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An entrenching tool (UK), [1] [2] intrenching tool (US), [3] [4] [5] E-tool, or trenching tool is a digging tool used by military forces for a variety of military purposes. Survivalists, campers, hikers, and other outdoors groups have found it to be indispensable in field use. Modern entrenching tools are usually collapsible and made using steel, aluminum, or other light metals.
Entrenching tools go back at least to the times of the Roman Legion who used a type of mattock known as a dolabra. Julius Caesar, as well as other ancient writers, documented the use of spades and other digging implements as important tools of war. The Roman Legion when on the march would dig a ditch and rampart fortified with mobile stakes around their camps every night where established camps were not available.
Siege tactics throughout history required the digging of fortifications and often mining of walls was attempted, where saps were dug to a wall’s foundation, and collapsing the wall was attempted.
In more modern times the siege tactics of the Napoleonic Wars used spades and pickaxes as entrenching tools to dig trenches towards the walls of the fortifications being besieged, to allow men and munitions to get close enough to fire cannons at the walls to open a breach. Being too long and heavy to be transported by individual soldiers, entrenching shovels and spades were normally carried in the supply carts (logistics train) of a military column; only pioneer or engineer troops typically carried spades or shovels as part of their individual equipment. This frequently led to situations in which the infantry did not have access to entrenching equipment when it was needed. [6] As one US army infantry officer noted, "the intrenching tools of an army rarely get up to the front until the exigency for their use has passed." [6]
In 1870, the U.S. Army introduced the trowel bayonet, intended for individual soldiers as both a weapon and an entrenching tool. [7] [8] [6] This was followed by the development of separate trowel and spade tools, small one-hand implements that could be carried as part of a soldier's individual equipment. [6] [9] While the entrenching trowel or spade gradually gave way in the United States and other modern armies to larger, heavier, and more effective entrenching tools, the concept of supplying each infantry soldier with a means of digging his own entrenchments or breastworks continued as a tactical doctrine. [6] [9]
The first truly modern entrenching tool was invented in 1869 by the Danish officer Mads Johan Buch Linnemann. In 1870, it was patented and supplied to the Danish Army. The next year it was adopted by the much bigger Austrian Army, and Linnemann founded a factory in Vienna to produce his spade. It was later introduced to Germany, France, Romania, and Russia, though only Russia recognized Linnemann's patent rights, and paid him 30,000 rubles and ordered 60,000 spades. [10] The Russians called it the MPL-50 (small infantry spade that is 50 cm (20 in) in length) and still use it to this day. [11] This little spade can also be used as an axe, a hammer, an oar, or as a frying pan for cooking food. [12]
During World War I, entrenching tools became extremely important with the introduction of trench warfare. Entrenching tools designed for the individual infantryman soon appeared with short straight handles, T-handles, D-handles, and other designs.
The British entrenching tool of this period was a two part design, with a metal head and a wooden handle, the metal head consisted of an adze or spade blade and a pick axe spike, used alone the head could be used as a spade with the pick spike serving as a handle. Between the blade and the spike was a ring into which the handle could be inserted at right angles to the head, with the handle inserted the tool could be used as a pick mattock. Besides being used for digging defensive fighting positions, entrenching tools were used for digging latrines and graves.
During World War I, the entrenching spade was also pressed into service as a melee weapon. In the close confines of a trench, rifles and fixed bayonets were often too long for effective use, and entrenching tools were often used as auxiliary arms for close quarters combat. [13] (In Nancy Mitford's 1945 novel, The Pursuit of Love , there hangs over the chimney-piece an entrenching tool "with which, in 1915, Uncle Matthew had whacked to death eight Germans one by one as they crawled out of a dug-out. It is still covered with blood and hairs, an object of fascination to us as children.") From 1915, soldiers on both sides routinely sharpened the edges of entrenching shovels for use as weapons. [14]
"In 1938, the (German) Klappspaten foldable spade, appeared, being the precursor of all modern spades of this kind, including the 1943 American copy." [15] [16] Folding designs became increasingly popular, usually consisting of a fixed handle with a folding shovel head, and sometimes incorporating a pick into the design. Like all individual entrenching tools, they were designed to be easily carried as part of an infantry soldier's standard pack equipment.
