned with a bayonet, then with his butt.”

The enemy's chest was covered with thick straps crosswise, so they stabbed in an unprotected place, in the stomach.

But the spear was not only a weapon of infantry, where it became a bayonet with the advent of firearms. Thin and long spears of horsemen began to be called pikes in the European manner. Almost all types of Russian cavalrymen were armed with them, although the peaks are best known in the Cossack units.

How to work with a pike is described in the Charter of the Cossack Service.

The masters of using these weapons were amazing. The pike in experienced hands not only stabbed, but also chopped, and even reared the enemy horse, forcing it to throw off its rider.

Russian bayonet fighting was recognized as the best in Europe before World War II. The superiority of the Russians was also recognized by the inventors of the bayonet, the French. Moreover, we did not have any textbooks on bayonet fighting until the mid-nineteenth century. The art of fighting was passed down through direct transmission by experienced fighters. Obviously there were many of them.

The best textbook is considered to be the “Bayonet Fencing Manual,” written in 1905 by Russian officer Alexander Lugarr, who reflected on the experience of fighting in the Russo-Japanese War.

Lugarr divided bayonet fencing into ten basic strikes and defenses. In addition to fighting infantrymen, he also describes how to fight with a horseman. Probably, to this day this is the best manual on bayonet fighting, although it calls bayonet fighting techniques in the French manner.

However, the French school of fencing was the ruling school in Russia until the sixties of the last century, when bayonet fencing was prohibited, and this sport left our lives at the request of the International Olympic Committee. This was a condition for the Soviet Union to become a participant in the Olympic movement.

Probably, European democrats in this way tried to weaken Russia's combat power. Which, of course, was done, since bayonet fighting can still be the most important part of a combat battle. This means that owning it will save more than one Russian guy who finds himself in close proximity to the enemy.

Losing this type of martial art would be an unforgivable mistake, which would cost our army and people too dearly.

A.A. Shevtsov

Two centuries ago, Lermontov wrote the immortal lines:

The enemy experienced a lot that day,

What does Russian fighting mean?

Our hand-to-hand combat...

Hand-to-hand combat during the Battle of Borodino meant not so much fist fighting as bayonet fighting. However, this concept is much broader, because it included blows with the butt of a gun, and everything that could help survive in a fight. Only in peacetime was hand-to-hand combat understood as combat without weapons. During the war, hand-to-hand was all that could be done when there was nothing else to shoot with. We know from epics how our ancestors fought hand-to-hand in ancient times. And duels and fights between troops began with long weapons, with spears. Then clubs and swords or sabers were used, and when all the weapons were broken, the fighters switched to hand-to-hand combat. Here is an excerpt from the epic about Ilya and his son Sokolnichka:

They parted on their spears:

Their spears perished in their hands,

The spears crumbled into pieces;

They parted on battle clubs:

Their clubs perished in their hands;

The clubs broke off along the tops;

The swordsmen parted ways:

Their sabers died in their hands,

They chipped away at the chain mail armor,

Soon they dismounted from their good horses,

They grabbed hold of

They began to struggle and break.

Ilya’s right hand waved away,

The left leg sprained,

Ilya fell on the damp ground.

Sokolnichek sat on his white chest,

He took out a knife-dagger...

This is how the princely squad fought, and the militia fought the same way, except that they had a different set of weapons. There were also volunteer soldiers from among the urban population, warriors. Peasants and townspeople fought annually during various holidays, such as Maslenitsa, in wall battles and duels. But, in addition, during the difficult times of Rus', military training was held almost every year, during which everyone who wanted to was trained to fight on foot. The warriors also learned to fight from the window, that is, on horseback. But this is a special, so to speak, professional training that I am not considering now. My task is to talk about hand-to-hand combat.

Hand-to-hand combat in the meaning of bayonet fighting has its origins in spear fighting. A spear is much simpler than a sword or saber. You can learn spear fighting in a matter of days, while you need to devote your whole life to sword fighting. Therefore, the militias armed themselves with spears. And the regular army in the old days, first of all, was an army of spearmen.

Each country had its own methods of spear combat. Naturally, they grew out of those movements that were most familiar to man, which means that the origin of spear techniques is labor. However, in Europe the development of fencing techniques with swords, daggers and spears began quite early. The art of fencing, as we know it now, is a rather artificial construct. And although European spearmen were famous for their skill, thanks to their training, our troops successfully resisted them throughout the Middle Ages. This means that the training of Russian spearmen was no worse!

