Pattern 1907/1913 bayonet, 1917

The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle was designed to be fitted with a bayonet. The addition of this fearsome blade gave the Tommy a reach of over a metre in hand-to-hand combat. However, a rifle fitted with a bayonet could prove unwieldy in the close confines of a trench system. Many soldiers therefore preferred to use improvised clubs, knives or knuckledusters. The bayonet was nevertheless a handy tool and soldiers were as likely to use them for cooking and eating as fighting.