Any amateur historians out there know what was behind Kat chastising the new recruit about the notched bajonet on his rifle? It had been notched like a sawblade. He then tells the new recruit how to use a spade more effectively as a weapon. He alludes to notched bajonets being "banned" by "mutual agreement" from both sides, but that sounds absurd.
shareI have seen the same thing referenced elsewhere - I have read that it was regarded by soldiers of both sides as barbaric as the wounds inflicted were not always immediately fatal but were untreatable so would result in a slow death.
shareThe sawed edge bayonets were issued to pioneers (engineers) for sawing through wood, but the British and French thought they were for hacking through bones like in arms and legs and it's believed they executed any surrendering German carrying these types of bayonets. Maybe the screenwriters tried to shoe-horn that into the film somehow.
In the book however Kat does indeed teach the men that the spade, with its wide and uniformly edged "blade", makes for a better all around weapon in close quarters than the bayonet that only has one sharp edge and a point to stab with.
Indeed it's a bayonet issued to the Sturmpioniers, who were combat engineers. I happen to own one and it is a rather fearsome looking thing.
I don't think the screenwriters put that in, I believe that it is mentioned in the original novel, although it's been a while since I read it.
A few things are 'banned' in war (by the major powers), 1 thing that comes to mind right away are explosive (small arms) bullets.
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The Hague Convention prohibits certain kinds of ammunition for use by uniformed military personnel against the uniformed military personnel of opposing forces. These include projectiles which explode within an individual, poisoned and expanding bullets. Nothing in these treaties prohibits incendiary bullets (tracers) or the use of prohibited bullets on military equipment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet
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Indeed Blakjak_cc.
In this case however, I don't think Kat means that they weren't banned by the governments but by the men serving on the front. This is the war of the Christmas Truce and the French mutiny et cetera after all.
"Nothings gonna change my world!"
First, yeah it seems it was a soldierly agreement on both sides, not something formal. Kat says that if the enemy caught the recruit with the notched bayonet, they'd cut his eyes out and fill the holes with sawdust, implying they really don't like the sawback.
it makes sense that on extraction, the sawblade would tear and rip flesh rather than cut it, which would make them very difficult to bandage or stitch, even in a limb. hell, with the size of those things the sawblade could very well drag entrails out with it...
"When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing."