Which was the last war in which swords were actively used as the primary weapon by an army?
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1Define 'Used'. Do you mean as primary offensive weapon on a battlefield? – User999999 Jan 09 '17 at 10:43
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Are you including cavalry? Use by officers? – Steve Bird Jan 09 '17 at 10:44
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Related – Astor Florida Jan 09 '17 at 13:09
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2Do we count machetes as swords? If so then just look back to the Rwandan civil war, tons of them were used! – ed.hank Jan 09 '17 at 14:08
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3You'll need to define "actively used", "sword" and "army", and possibly "war". – CGCampbell Jan 09 '17 at 15:01
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1They could actively use them for parades or for cans opening... Better change that to "use as a primary or at least a secondary weapon" – Gangnus Jan 10 '17 at 08:32
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@ed.hank Excellent! Surely, we should count them as swords. And in thick forest they remain effective even now! That should be the answer. – Gangnus Jan 10 '17 at 08:34
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The 1993 Rwandan genocide involved machete attacks. Was that war? – Aaron Brick Jan 09 '17 at 17:03
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Swords were certainly used in World War II.
Japanese officers carried Guntō swords and used them as hand-to-hand weapons.
One eccentric British officer, "Mad Jack" Churchill used a broadsword, along with a longbow, through the war.
RedGrittyBrick
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John Dallman
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During the WWII Russian, Polish, German, French and Italian cavalry regiments existed. And they really used swords. The use against tanks is obviously a fallacy, but in the sudden attacks against infantry the swords worked!
Here is a large collection of contemporary photos and pictures.
So, these armies had not only CARRIED swords, not only USED swords, but even COUNTED on them in battle!
Gangnus
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Thank you. Corrected. In comments here: http://wiki.istmat.info/%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%84:%D1%81_%D1%88%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B8 you can find an example of cavalry attack against tanks and motorbikes, but it was not a sword attack, of course. – Gangnus Jan 09 '17 at 15:59