For a long time, it has been accepted that the bayonet was an inadequate weapon in World War I - an anachronism, relied upon by foolish generals eager to relive the glories of the Napoleonic Wars while incapable of coming to terms with the modern battlefield and trench warfare. But was this the reality of the Western Front of the Great War, or a myth perpetuated by historians?

In reality, the soldiers of World War I seemed oblivious to what appears so obvious to critics ninety years removed. They quite liked their bayonets, and they used them - often.

In this fascinating and provocative study, Aaron Taylor Miedema takes a new look at the role of the bayonet and shock tactics on the Western front. Through the experience of the Canadian Corps - the British shock troops of the Western Front - he challenges the conventional view of the bayonet as an obsolete weapon system and rekindles the controversial debate over technologies, old and new, on the field of battle.