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?

[Oily Dragon]

Your dad was born in the late 1800's?

I want you to stew over this post, and realize that most of the people who died in World War I were children, but especially the soldiers.

 

[Oily Dragon]

I'm confused why does this only seem to be emphasized in World War 1? As a weapon used for over 200 years,

Do you really believe putting knives on the end of a weapon is that new?

The Chinese have been putting explosives on the end of sticks for thousands of years. Good luck with your BBQ ribs then.

If I had to guess? Trench warfare, something kind of unique to WWI. Knifing people in dugouts was the in thing. By WWII, they had tanks rolling over trenches and picking people up out of them.

 

[mograph]

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

So this is Quora!

 

[Buka]

Your dad was born in the late 1800's?

My dad was born October 18, 1888, in northern Italy. On failed farm land. They were literally “dirt poor.”

Came to the United States as a young man and joined the U.S. Army to fight in World War One.

When I was a teenager I asked him “How did you and mom meet?”

He said, “Son, it was a Romeo and Juliet romance, she was a waitress and I was a bartender. If it wasn’t for a bottle of Jamisons you wouldn’t be here. He was sixty three at the time. He told me he almost named me Jamison.

 

[Buka]

This was when he returned to Boston when the war was over. He told me as scary as trench warfare was (he was wounded twice and got mustard gassed.) coming back to Boston was scarier. The Spanish Flu was running rampant, people were dropping on the streets, their masks covered in blood.

 

[Buka]

This was when he returned to Boston when the war was over. He told me as scary as trench warfare was (he was wounded twice and got mustard gassed.) coming back to Boston was scarier. The Spanish Flu was running rampant, people were dropping on the streets, their masks covered in blood.

P.S.
That’s Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts. That’s not my mom, just some “Dilly” he was shacking up with at the time. Her “bathing suit” is made of wool.

Beach, hot sun, wool. Do the math. I don’t even want to imagine.

 

[Rich Parsons]

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?

In the PDF:
Bayonet appears 12 times.
Only once does it appear in the context you mention.
It also has an instance of it getting stuck in the belly.
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The Quote about your question:
We remember mighty little of all that rubbish. Anyway, it has never been the slightest use to us. At school nobody ever taught us how to light a cigarette in a storm of rain, nor how a fire could be made with wet wood--nor that it is best to stick a bayonet in the belly because there it doesn't get jammed, as it does in the ribs.
And this is in a rambling area with lots of out of context comments
To me it is about the author / main character remembering something and it could be anything from his boot training.
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The quote about it getting stuck in the belly:
But the bayonet has practically lost its importance. It is usually the fashion now to charge with bombs and spades only. The sharpened spade is a more handy and manysided weapon; not only can it be used for jabbing a man under the chin, but it is much better for striking with because of its greater weight; and if one hits between the neck and shoulder it easily cleaves as far down as the chest. The bayonet frequently jams on the thrust and then a man has to kick hard on the other fellow's belly to pull it out again; and in the interval he may easily get one himself. And what's more the blade often gets broken off.
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So first off the author contradicts himself.
Second, he states that Bayonets have lost their importance.
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Above the last quote it is discussed how they also would kill those who had saw blade bayonets, and if new troops they would replace them first.
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So , why did the military decide that saw blades were better?
Why does the author mention bombs (Grenades) and shovels?

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.

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I read it and lots of other mandatory reading. I found it boring and out of date to my liking.
I also hated the red badge of courage, of mice and men, in cold blood and many more.
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Think before you accuse people as your original post seems to have little validity in the question based upon a few minutes of searching.
Also accusing others looks like you are trying to cause problems.
If your post count and length of time as a member were lower / shorter then one would really ask if this is not a new attempt as trying to get a rise out of people.
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Yet to me you did not get the answers you wanted to you took it personally. My Opinion.
And before you get upset, you took liberty with me when you included all people for not knowing about this book.
So, this is back and forth and can stop now.
Or it can continue - your call.
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My point - an author with some life experience wrote a book. It was not an autobiography nor did the author present detailed records of the training to support your claims and question.
As the author also contradicts himself I find this all to be pointless.