If a soldier's arm or hand is cut off with a sword in war, will the soldier suffer much?

[Anonymous]

If a soldier's arm or hand is cut off with a sword in war, will the soldier suffer much?

[BCA6010]

Considering that the significant majority of swords ever used in war are meant for impaling rather than severing, yes that would be an exceptionally brutal, almost certainly not remotely clean way to lose a limb, which in itself for obvious reasons would be both extremely painful and life-changing regardless, and that's assuming you even survived. If a soldier lost a limb like that in battle prior to within the last century or less, they would almost certainly have bled out, which could take as little as 60 seconds. The vast majority of veterans from that area who lost limbs but survived would've lost them while in surgery, usually due to infection.

There are some exceptions to the above. The extremely unbalanced executioner's sword was specifically for decapitating a restrained individual, and could easily cut through bone but would've never been used in battle. Curved blades were also better suited for cutting rather than thrusting, but are generally ineffective against most types of armor, while the traditional longsword could feasibly penetrate chainmail or scalemail at the right angle, but was largely useless against plates. For all the reasons above, this is why polearms such as spears and later poleaxes and halberds dominated medieval battlefields and swords were actually fairly uncommon until after cannons and gunpowder weapons made heavy armor obsolete.

[jshm2]

Depends.

The adrenaline would kill a lot of the pain. But the possibility of infection and sepsis would be high.

[Freyke]

For sure. Pinch yourself. Now imagine that feeling times ARM.

[CloudMassacre]

I assume it’s not a grand ol time having your body destroyed

[SmokinAces2000]

I’m pretty sure anyone who gets a limb cut off with a sword will suffer

[boggboss]

Ofc it is lol