In both the Livonian War (1558-1583) and the Swedish War (1590-1593), our archers, armed with arquebuses, sabers and reeds, repelled the first-class infantry of the Swedes, Poles, Germans and Hungarians, who were famous as the best spearmen and fencers. They also beat the Turks, and, moreover, holding the Turkish sabers with spears and bayonets. Alexei Tolstoy in “Peter the Great” describes the Russian bayonet battle: “I saw only the broad backs of the Preobrazhensky soldiers working with bayonets, like pitchforks - like peasants...

In most cases, Russian men dressed in uniforms acted with a fusée like a spear or pitchfork.”

This is exactly what Russian bayonet fighting was, which by the end of the eighteenth century was considered the strongest in the world. For an uninitiated person, the mention of simple, peasant work with a bayonet as with a pitchfork or a spear may seem ridiculous. How can a Russian peasant resist the best fighters in Europe, who were taught by world-famous masters? Yes, easily! Habitual work with a pitchfork allowed the Russian peasant not to get tired, even if he swings a bayonet all day. The strength in these movements was such that a European had never dreamed of, since each movement of the fork had to carry a heavy armful of hay or an even heavier lump of manure. Those who have tried it know it. Working with a spear is a hunting art. A Russian peasant used to go and hunt a bear with just a shoemaker, but with a spear it was a matter of daring and youth. But any hunter knows that the bear is a lazy and slow lump only in cartoons. In life, this is a very fast and cunning animal, catching up with a moose while running and capable of flying several meters in a jump. Russian bayonet fighting had an excellent basis, to which all that remained was to add techniques against two-legged predators. These techniques began to be developed by Peter. In the “Institution for Battle” of 1708, Peter wrote: “... the first rank should never shoot unnecessarily, but, having attached baguettes, that is, bayonets, hold the gun. In the same way, through a person, there will be pikemen and they will be taught the use of pikes; three ranks, taking turns, shoot from the shoulder..."

At the same time, the pikes were stuck into the ground, and if the enemy cavalry broke through our formation, the bayonets came into play. If, after shooting, the horsemen were too close, the first rank, shooting from the knee, rose and the entire army rushed into a bayonet counterattack. After Peter, Suvorov made a breakthrough in hand-to-hand training. His “Science of Victory” taught: “A bullet will fall short, but a bayonet will not fall flat.” The bullet is a fool, but the bayonet is great! If only once! Throw the infidel with the bayonet! - dead on a bayonet, scratching his neck with a saber. Saber on the neck - jump back a step, strike again! If there is another, if there is a third! The hero will stab half a dozen, and I have seen more. Take care of the bullet in the muzzle! Three will rush in - stab the first, shoot the second, karachun the third with a bayonet.” This is exactly how our miracle heroes beat the Turkish Janissaries. Before the Italian campaign of 1799, Suvorov wrote how to beat the Austrians, who were weak fighters with bayonets: “... and when the enemy approaches thirty steps, then the standing army itself moves forward and meets the attacking army with bayonets. The bayonets are held flat with the right hand, and stabbed with the left. On occasion, it doesn’t hurt to hit the chest or head with a butt... at a distance of a hundred paces, command: march-march! At this command, people grab their guns with their left hands and run at the enemy with bayonets, shouting “Vivat”! The enemy must be stabbed in the stomach, and if he is not pinned with a bayonet, then with his butt.”

The enemy's chest was covered with thick straps crosswise, so they stabbed in an unprotected place, in the stomach. But the spear was a weapon not only of the infantry, where with the advent of firearms it turned into a bayonet. Thin and long spears of horsemen began to be called pikes in the European manner. Almost all types of Russian cavalrymen were armed with them, although the pikes were best known in the Cossack units. How to use a pike is described in the Charter of the Cossack Service. There were amazing masters of using these weapons. The pike in experienced hands not only stabbed, but also chopped, and even reared the enemy horse, forcing it to throw off its rider.

Russian bayonet fighting was recognized as the best in Europe before World War II. The superiority of the Russians was also recognized by the inventors of the bayonet, the French. Moreover, we did not have any textbooks on bayonet fighting until the mid-nineteenth century. The art of fighting was passed down through direct transmission by experienced fighters. Obviously, there were many of these. The best textbook is considered to be the “Bayonet Fencing Manual,” written in 1905 by the Russian officer Alexander Lugarr, who reflected on the experience of fighting in the Russo-Japanese War. Lugarr divided bayonet fencing into ten basic strikes and defenses. In addition to fighting infantrymen, he also describes how to fight with a horseman. Probably, to this day this is the best manual on bayonet fighting, although it calls bayonet fighting techniques in the French manner.

