Unsheathing the longsword

[CalebChow]

Hm, didn't really detail this, but:

The strap system I was referring to allows the scabbard to be pulled down while the blade is drawn upward, providing the arm to have enough reach as the unsheathing is in two directions instead of one. Basically, as you draw the sword with the right hand, the left hand pulls the scabbard.

Once the left hand lets go, however, the straps are designed to pull the scabbard back upward to the original position, acting on kind of a "springy" mechanism.

In any case, if the Welshmen assassins were better than soldiers with back-drawn swords in those days, I guess there would have been little need for any strap mechanism mentioned above. Thanks

[s_taillebois]

The Welsh dagger men were often used for hit and run night raids on enemy encampments when the sentries were drowsy or the aristocracy collapsed in fatigue. Usually slit and runs.

They were also used for slipping between the lines at night, and killing enemy wounded who were still out on the pitch. And not important enough to ransom, although at times the Welsh weren't too particular about who they finished off.

The weird thing is that although the English integrated these men into their armies, to some extent they also disliked them as their mode of warfare hardly fit into the upper crusts ideals about such things. To some extent they had similar feelings about the long bowmen.
The Welsh did fight a form of guerrilla war, before losing to the English. The English had ringed them with castles, so hit and runs were all the Welsh had left. The Welsh really had some troubles in taking on those strongholds directly (some of which survive virtually untouched today). So they got good at midnight sentry killing, burn and runs etc. Sort of Plantagenet era asymmetrical force tactics... The English later brought these men to bear against the French...

So they'd be close to the stealth, guerrilla paradigm you had mentioned. And in general for their tactics the use of a sword was superfluous.