This is the story of the bayonet in twentieth-century warfare, a survivor from much earlier military periods. Still important today, its most infamous use was probably by the Japanese during the Second World War, in their terrifying banzai charges. Tim Ripley uses gripping first hand accounts of hand-to-hand conflict throughout the century to tell the intriguing story of this combat weapon. This thorough yet exciting examination of a little-known aspect of warfare in the twentieth century appeals to both military historians and the general reader alike.

Tim Ripley is a research associate at Lancaster University's Centre for Defence and International Security Studies. He has covered recent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East for a number of international defence journals. He is the author of several books on military affairs, including Air War Bosnia.