However, the French school of fencing was the ruling school in Russia until the sixties of the last century, when bayonet fencing was prohibited, and this sport left our lives at the request of the International Olympic Committee. This was a condition for the acceptance of the Soviet Union into the Olympic movement. Probably, European democrats in this way tried to weaken the combat power of Russia. Which, of course, was done, since bayonet fighting can still be the most important part of a combat battle. This means that owning it will save more than one Russian guy who finds himself in close proximity to the enemy. Losing this type of martial art would be an unforgivable mistake that would cost our army and people too dearly.

The shortcomings of the tetrahedral bayonet became clear back in the First World War, but there was no time to re-equip the multimillion-strong infantry with new versions of the bayonet - it was necessary to rearm the aviation, tank troops, and naval forces.

However, in 1944, a new carbine with a bayonet of a different design entered service. The bayonet was attached to a carbine under the barrel and folded forward when necessary. By the way, such a mount was then used on the Kalashnikov assault rifle until the 90s of the 20th century. The Simonov self-loading carbine was also equipped with the same bayonet version, but after the war it was replaced by a knife bayonet.

After the Great Patriotic War, the needle tetrahedral bayonet was stored for a very long time in emergency reserve (ES) warehouses, along with the “three-ruler” and the Mosin carbine of various modifications.

If we return to the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, then, as German archives testify, in 80% of cases the initiative for bayonet combat came from Soviet soldiers.

The bayonet attack was used especially readily during defensive battles in fortifications or cities (Brest Fortress, Stalingrad, and so on) - when there is no clear front line, and artillery, aviation and tanks do not solve anything or their use may cause losses among their own. It is worth noting that in hand-to-hand combat, Red Army soldiers skillfully used not only a bayonet, but also a sapper blade. The bayonet also proved itself well in the attack, when clearing trenches occupied by the enemy. And the sight of an approaching mass, gleaming with deadly steel, could force Wehrmacht soldiers or allies of Nazi Germany to flee.

For the Nazi invaders who attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941, the ability of Red Army soldiers to fight with bayonets, sapper blades and knives was as much a surprise as the T-34 medium tank or the legendary Katyusha rocket mortar. The Germans were able to appreciate the bayonet attack of the Soviet troops and its effectiveness in the first hours of the war in the Brest Fortress. This is not surprising, because in the Red Army, almost from its very creation, they began to actively train military personnel, develop their speed qualities, endurance, agility, strength, and also pay due attention to the moral and psychological qualities of fighters. Hand-to-hand combat became a very important part of the training of Red Army soldiers.

At the same time, bayonets in the Russian army began long before the Great Patriotic War. It dates back to the time of Peter I. The introduction of a bayonet instead of baguettes in 1709 made the gun quite suitable for action in battle not only with fire and a butt, but also with a bayonet. Unlike the baguette, the bayonet did not have to be separated from the gun before each new shot and during the loading process. The connection of a bayonet with a gun significantly increased the offensive power of the Russian infantryman. Unlike the armies of European countries, in which the bayonet was used as a defensive weapon, in the Russian army it was used as an offensive weapon. A strong bayonet strike became an integral part of the tactics of the Russian army. Over time, the Russian method of bayonet fighting intimidated the enemy so much that, according to the Geneva Convention, the traditional blow to the stomach was replaced by a “more humane” blow to the chest with a bayonet.

Gymnastics and knife fighting classes became officially mandatory in the Red Army already in 1918, they were combined with mandatory shooting exercises. Hand-to-hand combat in the army necessarily included combat gymnastics - various movements with weapons, a shovel, somersaults, as well as overcoming various obstacles. During the years of the civil war, it was possible to accumulate a lot of experience in hand-to-hand combat, and on the basis of this experience, hand-to-hand combat was further developed in the USSR. Beginning in 1924, the country began to publish the first official military manuals on the physical training of soldiers and citizens of pre-conscription age.

Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the army managed to undergo a sufficient number of reforms that significantly changed the principles of hand-to-hand combat. Bayonet fighting, grenade throwing and shooting were combined into a single complex. Great lessons were also learned from military conflicts with Japan and Finland. The experience gained by the Red Army proved that bayonet combat, or at least the readiness for it, was still the decisive and final element of any attack. This experience clearly indicated significant losses in hand-to-hand combat, both due to the competent use of the bayonet and due to the inability to use it.

The USSR understood that hand-to-hand combat, night combat, reconnaissance actions, a combination of grenade strikes and edged weapons - all this created an environment that requires the necessary peacetime training for any army that wants to ensure victory in future battles and achieve it at the same time little blood. Even before the war, the combat regulations of the Red Army infantry were quite categorical: “The ultimate combat mission of an infantryman in an offensive battle is to defeat the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.”