The British 1937 Pattern entrenching tool added a bayonet lug to the tool's handle, allowing the Lee-Enfield spike bayonet to be mounted on the end and converting the tool into a mine prodder. [17]
Entrenching tools, if strongly built, can also be used as ancillary weapons. Some entrenching tools can be even sharpened on one or both sides of the blade to be used as cutting tools or weapons; in fact, when used as such, the tool's sharp, thick edges are strong enough to cut through flesh and bone. During the Second World War, entrenchment tools were used in close quarters combat between German and Soviet forces, notably in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting during the Battle of Stalingrad.[ citation needed ]
The United States Army entrenching tool has evolved since the time of the Pattern 1907 non-folding T-handled spade [18] to a tri-fold design with a modified “D” handle design with all steel construction, [4] to a similar light weight plastic and steel tri-fold design adopted by NATO as the standard issue entrenching tool. Other folding variants have also been issued. The latest light weight plastic tri-fold design is thirty percent lighter than the all-steel trifold was: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) instead of 2.25 pounds (1.02 kg).
The Glock Feldspaten (field spade) features a hardened metal spade blade that can be locked in 3 positions for digging, shoveling, and chopping, and a telescopic handle made out of fiberglass-reinforced nylon containing a 175 mm (6.9 in) long hardened metal sawblade. The entrenching tool weighs 650 g (23 oz) and fully extended is 630 mm (25 in) long. The spade and handle can be collapsed and shortened for easy transport and storage into a 260 mm × 150 mm × 60 mm (10 in × 6 in × 2+1⁄2 in) package. [19]
Soviet Spetsnaz units were well trained in the use of the standard short-handled Russian entrenching shovel ("saperka") as a weapon; by the nature of their missions, such tools were only rarely used for digging or entrenching positions. [20] Modern commando forces, too, are trained to fight with entrenchment tools.
Many millions of surplus entrenching tools have made their way into the hands of civilians. They are commonly used for camping, gardening and by war re-enactment groups. Some people collect the older issue entrenching tools as military memorabilia.[ citation needed ]
Infantry is a specialization of military personnel who engage in warfare combat. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, irregular infantry, heavy infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry, mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and naval infantry. Other types of infantry, such as line infantry and mounted infantry, were once commonplace but fell out of favor in the 1800s with the invention of more accurate and powerful weapons.
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped melee weapon designed to be mounted on the end of the barrel of a rifle, carbine, musket or similar long firearm, allowing the gun to be used as an improvised spear in close combats.
A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made of sheet steel or hard plastics and are very strong. Shovel handles are usually made of wood or glass-reinforced plastic (fiberglass).
A combat engineer is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare tasks, as well as construction and demolition duties in and out of combat zones.
A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones. After the art of metalworking was developed, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the introduction of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving earth, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency. A classic spade, with a narrow body and flat tip is suited for digging post holes, and is not to be confused with a "roundpoint" shovel, which has a wider body and tapered tip.
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. Weeding with a hoe includes agitating the surface of the soil or cutting foliage from roots, and clearing the soil of old roots and crop residues. Hoes for digging and moving soil are used to harvest root crops such as potatoes.
A trowel is a small hand tool used for digging, applying, smoothing, or moving small amounts of viscous or particulate material. Common varieties include the masonry trowel, garden trowel, and float trowel.
A stiletto is a specialized dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point, primarily intended as a thrusting and stabbing weapon.
A trench knife is a combat knife designed to kill or incapacitate an enemy at close quarters, such as in a trench or other confined area. It was developed as a close combat weapon for soldiers attacking enemy trenches during the First World War. An example of a World War I trench knife is the German Army's Nahkampfmesser.
A combat knife is a fighting knife designed for military use and primarily intended for hand-to-hand or close combat fighting.
The M6 bayonet is a bayonet used by the U.S. military for the M14 rifle, it can also be used with the Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle as well M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle. It was introduced in 1957, at the same time as the rifle itself. It is the only bayonet made for the M14.
