PIKE DRILL MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
A crude hand made version of this document was assembled by the author in 1973 and distributed to historical re-enactors in california. An old copy was dug up on request in 1999, the artwork converted and minor revisions made.
A pike is a sharp spear with a small point and a long shaft. The length varied but military records pretty much agree that throughout europe sixteen feet was a short pike and twenty two feet was considered ideal. Units were severely punished for the common practice of cutting down pikes.
Pikemen were notoriously dull of witt and the pike square was basically surrounded by minor officers that controlled the whole ponderous thing.Chapter one deals with the individual pikeman and how they handle the pike. Chapter two deals with the pike square and how to operate one
The most common injury to pikemen was head and shoulder injuries from dropped pikes. The result was that most pikemen wore simple light helmets that didn’t really need to be much better protection than a modern hard hat. The classic pikemans pot had a wide brim and really cheap construction.
Gloves with cuffs were universal common sense and the practice of padding the shoulders of pikemens doublets strongly influenced civilian fashion.
Mathew Cross
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