Why in World War 1 was it emphasized bayonets get stuck in the ribs and its better to stab the stomach for this reason but not other wars?

[Bullsherdog]

Had to win All Quiet On the Western Front for college before the start of this month and there's a scene where they talk about how you shouldn't hit someone in their upperbody with a bayonet because the blade or stabby thingy will get stuck in their rib s but instead hit them in the stomach where it will be easy to take out immediately afterwards. In lectures in class this was emphasized in esp in sections about military training and we also read first person accounts describing something similar..........

I'm confused why does this only seem to be emphasized in World War 1? As a weapon used for over 200 years, shouldn't we find lots of similar maxims in the American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and the American Civil War? More importantly bayonets continued to be used up until the next World War yet we don't hear about Japanese soldiers being taught to stab the stomach in dojos and in bootcamp. Nor do we see accounts of the bayonet getting stuck in the ribs in building to building fighting in the Eastern Front where close quarters combat was a lot more common between German soldiers and the Soviets and communist partisans than it was in the Western Front.

I mean the Human Waves rush by the Chinese after the War and the stealth attacks by the Viet Cong during America's intervention in Vietnam should have led to this "avoid ribs, hit stomach" being repeated no?

Yet all the times I seen this doctrine is almost exclusively to World War 1. So I'm confused. Can anyone clarify about this?

 

[Dirty Dog]

Mostly because it's nonsense. I've seen countless people stabbed in the chest. Not a one had the stabby thing stuck.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Is this Quora?

 

[drop bear]

From the movie wasn't that garbage though? With Ernest borgnine all like wack em with a shovel.

 

[Gyakuto]

Had to win All Quiet On the Western Front for college before the start of this month and there's a scene where they talk about how you shouldn't hit someone in their upperbody with a bayonet because the blade or stabby thingy will get stuck in their rib s but instead hit them in the stomach where it will be easy to take out immediately afterwards. In lectures in class this was emphasized in esp in sections about military training and we also read first person accounts describing something similar..........

I'm confused why does this only seem to be emphasized in World War 1? As a weapon used for over 200 years, shouldn't we find lots of similar maxims in the American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and the American Civil War? More importantly bayonets continued to be used up until the next World War yet we don't hear about Japanese soldiers being taught to stab the stomach in dojos and in bootcamp. Nor do we see accounts of the bayonet getting stuck in the ribs in building to building fighting in the Eastern Front where close quarters combat was a lot more common between German soldiers and the Soviets and communist partisans than it was in the Western Front.

I mean the Human Waves rush by the Chinese after the War and the stealth attacks by the Viet Cong during America's intervention in Vietnam should have led to this "avoid ribs, hit stomach" being repeated no?

Yet all the times I seen this doctrine is almost exclusively to World War 1. So I'm confused. Can anyone clarify about this?

They didn’t have Teflon until the advent of the Space program.

There’s a lot of rubbish spoken about blades getting stuck in wounds due to suction. Also the amount of force required to penetrate a body (not much for a pointy piece of metal). I mean, haven’t these people seem ‘Forged in Fire’? ‘It will cut/keal’.

 

[Bullsherdog]

From the movie wasn't that garbage though? With Ernest borgnine all like wack em with a shovel.

This isn't from the movie though, the whole thing about bayonets was from the original novel which was written shortly after World War 1 ended by someone who served on the front.

 

[Bullsherdog]

because it's nonsense. I've seen countless people stabbed in the chest. Not a one had the stabby thing stuck.

Except an actual war veteran wrote All Quiet On the Western Front. Its hardly Mcdojo rumors. He was hospitalized too from injuries I should also add.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Except an actual war veteran wrote All Quiet On the Western Front. Its hardly Mcdojo rumors. He was hospitalized too from injuries I should also add.

Him being injured has no bearing on the topic. And him being an actual veteran doesn’t change the fact that sometimes training includes nonsense…because it’s designed by people, and we pretty much all have some nonsense in our heads.

 

[Gyakuto]

, and we pretty much all have some nonsense in our heads.

Some more than others…

 

[Bill Mattocks]

There is no one alive today who can address your question. What's the point of this?

 

[Gyakuto]

There is no one alive today who can address your question. What's the point of this?