The Red Army soldiers were constantly taught that their bayonet was an offensive weapon, and the very essence of bayonet combat was interpreted as follows: “The experience of wars shows us that a large number of soldiers were killed or wounded only for the reason that they did not know how to properly use their weapons, especially bayonet. At the same time, bayonet fighting is the decisive factor in any attack. Shooting precedes bayonet fighting until the last possible moment. At the same time, the bayonet is the main weapon in night combat.” Red Army soldiers were taught that during hand-to-hand combat, retreating enemies must be pushed back with a bayonet and hand grenades to the very line that was indicated in the order. And pursue the fleeing enemy with quick, accurate and calm fire.

In the Red Army, much attention was paid to the speed with which fighters could move, and their ingenuity was developed through fast games and a variety of physical exercises that required instant muscle reaction and high speed of thinking. At the same time, boxing and sambo played a significant role in the development of the individual qualities of fighters, which went hand in hand with training in the basics of bayonet fighting.

The harsh school of war

The Finnish War proved the importance of studying hand-to-hand combat techniques, and battles with fascist troops, especially battles in cities and trench battles, generalized and significantly strengthened this experience. Lieutenant General Gerasimov described the tactics for storming fortified enemy defense areas in this way: “From a distance of 40-50 meters, the attacking infantrymen must cease fire in order to reach the enemy trenches with one decisive throw. From a distance of 20-25 meters, hand grenades come into play, which the soldiers throw while running. This is followed by a point-blank shot and defeating the enemy with a bladed weapon.”

The catastrophic start of the war and the cauldrons of 1941 led to significant losses in the ranks of the Red Army. But already in those difficult months of the war, the strengths of the Soviet armed forces became clear. It was possible to establish that in hand-to-hand combat, Wehrmacht soldiers were inferior in level of training to the Red Army soldiers. Thus, the debate that was simmering before the start of the war that the bayonet had already lost its relevance demonstrated the correctness of those military specialists who insisted on mass training of soldiers in bayonet fighting skills.

Today, in newsreel footage of those years, you can see how militias are taught to stab the enemy with a bayonet while running, but in the first months of the war, the fascist invaders had to be destroyed in other conditions - in their own or someone else’s trenches, trying to deliver an accurate blow to the neck. At the same time, the sapper's shovel became the most formidable weapon of Soviet soldiers. The builders who joined the Red Army and numerous collective farmers, who before the start of the war often had to work with carpenter's axes, were especially good at using these improvised weapons. Their blows were sharp and sometimes so powerful that they could cut off limbs, not to mention smashed heads. After hand-to-hand fighting, German funeral teams often found their soldiers with their skulls split open.

Remembering the campaigns in Europe, Wehrmacht soldiers and officers increasingly expressed the thought in conversations among themselves and in their letters to their homeland: “Whoever did not fight in Russian hand-to-hand combat has not seen a real war.” Artillery fire, bombing, skirmishes, hunger and cold, grueling marches in the mud could not be compared with the fierce and short battles in which it was very difficult to survive.

“We fought for 15 days for one house, using mortars, machine guns, grenades, bayonets,” wrote a German lieutenant of the 24th Panzer Division in his letter home about the battles in Stalingrad. - Already on the third day of fighting, we left the corpses of 54 of my comrades in the stairwells, stairs and basements. The “front line” in this war ran along the corridor that separated the burnt rooms, along the ceiling between floors. Reinforcements arrived at us along fire escapes, chimneys, and from neighboring buildings. At the same time, the struggle went on from morning to night. From one floor to another, with faces blackened by soot, we throw grenades at each other, fighting in the roar of explosions, clouds of smoke and dust, among pools of blood, heaps of cement, fragments of furniture and fragments of human bodies. Ask any fighter what half an hour of hand-to-hand combat means in such a battle. And then imagine Stalingrad. 80 days and 80 nights of nothing but hand-to-hand combat. In which the length of the street is now measured not by meters, but by the corpses left behind.”

Basic techniques of bayonet fighting

The following basic techniques of bayonet combat were practiced in the Red Army: thrust, blow with the butt and repulses.

Injection

The thrust, of course, was the main technique of bayonet combat for the Red Army soldier. The main point of a bayonet fight was to aim a rifle with a bayonet directly at the enemy, threatening his throat and striking an open part of the body. To perform a thrust, it was necessary to send the rifle (carbine) forward with both hands (pointing the tip of the bayonet at the target) and, with the left arm fully straightened, move the weapon with the right hand along the palm of the left hand until the magazine box rests on the palm. At the same time, it was necessary to sharply straighten the right leg and, moving the body forward, inject with a lunge of the left leg. After this, it was necessary to immediately pull out the bayonet and return to its original position.

