An interesting image

[Gavin Nugent]

G'day,

The EU armoury is not something I venture into that often but am always glancing to see what is happening on the dark side :-)
I thought this image below might be of some interest and discussion within these pages. The digital image is called Polish Scythe Men 1863.
My immeadiate questions are is this fact or fiction and if fact who where they and what was their purpose.


Enjoy

Gav

[Berkley]

Fact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising)February 2, 1863, saw the start of the first major military engagement of the uprising between Polish peasants (mostly armed with scythe) and a squadron of Russian hussars near Čysta Būda, near Marijampolė. It ended with a massacre of the unprepared peasants. As hope of a short war was present, insurgent groups merged into bigger formations and recruited new personnel.http://i48.tinypic.com/kaptj.jpg
War scythes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_scythe).
http://i45.tinypic.com/ipcnkk.jpg

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Gav,
As Berkeley has noted, it seems these simple peasant scythes were mounted on polearms, much like halberds, and these were heavily used in the 1863 Lithuanian uprising.

Apparantly these infantry scythes were used well into the 20th century as paintings are known from 1906, 1918, and even regimental units known as kosynierzy (= scythe).

On the dark side :) the Polish word for death is smierc, and of course the dreaded grim reaper carries a pole mounted scythe........eek!!:)
Spooky stuff.

All the best,
Jim

[Gavin Nugent]

Thanks Berkley, thanks Jim.

A great link you provided Berkley and I like your new Avatar.



Thanks

Gav

[Samik]

Those scythes sure look mean (as do those kosynierzy)... However it seems that it didn't help them much against the Hussars...

[junker]

Hi everybody,
this picture i take in a museum in Poland, Kolobrzg (Kolberg).
It is a site of a book which shows the transformation of an normal scythe into a weapon. I just dont kwow how old the book was, but i guess it was 19 century.
Dirk