Roman military personal equipment was produced in large numbers to established patterns, and used in an established manner. These standard patterns and uses were called the res militaris or disciplina. Its regular practice during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire led to military excellence and victory. The equipment gave the Romans a very distinct advantage over their "barbarian" enemies, especially so in the case of armour. This does not mean that every Roman soldier had better equipment than the richer men among his opponents. Roman equipment was not of a better quality than that used by the majority of Rome's adversaries. Other historians and writers have stated that the Roman army's need for large quantities of "mass produced" equipment after the so-called "Marian Reforms" and subsequent civil wars led to a decline in the quality of Roman equipment compared to the earlier Republican era:
The production of these kinds of helmets of Italic tradition decreased in quality because of the demands of equipping huge armies, especially during civil wars...The bad quality of these helmets is recorded by the sources describing how sometimes they were covered by wicker protections, like those of Pompeius' soldiers during the siege of Dyrrachium in 48 BC, which were seriously damaged by the missiles of Caesar's slingers and archers.
It would appear that armour quality suffered at times when mass production methods were being used to meet the increased demand which was very high the reduced size cuirasses would also have been quicker and cheaper to produce, which may have been a deciding factor at times of financial crisis, or where large bodies of men were required to be mobilized at short notice, possibly reflected in the poor-quality, mass produced iron helmets of Imperial Italic type C, as found, for example, in the River Po at Cremona, associated with the Civil Wars of AD 69 AD; Russell Robinson, 1975, 67
Up until then, the quality of helmets had been fairly consistent and the bowls well decorated and finished. However, after the Marian Reforms, with their resultant influx of the poorest citizens into the army, there must inevitably have been a massive demand for cheaper equipment, a situation which can only have been exacerbated by the Civil Wars...
A haversack, musette bag, or small pack is a bag with a single shoulder strap. Although similar to a backpack, the single shoulder strap differentiates this type from other backpacks. There are exceptions to this general rule.
The MacAdam Shield-Shovel, also known as the Hughes Shovel, was an item of Canadian infantry equipment during the First World War. It was designed and patented by Sam Hughes, the Canadian minister for the Department of Militia and Defence in 1913, combining function as a shovel and as a shield. Ena MacAdam, Hughes' personal secretary, had first suggested the idea of a shield shovel to Hughes after she witnessed Swiss soldiers making field entrenchments during field exercises.
The M3 trench knife or M3 fighting knife was an American military combat knife first issued in March 1943. The M3 was originally designated for issue to soldiers, not otherwise equipped with a bayonet. However, it was particularly designed for use by forces in need of a close combat knife, such as Airborne Units and Army Rangers, so these units received priority for the M3 at the start of production. As more M3 knives became available in 1943 and 1944, the knife was issued to other soldiers such as Army Air Corps crewmen and soldiers not otherwise equipped with a bayonet, including soldiers issued the M1 carbine or a submachine gun such as the M3 submachine gun "grease gun".
The Springfield Model 1880 was a trapdoor rifle based on the design of the Springfield Model 1873.
A fighting knife has a blade designed to most effectively inflict injury in close-quarters physical confrontations. The combat knife and the trench knife are examples of military fighting knives.
French nails were locally fabricated and converted bayonets, knives and stabbing weapons for use in the First World War. These were crude stabbing spikes made by adding a point to a steel stake which had its rearmost section heated and bent into a crude handle.
The MPL-50 is a small spade invented by Danish officer Mads Johan Buch Linnemann in 1869. It has been used by rank and file military personnel in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and its successor states since the late 19th century. While nominally an entrenching tool, the MPL-50 has seen wide-ranging wartime applications, from a close-quarters combat weapon to a cooking utensil.
An edged weapon, or bladed weapon, is a melee weapon with a cutting edge. Bladed weapons include swords, daggers, knives, and bayonets. Edged weapons are used to cut, hack, or slash; some edged weapons may also permit thrusting and stabbing. Edged weapons contrast with blunt weapons such as maces, and with pointed weapons such as spears.