Re: Patton's sword & belaying pin, was Re: [TML] What if the cutlass is not a cutlass? Phil Pugliese (01 May 2017 22:22 UTC)

Re: Patton's sword & belaying pin, was Re: [TML] What if the cutlass is not a cutlass? Phil Pugliese 01 May 2017 22:18 UTC


Once I saw the pic it jogged my memory.
(THANKS, Fred!)

Don't remember the part about it being for 'thrusting' though but it does appear that it would be good for that.
Only thing is; I can't help but wonder what technique would be used when engaging an enemy who is on foot while the trooper was mounted?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Mon, 5/1/17, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Patton's sword & belaying pin, was Re: [TML] What if the cutlass is not a cutlass?
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Monday, May 1, 2017, 2:54 PM

 > On May 1,
 2017, at 2:23 PM, Fred Kiesche <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 >
 > Well, it
 appears that my attempt at showing history with a picture
 dud not work, so here's my text:

 Got stuck in the approval queue.

 Here’s an article about the
 relevant sabre. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_1913_Cavalry_Saber>

 >
 >
 "My mother has my (paternal) grandfather's US Cav
 sword, which we can see him holding (from the front) in a
 1918 picture of his unit. It is curved, not straight.
 I'll try embedding the image below (not sure if the list
 will accept that?) (He is fourth from the left)."
 >
 >
 > On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 15:36 Phil Pugliese
 (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 wrote:
 >
 >
 --------------------------------------------
 > On Mon, 5/1/17, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
 wrote:
 >
 >  Subject:
 Re: [TML] What if the cutlass is not a cutlass?
 >  To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com"
 <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 >  Date: Monday, May 1, 2017, 9:50 AM
 >
 >  [Lot's of good
 stuff snipped]
 >
 > 
 Swords designed to be used
 >  from
 horseback, for example, tend to all look alike: curved
 >  blades designed for slashing in an arc
 without the tip
 >  hanging up to
 dislodge the rider,  long enough to reach a
 >  foot soldier alongside a horse, short
 enough to be easy to
 >  wield from the
 saddle one handed.
 >
 > 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > I recall reading somewhere that Patton,
 while still a jr officer & after he competed in the
 Olympics, managed to get himself assigned to the project to
 design a new cavalry sword for the US Army. I also recall it
 was before WWI.
 > Anyway, I remember the
 new sword was described as "a straight sword intended
 for chopping instead of slashing"<sic> which
 surprised me as I was accustomed to the sort of saber seen
 on most old westerns. Now that I'm thinking about it, I
 also recall reading an article about the army that Gustavus
 Adolphus brought into the Thirty-Years War. As I remember
 his cavalry was distinguished by using a straight
 'chopping' sword.
 >
 > -------------------------
 > [More snipping]
 > 
 --------------------------
 >
 >  Famously the cutlass was
 >  designed to be used by inexperienced
 sailors in close
 >  quarters; in truth,
 hatchets and short axes were used almost
 >  as frequently, as those were very common
 tools aboard a
 >  wooden ship (thus
 multiple use devices), and are as easy to
 >  wield (probably easier, since they get
 used a lot, so
 >  there’s muscle
 memory.)
 >
 >
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 >
 > Heck even the good
 ol' belaying pin would come in handy during a boarding
 melee"
 > As my (retired vet) Dad
 used to say;
 > "hit'em on top of
 his head so hard he'll have three tongues in his
 shoes!"
 >
 >
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 >  There isn’t
 ‘one true sword design’.
 >
 >  Frankly the imperial
 >  'cutlass’ probably looks as much
 like this <http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?p=65248&cat=2,45794>
 as anything else.
 >
 >
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > Hey! You've just discovered the KTLSS
 (commonly referred to as a 'cutlass').
 > The standard boarding weapon of the
 Imperial Marines.
 >
 >
 =====================================================================
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 > --
 > F.P. Kiesche
 III
 > 
 > Husband,
 Father, Good Cook. Reader. Keeper of abandoned dogs.
 Catholic Liberal Conservative Militarist. Does not fit into
 a neat box or category. "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned,
 fat, square book. Always, scribble, scribble, scribble,
 eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with
 Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
 Blogging at Bernal Alpha. On Twitter as @FredKiesche
 >
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 > http://archives.simplelists.com/tml
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 >

 --
 Bruce Johnson
 University of
 Arizona
 College of Pharmacy
 Information Technology Group

 Institutions do not have
 opinions, merely customs

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