Polearm

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Handling a polearm

Polearms are weapons that carry their most effective element in the form of a mostly metal point, blade or club at the end of a longer pole, which is usually carried with two hands. Images of polearms can also be found on coats of arms , see polearms (heraldry) .

history

Polearms are as old as humanity; the spear is probably one of the oldest weapons of all. When hunting, for example, wild animals could be attacked with it and at the same time kept at a distance.

When, finally, in ancient Greece from the 4th to the 2nd century BC With the phalanx, superior disciplined and orderly infantry units appeared, their main weapon was the sarissa , a long spear. The Roman legions used spears like the hasta as a thrusting weapon until the 1st century AD, after the transition from phalanx to manipulation tactics, this pole weapon was replaced by the throwing spear ( pilum ).

In the Middle Ages the large infantry formations disbanded, and in the feudal West the armored riders, the knights, as relatively independent aristocratic fighters, formed the main focus of the armies. For the first attack in a battle, they carried the lance , which can certainly be considered a pole weapon. Polearms for the infantry, however, were only used by the pack boys, the common infantry, and by peasant armies. Often these weapons were just converted agricultural tools such as scythes , long axes , flails and hook-shaped harvest knives on long poles as weapons against noble cavalry . From these improvised combat tools of simple peasants , however, a large family of different polearms of high effectiveness developed. In the 13th century it was the Flemish vigilante groups, in the 14th and 15th centuries the Swiss who reunited for the first time to form professional infantry units. Swiss citizens and later Swiss mercenaries perfected the technical and tactical handling of polearms, primarily the halberd and the pike .

For the infantry and also for the military lone warrior, the polearm turned out to be the most effective melee or edged weapon of all. Versions like the Halberd , the Partisan or the Glefe had the advantage of great range and flexibility as well as effective penetration, pulling and pushing power. On the battlefield, these weapons were tactically used extensively, for example in violence in combination with over-long polearms, such as pikes at least 3 meters long. But the night watchmen in the cities, who often worked as lone fighters, were mostly equipped with halberds. At that time, side arms such as swords, sabers, knives and rapiers were only used in military terms as a secondary weapon for the infantry or as a main weapon for the light cavalry. Otherwise, however, the sidearm was the status symbol of the nobleman, who was entitled to carry a weapon in everyday life, which of course should not be too bulky; the less mythical polearm, however, was the effective "tool" for the professional fighter. The fact that halberds, partisans and gleefs had a similarly high reputation in military circles as the sword in the everyday civilian life of the nobility is also shown in the fact that guards and unmounted (sub) officers were still equipped with the splendid versions of such polearms when whose time as the main weapon had already expired.

The end of polearms came in the 17th century when firearms slowly drove all earlier weapons off the battlefield. The polearms remained for a long time as ceremonial weapons such. B. the halberds of the Swiss Guard of the Pope or as badges of rank like the long spear (Spontoon) of the NCOs of the British Army up to the time of Napoleon . Otherwise, the polearm remained a common stopgap measure for poorly equipped fighters who, as rebels or besieged people, did not have sufficient access to firearms or who ran out of gunpowder until the 19th century. However, polearms disappeared completely from the arsenal of regular military personnel in the course of the 18th century, apart from the lances that were used by lancers and other mounted units until the world wars of the 20th century.

A collection of medieval polearms in the museum of Međimurje County , Croatia

The principle of the polearm of putting a blade on a long handle, however, still lives on today in the bayonet , which has been used since the end of the 17th century and is attached to the barrel of a rifle. The use of a blade as a bayonet is still the most effective form of application of an edged weapon as a makeshift aid for a shooter who, due to a lack of ammunition or in close combat, has no meaningful opportunity to shoot.

Selection of different polearms

Edged weapons with only short shafts, such as axes , maces or morning stars, are not to be counted among the polearms .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Seifert: Technical terms of the edged weapons knowledge. Self-published, 2007, ( PDF, 2.09 MB ( Memento from August 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ↑ Liliane Funcken, Fred Funcken: Historical weapons and armor of the Middle Ages from the 8th to the 16th century. Orbis Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3572078938 .
  3. ↑ See the picture "The last contingent" by the painter Franz von Defregger from 1872, on which Tyrolean farmers can be seen with polearms in the Napoleonic wars.
  4. ↑ Georg Ortenburg, Ingo Prömper: Prussian-German uniforms from 1640-1918. Orbis Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3572087856 , pp. 153ff., 168ff.
  5. ↑ www.seitengewehr.de