There seems to be a lot out there on polehammets, swords and lances, but the bill doesn't have too much info out there regarding how it was used. I'm specifically talking about the simple english hooked bills with no spear points. Do you just keep chopping away until your enemy falls down or is it more complex?
What we do know is extrapolated from various sources, including accounts of the Battle of Flodden Field, and even then, it is circumstantial. They were favoured by the English for a variety of reasons, but we first must be careful of what we are discussing.
This is a modern billhook.
This is the weapon we are discussing. Even from cursory examination, it is clear the weapon is very similar to the halberd, and that was largely how it was employed. Large front-facing formations, using the 'hook' to pull cavalrymen off their mounts, the spike to penetrate armour, and the 'head' to cleave into flesh. Alone, it's not very good, being typically 5 to 9 feet long, though it can be used in a similar fashion to the guisarmes; indeed, it was sometimes called the bill-guisarme.
Overall, though, it was a formation weapon very similar to the halberd; good at stabbing, hacking, and hooking.
