The Battle Spit is the weapon of death

In the history of the cold steel entered a very original form of it - this is an ordinary household braid, a special way planted on a shaft and turned, thus, into a tool of death. Its very specifics suggest that it was used mainly by peasants during the bloody mutinies, so often violating the course of a peaceful, but by no means easy rural life.

Peasant braids, which became weapons

For the first time, this agricultural tool was used for military purposes in the 14th century. Usually peasants, who for one reason or another have decided to change the established way of life by force or are compelled to repel an enemy attack, have redone their braids. Changing the angle of joining their cutting parts to the shaft, or simply reinforcing them on a common axis with it, they achieved an effect in which a still quite harmless scythe became a deadly weapon yesterday.

Cold steel, created in this way, had a number of advantages. It was universal, maneuverable, effective, but most importantly - cheap and affordable. Sometimes instead of the usual blade, braids on the shaft were sharpened with a sharpened shredding knife or specially forged double-edged and slightly curved blade.

Weapons of Swiss and Czech peasants

For the first time, the use of this type of weapon is mentioned in connection with the battles fought by peasants of a number of Swiss cantons, reflecting the attacks of Austrian knights, which took place in the XIV century and then repeatedly renewed for three centuries.

When in the beginning of the 15th century a religious war broke out on the territory of the Czech Republic, initiated by the reformers led by Jan Hus (the Hussites), the main contingent of troops consisted of peasants, in whose hands were all the same braids - the weapons that existed in each household.

The period of peasant wars

A century later, the entire central part of Europe was engulfed by bloodshed that broke out for a number of economic and religious reasons and was called the Great Peasant War. Again, the plait (weapons) often decided the outcome of the battles, since the armies of the warring parties were manned mainly by peasants who could not afford to afford more expensive types of weapons.

Most of the battle braids, exhibited today in various museums around the world, date back to the 16th century, but there are later examples. One of them is a scythe (weapon), once belonged to a Prussian militia and, according to the stamp on it, issued in 1813. It can be seen in the Dresden State Museum.

The End of the Middle Ages

In the era of the late Middle Ages, that is, the historical period referred to above, a weapon in the form of a braid was also widely used , which was its more advanced version - glaive, or glove. It was intended mainly for close combat and was a half-meter shaft with a flat, sharply pointed tip of about 60 cm long and 7-10 cm wide on it.

To protect the shaft from damage, it was covered with rivets or even wrapped with steel tape. The blade, sharpened, as a rule, only on one side, was supplied with a steel spike at the angle away from it. With its help, it was possible to repel strokes struck from above, as well as responding to them, with a piercing piercing with this smashing edge of the enemy's armor. In addition, it was also very convenient for them to drag the rider from the horse and already on the ground to strike him with a fatal blow.

Thus, the glaive, which allowed to inflict in the battle both chopping and piercing blows, was quite a formidable weapon. It was widespread throughout Europe, but was particularly popular in France and Italy, where it was an indispensable attribute of the honor guard of all high state officials. There, over time, it was transformed into a special kind of halberd, called gizvarma. It, as a rule, was equipped with two tips - straight and curved - and allowed the soldier to thrust and thrust the enemy off the horse.

Spit in the arsenal of Zaporozhye Cossacks

It is also interesting to note that the combat braid is a weapon, the honor of invention of which is disputed by many peoples. For example, a number of researchers believe that for the first time it appeared in the arsenal of Zaporozhye Cossacks, most of whom were former peasants. It is difficult to say how justified this claim is, but it is undeniable that during the Ukrainian national liberation war of the XVII-XVIII centuries, one of the main weapons was precisely this one.

The plague of death played a decisive role in the Battle of Berestets, which occurred in 1651 between the army of Polish King Jan Kazimir and the Cossacks of Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Remained the memories of the nobility, telling that it was with the help of combat braids that the Cossacks managed to perform extraordinarily effectively defenses and subsequent counter-attacks.

Recently, a large number of exhibits related to the role of this type of weapon in the battles for the independence of Ukraine, appeared in the funds of the Zaporozhye Historical Museum. They constitute a full-scale and complete collection, reflecting different periods of production and improvement of combat braids by gunsmiths of this region.

The use of combat braids in Russia

In Russia, the history of this type of weapons is associated primarily with insurrections led by Stepan Razin, and then Emelyan Pugachev. The peasant and Cossack masses in both cases went into battle, armed with objects borrowed from their own farm - axes, pitchforks and braids, converted and turned into a formidable weapon.

And of course, we can not fail to mention the braids in the hands of the legendary partisans of the Patriotic War of 1812, the steel of which was well remembered by soldiers of the Napoleonic army, ingloriously abandoning Russia. In the Moscow museum, dedicated to the history of those heroic events, you can see several of their authentic samples.

Polish cosiniers

However, almost the widest distribution of the scythe (weapon) was in Poland. This was especially clearly demonstrated during the Polish insurrection, caused by the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which occurred in 1794. Then the Polish, Byelorussian and Lithuanian peasants who fought against the regular units of the Russian army formed numerous detachments, at the disposal of which there were only battle scythes and related types of cold weapons, which consisted of knives and all kinds of hand-made blades planted on the shaft. The fighters of such detachments were called the "cowers" (from the words "scythe", "mow", etc.).

According to historians, the cosigners played a decisive role in the Battle of Raclawice in 1794, when Tadeusz Kosciuszko's insurgents fought the government forces. Their units, united in the so-called Krakow militia, repulsed the enemy's attacks, lined up in three rows, and, armed with battle scythes, chopped and stabbed as if they had sabers and spears in their hands, and not re-made agricultural tools.

In the first row stood soldiers armed with firearms, and in the second and third - braids. When the arrows produced a volley, they immediately stepped back behind the backs of the foxes that covered them while they reloaded the weapon, which at that time required a certain amount of time.

A similar picture was repeated during the Polish uprising of 1830, when many of the regular battalions of infantry were armed with braids. According to the participants of those events, the enemy infantrymen, even with a bayonet attached to the rifle, could not withstand hand-to-hand fighting with the squint, causing its long and heavy oblique cuts and thrusts.

Japanese modification of the combat braid

As a special version of the historians known and fighting Japanese braids. The weapon is slightly different from the one considered above. Also, representing a modification of the agricultural implements, it nevertheless underwent quite significant changes. First of all, even with a brief acquaintance, a shortened shaft is struck, to which the blade is attached almost at right angles. This type of weapon is often called a combat sickle.

Despite the fact that this design reduces the angular speed of the weapon's movement upon impact and thereby reduces its damaging ability, it provides the fighter with greater maneuverability and makes it extremely dangerous in close combat. In some cases a weight was attached to the shaft on a long chain, which, having untwisted it, it was possible to inflict a powerful smashing blow on the enemy.

The battle braid is a part of the strong and brave

The images of the weapon (braids and their modifications) presented in the article allow us to represent the diversity of species that the armourers of different times and countries have created, taking as their basis the usual agricultural tools. The closest relatives of the spit were not only gizarma, which was described above, but also siege knives, and mowers - fighting forks.

The use of this type of weapon in combat did not require any special preparation - the technique of owning them was quite simple. It was necessary to have only endurance, physical strength and, of course, a fair amount of courage, which is necessary for a fighter regardless of what weapon he has in his hands.