Fixed Bayonets

Captain Alfred Hutton published Fixed Bayonets in 1890, while the British Army was still getting used to the Lee-Metford and its sword-bayonet. The older Martini-Henry bayonet handled differently, and Hutton wrote this book for the new rifle rather than reprinting his 1882 drill. He works through the guards, the thrusts, the parries, and the use of the butt, and he spends the opening pages on the official exercises he thinks are unsound. The lessons are set out as they would be given in a fencing room. Where the master speaks and the pupil answers, the exchange is printed in a table. The plates are by J. E. Breun. Three lunges, the thrust, the prime-thrust, and the throw, lie sideways in the 1890 book and are turned upright here. At the back there is a glossary of the English, French, and Italian terms Hutton uses, a bibliography of other books on the bayonet, a short chronology of authors, and an index. Edited by Andy Taylor. The wording follows the 1890 printing, including Hutton’s own spelling. The engraved plates and the frontispiece portrait are taken from that edition.