S Brian Wood and two other soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders huddled in a ditch in Almarah, Iraq, in May 2004, they watched as their Warrior armoured fighting vehicle pumped high explosive shells at an enemy trench 200 yards away. Unlike the urban engagements that Wood was used to, this time the insurgents were crammed into a trench overlooking a major road. The cannon shells were useful for keeping heads down but if the trench was going to be cleared, Wood and his tiny assault team would have to do it. After being joined by two more soldiers, Wood and his small team were ordered to ready their secret weapon, an order Wood probably never expected to hear in his lifetime, “Fix Bayonets!” The humble bayonet doesn’t get much glory in an age of drones and cruise missiles but, for a couple of hundred years, it, more than the firearm to which
