Modern Hoplites
Item
-
Title
-
Modern Hoplites
-
Date
-
February 1941
-
volume
-
6
-
issue
-
1
-
page start
-
13
-
page end
-
13
-
list of authors
-
Roy S. Tinney
-
content
-
en
MODERN HOPLITES
By ROY S. TINNEY
My previous opinion of the bayonet has been completely revised. I now realize that it was wishful thinking that made me regard the toad-sticker as obsolete. It was part of my job thirty years ago to teach bayonet play. It wasn’t play either; it was hard, punishing work. In spite of helmet, pads, and every possible precaution, I was continually getting hurt. There was no fun in it; fencing with stubby, improvised ten-pound pikes is definitely not a sport.
When at school, one of the lines I wrote in my penmanship book ran, "I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts." The Italians have learned to fear the Greeks bearing bayonets. These lusty Greek mountaineers have a highly developed talent for hand-to-hand fighting. Strangely enough, they are called Evzones, which literally translated means "fair-waisted men," which reminds me of the kilted rowdies, the "Damen von Hoelle" (Ladies from Hell) who mussed up the Germans in the first World War. Apparently, there is nothing pantywaist about kilted mountaineers on the warpath.
The papers report Greek bayonet charges have become so terribly effective that the Italian press speaks of the Evzones as barbarians. This is the same press which saw nothing at all barbaric about the way Italian aviators bombed black spearmen, huddled together in the African desert. Thus, one gains an impressive idea of just how terrible these bayoneteers must be.
The Evzones are shepherds from remote mountain villages nestling in the foothills of Agrapha of Roumely, Ossa of Thessaly, Pindus of Epirus, Olympus of Macedonia. Their kilted uniforms conform to the style set by the ancient Greek hoplites, lads who won when war was simple, direct, and personal; the issue being settled with swords and spears. This explains why the Evzones are so handy with cold steel.
They duck dive-bombers, detour around tanks, and ignore machine guns until they are within thrusting distance of the Italians. Then they proceed to fight as their forefathers fought.
Like the Scots, the Evzones have earned a new name. The Italians refer to them as Thunder Devils. Thunder. That may explain everything. Can it be possible the Greeks have added sound effects to a bayonet charge? Anyhow, they have made us old-timers admit we were mistaken. The bayonet is still an effective combat weapon.
