The bayonet scabbard issued to infantrymen included a fold-out saw and a sharpening stone built into it. A clip on the plastic scabbard fitted through a slot in the blade to turn the two items into a pair of wire-cutters. Other troops received cheaper ‘all arms’ versions without these features.
The first millimetres of the blade tip often snapped off, and early versions sometimes had defective locking catches. These disengaged when the bayonet was stabbed into something, so that when the rifle pulled back, the bayonet was left embedded in the sandbag. The SA80’s short length, though an asset in other ways, obviously limited its utility for bayonet fighting – but the training material stressed that instructors should not emphasize this. The SA80’s configuration did lead to a rather unusual grip being taught, with the right hand positioned behind the butt to drive the weapon harder when thrusting downwards.
Interviewing soldiers after the First Gulf War, the LANDSET team found that ‘Despite these points, infantrymen greatly valued the bayonet… Its value in combat is as much an aid to the man behind it as much as its psychological effect on the man faced by it. LSW gunners wanted to be able to fit it on their weapons.’ Although bayonets might seem old-fashioned in the modern world, the Army believes bayonet training remains useful in teaching aggression during basic training, while ‘cold steel’ remains a useful psychological edge when dealing with demonstrators or prisoners. Steve McLaughlin describes the bayonet training he received with The Royal Green Jackets:
Another weapon that we learned how to use effectively was the SA80 bayonet. Scarecrow-like figures would be strung up in a field, and we had to charge and scream at them, wildly slashing and stabbing at the targets with our bayonets. The instructors thought it was hilarious and would instigate competitions based around who had the best ‘war-face’ or the most aggressive style…
I had always imagined a bayonet to be a slim and pointy dagger that was as light and flimsy as a kitchen knife. I was completely wrong. The SA80 bayonet is a thick slab of solid steel that is designed to punch through bones like they are made of papier mache… one stab of the bayonet and your guts would be in a steaming pile on the floor. It is a truly frightening weapon. (McLaughlin 2007: 95)
In the event, British soldiers in Afghanistan found themselves fixing bayonets with unprecedented frequency to clear compounds, and saw bayonet attacks actually being driven home.
The SA80 blank-firing attachment is a simple device that screws over the barrel of the rifle. It has two functions. The first is to trap propellant gas from the blank cartridge to operate the action of the rifle; otherwise, without a bullet, the gas would simply escape from the muzzle and the rifle would need manual re-cocking for each shot. The second function is to catch the bullet if a live round was somehow accidentally mixed in with blanks. The original design would stop a single round, but a fatal accident showed that it would not stop the second and third rounds of a burst. A new, stronger version of the attachment was quickly developed, capable of stopping at least three rounds, alongside a new specialized magazine for blank ammunition that could not be loaded with live rounds.
Early versions of the Enfield Weapon System came with a conventional rifle sling, or (in the case of the ‘O’-series prototypes) a ‘handbag style’ sling that allowed the weapon to be carried under the arm ready for use. When eventually issued, however, the SA80 came with an innovative three-point sling which allowed the weapon to be carried in a number of positions, including ready for use across the chest or muzzle down across the back. Later, a fastex quick-release buckle was mounted directly onto Osprey body armour. A short sling attached to the weapon’s butt could be clipped to this, which prevented the weapon being lost if dropped – when the soldier switched to his back-up pistol, for instance – and let it hang muzzle down below the right arm, ready for quick use.
The SA80 IW (though not the LSW) was designed to accept NATO-standard 22mm rifle grenades, although historically the British Army had not been a great user of rifle grenades. During the First Gulf War, the L60A1 Close Assault Weapon (CLAW) rifle grenade was issued. It came in a pouch containing two grenades and a simple plastic sight; the latter clipped onto the side of the normal SUSAT sight, and had three range settings of 75m, 100m and 125m. The grenade itself slid over the flash hider, and was launched out to a maximum range of 125m by a standard live round. The 40mm-diameter warhead combined a hollow charge (to deal with light armour) with a fragmentation effect. A number of incidents of accidental premature detonation led to the L60A1’s withdrawal from service after the war, however.
The British Army was surprisingly slow to adopt 40mm grenade launchers, although the SAS made use of second-generation M203 launchers fitted below the barrels of their M16s. One feasibility study prototype mounted a 40mm under-barrel grenade launcher (UGL), which even had the advantage of opening to the side for loading, unlike the M203 which slid forward on rails and was thus unable to handle longer 40mm rounds. This did not enter service, however. A Heckler & Koch-designed 40mm UGL was issued from 2002, replacing the front handguard of the rifle. It is a single-shot weapon, aimed with a sight unit that clips onto the side of the rifle and fires from its own separate trigger. Like the earlier prototype, it is reloaded by swinging the barrel out sideways and loading a new round from the rear, with the same advantages over the M203. The L123A2 can launch grenades out to 350m, either in a direct trajectory or an indirect one that lobs them over intervening cover. Typically, one launcher is issued to each four-man infantry brick, adding a useful capability to the infantry section’s firepower.
