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From: cmort@NCoast.ORG (Christopher Morton)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Use of SHOVEL as weapon taught?
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.024139.123@cbnews.cb.att.com>
Date: 28 Jun 91 02:41:39 GMT
References: <1991Jun25.024419.27437@cbnews.cb.att.com>
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From: cmort@NCoast.ORG (Christopher Morton)
As quoted from <1991Jun25.024419.27437@cbnews.cb.att.com> by Fredriksson_Urban_NOK@kista.relay.nokia.fi:

> 
> 
> From: Fredriksson_Urban_NOK@kista.relay.nokia.fi
> 
> In a cutlery magazine, in an article on swords, the author
> discusses the ability to use 'anything handy', and mentions an
> occasion in the 1950's when someone successfully used a shovel
> against multiple opponents. He then goes on to say: "Certainly
> the use of a shovel as a formal weapon wasn't (and isn't) taught
> during Advanced Infantry Training". I assume he is talking about
> conditions in the USA.
 
I once heard something like this.  The story went that after ejecting some
Chinese/North Koreans from a position, U.S. troops found a bunker with a long
tunnel shaped entrance.  There was a dead Chinese in the tunnel.  When they
pulled him out, he was sans cranium.  They then proceeded to pull quite a
few other dead, headless Chinese out of the bunker.  At the bottom of the pile 
or rather at the back, was a GI with an entrenching tool.

> That statement surprised me, since at least here in Sweden the
> shovel has a reputation of beeing a most effective weapon in
> close quarters. I've always had the impression that the use of a
> shovel in hand-to-hand combat has been a part of such a training
> program. Now I'm curious: What about other countries?
> 
I believe that it IS in the U.S. Army combatives manual.  It just isn't taught
very often, at least it wasn't when I was on active duty.  I have no doubt that
the E-tool can be an effective weapon, based on the injuries that I've seen
GIs inflict on themselves and each other using them to dig holes! :) 

> [mod.note:  I can't say that it was taught, but I've read numerous
> accounts of German troops fighting with their entrenching tools 
> during WWII.  Sometimes, one edge of the blade was sharpened for this
> purpose. - Bill ]
> 
I believe that the latest film version of "All Quiet on the Western Front",
starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine, shows E-tools being sharpened, and
the squad leader or platoon sgt. showing the privates how to use them.

Also Soviet troops, especially Spetsnaz are taught to use the E-tool as a
weapon and even how to THROW it as a weapon.  As I recall, Soviet troops
killed a number of civilians in Tbilisi, Georgia using sharpened shovels. 

-- 
---------------------------------

"Well whose opinions did you THINK these were...?" 

Christopher Morton
{uunet|backbone}!ncoast.org!cmort                      cmort@ncoast.org