Depending on the combat circumstances, the injection could be applied either without deception or with deception of the enemy. In cases where the enemy’s weapon did not interfere with the injection, it was necessary to thrust directly (an injection without deception). And when the enemy was covered with his own weapon, then, by sending the bayonet straight, it was necessary to create the threat of an injection (deception), and when the enemy tried to repel, quickly move his bayonet to the other side of the enemy’s weapon and inject him. At the same time, it was necessary to always keep his opponent under attack, since a soldier who was unable to deliver a sensitive blow to an open place on his opponent’s body for even just one-fifth of a second risked being killed himself.

Mastering the technique of performing an injection by the Red Army soldiers was carried out in the following sequence: first, the injection was practiced without a stuffed animal; after this, an injection into the stuffed animal; then an injection with a step forward and a lunge; injection while walking and running; pricking a whole group of stuffed animals with a change in direction of movement; at the end, the fighters practiced thrusting on stuffed animals in various environments (trenches, trenches, forest areas, etc.).

When training and studying the thrust, the main attention was paid to the development of strength and accuracy. As part of the study, the soldiers of the Red Army literally memorized the saying of the Russian general Dragomirov: “It is necessary to constantly remember that when using edged weapons, the eye is undoubtedly more important than when firing: there, an incorrect hand or an error in determining the distance to the target leads to the loss of a bullet.” , here it can lead to loss of life.”

Butt strike

Soldiers had to use blows with a butt if they met their enemy closely, when it was no longer possible to inject him. In this case, blows could be delivered from the side, from above, forward and backward. In order to strike the enemy from the side, it was necessary, simultaneously with a lunge with the right foot forward and an upward movement of the right hand, to deliver a strong blow with the sharp corner of the butt to the area of ​​the enemy soldier’s head. A blow from the side with the butt could be conveniently used after performing a bounce to the left.

To strike with the butt forward, you had to push the butt down with your right hand and, grabbing it in your right hand above the upper stock ring, take your rifle or carbine back, swing it, and then lunge with your left foot and hit the enemy with the back of the butt.

To strike back with the butt, you had to turn on the heels of both feet in a circle to the right (without bending your knees), at the same time you had to make a swing, for this you had to take the rifle or carbine as far back as possible, turning it with the magazine box up . After this, with a lunge of the right leg, it was necessary to strike the enemy’s face with the back of the butt.

In order to strike with the butt from above, it was necessary to throw up the weapon, turning it with the magazine up, on the fly, grab it with your left hand from above at the upper stock ring, and with your right hand from below at the lower stock ring, and lunge with your right foot to deliver a strong blow from above with the sharp corner of the butt .

At the same time, blows with the butt had to be applied quickly, accurately and strongly. Training of these strikes was carried out on stuffed animals such as “sheaves” or on the ball of a training stick.

Chops

Repulses were used by the Red Army soldiers to protect against enemy injections during an attack, when the weapon in the enemy’s hands prevented the injection. After parrying the enemy's blow, it was necessary to immediately carry out an injection or strike with the butt. The bounces were performed to the right, left and down to the right. A punch to the right side was carried out when an enemy soldier threatened to thrust into the upper right side of the torso. In such a situation, with a quick movement of the left hand to the right and slightly forward, it was necessary to make a short and sharp strike with the fore-end on the enemy weapon and immediately carry out a thrust. In order to hit down to the right (when the enemy tries to prick in the lower part of the body), it was necessary to quickly move the left hand in a semicircle to the left and down to the right to make a sharp blow with the fore-end on the enemy’s rifle.

The bounces were performed with one hand, they were performed quickly and with a small swing, without turning the body. A sweeping repulse was disadvantageous for the reason that the soldier opened himself up, giving him the opportunity to inject an injection into the enemy. At first, only the technique of beating was studied, after which beating to the right when thrusting with a training stick and beating with the subsequent execution of an injection into a dummy was studied. After this, training began to be carried out in a complicated and varied environment in combination with injections and blows with a butt.

During the Great Patriotic War, a huge number of hand-to-hand fights took place. It was a vital necessity. At the same time, statistics clearly show that in most hand-to-hand battles, it was the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army who initiated it. According to statistics, the opponents of the Red Army decided on hand-to-hand combat only in 29% of cases, which indicates their fear of this type of combat, while at the same time, the Red Army soldiers, on the contrary, sought to impose hand-to-hand combat on the enemy.