When the possibility of a charge by mounted infantry riding home, was raised in the Australian Mounted Division's Preliminary Instruction No. 1 (dated 26 October 1917); it suggested the bayonet was equal to the sword as a weapon for mounted attack "if used as a sword for pointing only". The Preliminary Instruction advised that the bayonet be hand-held, since controlling a horse during a charge would be difficult if the bayonet was fixed to the rifle. Divisional armourers were ordered to sharpen all bayonets "at once."