How Close is 'Close Combat'?

[AdamG]

Since 2005, one weapons in four in a UK Rifle platoon fireteam can have a bayonet attached to it, so giving the order "fix bayonets" just means the one man with the bayonet does something. .

What was the scale of issue of the SA80 bayonet in the British Army fireteam in the first half of 2004? That's when the incident happened.

Based on a few years of research, I have found very few truthful accounts of men actually using bayonets in combat.

What's your criteria to determine if it's BS or not? My Battalion (infantry) didn't even issue/bring bayonets to Iraq and at this point in my life, I really don't have a dog in this fight.

However, I've read enough smatterings of casual accounts (see more below)
to suggest that this is a worthy topic of formal research - at what range has combat occurred in Iraq & Afghanistan? I'd hazard that you'd find far more "room-range" incidents from Ramadi and Fallujah than the hills of Afghanistan, but I do remember reading about near face-to-face incidents in A-stan.

"We had moved into an area that had three times the fighting force that we did," said Staff Sgt. Brian Ivers of Colorado Springs, Colo. "We threw everything we had at them."

Still nursing bruised ribs from the al Gharraf battle, Ivers, 38, fell from a balcony and fractured his elbow. The image he remembers most from the Baghdad firefight is of a gunner shouting that he had fed his last belt of ammunition into his machine gun.

"I got a lump in my throat when I saw the Marines fixing their bayonets," he said of the moments before the third platoon caught up with his unit. "Rounds were skipping off in front of them and landing all over the place. They were out of ammunition but they weren't going anywhere."

http://www.guvwurld.org/cgi-bin/live...-%208-3-04.txt

I beleive it was 3/2 that fixed bayonets in An Nasariya. There was a small open field with some palm groves and big *** tall grass near the bank of the river and they were clearing the field, groves and grass. Since it was very close quarters (groves and grass) they fixed bayonets. I may be corrected on who it was..since I was on the move with 2nd LAR and only saw Marines doing it from the road (Mar 23, 03). But I knew 3/2 was there and I am assuming right now it was them.

http://forums.military.com/eve/forum.../7270091741001