The percussive effect and plate armour

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by katana

Hi,
after Jim's thread on armour and heat....I noticed that as armour developed the sword became more and more ineffective. Leading to the evolution of percussion type weapons, like the war hammer. Other than those that had sharp points ( to obviously pierce the armour), the hammer could cause severe internal injuries by the 'shock wave' effect in human tissue. I wondered if anyone had any further information or thoughts.

Regards David

Hi David,
Another excellent angle to consider as we study various types of armour in development. It really is interesting to try to understand technology that today would be viewed as archaic or rudimentary, yet in those times it was state of the art, and incredibly important as not only lives were at stake, but keeping the soldier effective in battle.

I had not considered the 'shock wave' effect that must have been a notable result of those 'war hammers', but it seems it would carry certain potential as you describe. While probably a relatively exaggerated analogy, it seems that in auto accidents, the dramatic forces on the individuals in even low speed collisions often result in surprising injuries, typically internal. How much is from inertial force or actual contact and compression seems unclear except to trained medical persons. Obviously the spiked war hammers which penetrated the armour would result in the expected penetration wounds.

It seems to me most of the fatal wounds received in armoured individuals were through vital openings sought by the opponent in combat, and that the hammers and other innovative weapon features were ideally trying to unhorse the opponent.

I'd like to look more into the shock wave idea though....great thought!

All the best,
Jim