[yarddog]

One thing I remember from the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” was after years of hand to hand combat, the Germans began to prefer their spades, sharpened to a rifle or a rifle with a bayonette.

The author was a real German WWI soldier who had been in the thick of it.

I also noticed the Russians seemed to have the same idea.

[BwanaNdege]

I had a buddy in Vietnam who had used his e-tool during one evening's festivities with the NVA/VC. "E" as in "Entrenching", a folding shovel for digging a trench/foxhole, not "E as in "Electronic".

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

While taking a required survival course in the USAF, one airman asked if the fold up axe could be used as a weapon. The instructor said the short fold up shovel made a better weapon because of it’s balance.