Luckily, there’s a discipline called ‘history’ where clever people write things down about what’s happened in the world so those data may be transmitted through the ages. It’s probably how we know about things before we were born like Glen Miller and the yo-yo craze. Perhaps the OP was hoping that such a learned person, or indeed someone who had read the writings from a learned person on this subject area, might be able to answer his question in the form of a lively conversation.

But this is all mere speculation…

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Luckily, there’s a discipline called ‘history’ where clever people write things down about what’s happened in the world so those data may be transmitted through the ages. It’s probably how we know about things before we were born like Glen Miller and the yo-yo craze. Perhaps the OP was hoping that such a learned person, or indeed someone who had read the writings from a learned person on this subject area, might be able to answer his question in the form of a lively conversation.

But this is all mere speculation…

It looks more like the typical Quora attempt to kick up dust to me. The question isn't whether or not the placement of a knife is a good thing. The question is 'why' it was emphasized.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Except an actual war veteran wrote All Quiet On the Western Front. Its hardly Mcdojo rumors. He was hospitalized too from injuries I should also add.

So what? As I said, I've seen literally hundreds of people stabbed in the chest. I've seen pointy things left in the wound, but never stuck in the wound.
Getting stuck in the wound would require the rib cage to be quite rigid. Pretty much totally inflexible. It's not. Because breathing...
Your "war veteran" has grabbed onto urban myth as a way to make a quick buck.

 

[Bullsherdog]

Your "war veteran" has grabbed onto urban myth as a way to make a quick buck.

You are aware that its been a 100 years since All Quiet On the Western Front has been published right? and that Remarque actually fought in the trenches in the World War? I'm so disappointed to have met someone who doesn't even know that All Quiet On the Western Front is one of the classics of literary canon esp in the broader war genre and in modern German literature. That just now someone has accused one of the greatest authors of the 20th century of being a pulp writer a who's doing the get rich scheme of Dan Brown. Since this is one of the must-reads of German literature and deemed as the all time classics of modern European literature.

 

[Dirty Dog]

You are aware that its been a 100 years since All Quiet On the Western Front has been published right? and that Remarque actually fought in the trenches in the World War? I'm so disappointed to have met someone who doesn't even know that All Quiet On the Western Front is one of the classics of literary canon esp in the broader war genre and in modern German literature. That just now someone has accused one of the greatest authors of the 20th century of being a pulp writer a who's doing the get rich scheme of Dan Brown. Since this is one of the must-reads of German literature and deemed as the all time classics of modern European literature.

Sorry, if I'd known this was a religious issue for you, I wouldn't have said anything.
Nonetheless, the claim made is nonsense.

 

[Gyakuto]

You are aware that its been a 100 years since All Quiet On the Western Front has been published right? and that Remarque actually fought in the trenches in the World War? I'm so disappointed to have met someone who doesn't even know that All Quiet On the Western Front is one of the classics of literary canon esp in the broader war genre and in modern German literature. That just now someone has accused one of the greatest authors of the 20th century of being a pulp writer a who's doing the get rich scheme of Dan Brown. Since this is one of the must-reads of German literature and deemed as the all time classics of modern European literature.

The film was boring! It was made 30 years too late!

 

[Gerry Seymour]

You are aware that its been a 100 years since All Quiet On the Western Front has been published right? and that Remarque actually fought in the trenches in the World War? I'm so disappointed to have met someone who doesn't even know that All Quiet On the Western Front is one of the classics of literary canon esp in the broader war genre and in modern German literature. That just now someone has accused one of the greatest authors of the 20th century of being a pulp writer a who's doing the get rich scheme of Dan Brown. Since this is one of the must-reads of German literature and deemed as the all time classics of modern European literature.

None of that has anything to do with the question at hand.

 

[drop bear]

This isn't from the movie though, the whole thing about bayonets was from the original novel which was written shortly after World War 1 ended by someone who served on the front.

There were 2 movies. One had ernist borgnine in it. And I remember him saying that.

Otherwise military hand to hand combat went through a few periods of being incredibly dumb. While also being supremely confident in theor correctness.

Which was a combination of con men with influence and the military structure of not being allowed to call people out for that.

 

[Buka]

My dad fought in World War One, told me about the training they went through, which he said wasn’t much because they wanted the men overseas as fast as possible.

Mentioned a little bit about bayonet training but I don’t remember it very well. I don’t think he did either.

 

[isshinryuronin]

My dad fought in World War One,

Your dad was born in the late 1800's?