[yarddog]

I have a very old steel handled carpenters hatchet. It has a wide, very sharp, yet thin blade. I have held it and thought to myself that it would be a wicked weapon.

In “All Quiet On The Western Front”, the author mentions that the German soldiers after much hand to hand combat, preferred their sharpened spades to the bayonet. I have also read that the Russian special forces also prefer the sharpened spade.

[ansel12]

I would guess that all armies train their troops to use their entrenching tool in hand to hand.

This is the one that I prefer and is the version that I carried, I own two of them now, and use them for digging, I haven't caught on to the new version.