Understanding the poem 'Bayonet Charge'

‘Bayonet Charge’ depicts a soldier in the midst of a harrowing battle. ‘Bayonet Charge’ exposes how war damages people, innocence and the natural world. Hughes’ intention may be to criticise the patriotic ideals surrounding war and expose the true horrors of war. Hughes may have based his poem on his father’s stories of WW1 . Hughes' fathers stories were so vivid that Hughes felt he himself had witnessed the apocalyptic carnage.