The halberd: Medieval nastiness equivalent to a shotgun

[MrMurphy]

You know, people forget that prior to firearms, there were some pretty nasty weapons out there. As a medieval swordfighter and a history major, I remember quite well...

While for extreme close range, daggers and swords and small axes still win, for a all-ranges-lethal weapon if you need to equip multiple people, the old halberd/voulge/glaive is a nasty weapon. Five to seven feet long, generally with a spear point, axe blade and a hook or spike on the back, it can stab someone from many feet away, hook a man off a wall or horse, and the axehead can quite literally split a man in two from the head to the ribs (they've found the skeletons). With the weighted buttcap you can still give someone a hard blow.

With your basic spear/bayonet/axe tactics and used as a stave, anything short of a projectile weapon will have a hard time against one man or several with halberds, preferably backed up by short swords and a shield slung on the back.

The Swiss used pikes and halberds to hold off cavalry while their crossbowmen raised hell, and for anywhere except indoors (hallways and such) it does quite well. This is where a short sword and shield would come into play.

Sorry, was flipping through a medieval weaponry book and just thought it was worth commenting on...

 

[orangeninja]

Me and my Remington 870 will take on a knight any day.

But I have to admit, with all the police training given to me etc. We have had VERY LITTLE edged weapons training. I fear a knife more than a gun. After all, guns miss, and vests protect all but lucky shots....knives....hard to miss with one and a vest is next to useless.

That being said, an agressor with a knife within 30 feet of me will be taking multiple hits. Call it fear shooting.

 

[MrMurphy]

Oh...... yeah, I know all about that. I'm just saying people kind of forget just what kind of nasty weapons were out there prior to firepower...

A halberd can split your skull, cut your legs off and impale your chest all in about three moves without even using much force.

Personally, I'd take my chances with evading the shotgun pellets.



Halberds, glaives and voulges dropped many a knight too. Hide behind a shieldman, then hook the knight off the horse or chop at him and try to penetrate the armor.

 

[Sunray]

"...a vest is next to useless..." I know a guy who was saved by his Second Chance Model 'Y' vest from a knife wielding female. He was last in line as they were hauling out the husband after a domestic when she changed her mind. The guy said he felt a thud on his back and turned to find her with the knife. She went with them.
"...halberd/voulge/glaive..." Is a late Medieval/Rennaisance weapon. For most of the period, the spear was the primary infantry weapon.
"...can quite literally split a man in two from the head to the ribs..." The axe could do that too. That Bruce fellow supposedly did it to poor old de Bohun at Bannockburn.
What most people don't know about the days of old, is that a 5,000 man army was a huge army. Normally, no supply train either. They lived off the land. Edward III's invasion of France was a total departure from normal medieval war plans.
Isn't the study of history grand though? Aren't we lucky that we can own and shoot historical firearms?

 

[deej]

http://www.coldsteel.com/89h.html

Now THAT'S tactical.

 

[BerettaNut92]

Me and my Remington 870 will take on a knight any day.

It's just a flesh wound!

 

[orangeninja]

"I know a guy who was saved by his Second Chance Model 'Y' vest from a knife wielding female."

Lucky cop.....I know of cops who have been stabbed through a vest. It usually depends on the strength of the assailant, however, Kevlar that is not designed to stop an edged weapon will do little more than say a thick leather jacket may....with the exception of hard trauma plates....which stop anything.

 

[p35]

If you can get hold of a copy of MHQ from this spring, there's a good article on this issue focusing on an obscure weapon called the goedendag, basically an oversized baseball bat with an iron spike sticking out the heavy end. The point was that pikes are good for stopping a cavalry charge but really hard to use on the offensive, so the goedendag men were mixed in with the pikemen for the counterattack. Axes worked for the same purpose, of course.

 

[Kharn]

alduro:
"Correctional" kevlar will stop knives and shivs (made for jail guards, hence "correctional") when piled to the normal thickness.

I've seen some kevlar weaves that when piled up 4 layers thick and treated with a sheer-thickening fluid (two of my friends' undergrad research in college), you cant slam an ice pick through it (with a clay block underneath the kevlar). The ice pick will fly out of your hand and across the room from the force of the impact. 6 untreated layers will stop a very dull ice pick, but not a sharp one like the STF-treated 4 layers will (4 treated and 6 untreated layers weigh the same).

Kharn