Can anyone shed any light on the pictures below? It was given to my Dad in WW2 by a uncle (One of the Elsey's I'm researching) coming home on leave after D-Day (I didn't think there was any leave after D-Day) who said to him, 'Here you go son'. I guess a 13 year old boy would have been pretty excited about it at the time. Anyway the pics: I think its a standard K98 Bayonet (I wonder looking at how much shine there is would it be a dress/parade bayonet?) but I thought the 'Badge' on the handle was interesting and I'd guess the belt and buckle are Luftwaffe? 1. 2. 3. 4. Cheers in advance Andy
Luftwaffe standard belt and buckle.The bayonet...not sure on this one..but its not a standard K98 Bayonet possibly a Austro Hungarian army version of a M 95 ? Verrieres Mannlicher M95 Austro-Hungary Infantry Rifle and Carbine
I knew I should have wrote them down ! The letters I can make out from zooming in are: Rarn*** I wonder if the cross was a gift from father to son as it appears to be nailed/tacked on. I'll ring my dad and see if he can make the rest out.
Looks like it's been chromed/polished in it's time, maybe some piece belonging to an alt kampfer of the first war? There seems to be a bit of a theme in tarted up police/paramilitary bayonets along similar lines. 'Police bayonets' :mellow: What an odd expression...
Many thanks Kate, I wonder if my Dad has got the dates wrong (He is old) and his uncle ended up there at the end of the war and picked it up as a keep sake.
Many thanks Kate, I wonder if my Dad has got the dates wrong (He is old) and his uncle ended up there at the end of the war and picked it up as a keep sake. I think it could well be a customized bayonet some soldier (probably from Kärnten) brought from his home to war.
Yes, it is a Mannlicher-Steyr model 1895 bayonet. But this is the NCO version of the standard bayonet, with the quillion and the loop on the handle for attaching a troddle. If the ricasso or the frog stud are marked OEWG, then it was an official Austrian (Steyr) product, but if they are marked FGGY then it was an official Hungarian (Budapest) product: however, either stamp would indicate it was made pre-1919. Any other mark and it will either be a private-made one of 1895-1919, or a Czech made version, from the interwar period. These M 1895 bayonets have a long history of use. I have one I bought in Bulgaria that was made pre-WWI in Austria - but it also has Czech marks indicating that it was 'redeployed' to the Czech army in 1919. The Czech's sold their M 1895's to Bulgaria just before WWII, and the frog with my bayonet and scabbard indicates it was re-issued to the Bulgarian army in 1941 (assuming, of course, that bayonet and frog are an original pair!). Don't know when mine left official Bulgarian service but I do know of other Bulgarian M 1895 bayonets that have 'fit for service' re-proofing marks on them from the period 1945-1955/1960! With regard to your bayonet, well, the bayonet frog looks to be German WWII to me. In which case, given the cross in the grips, it is quite possible that this bayonet was a memento from WWI that somehow attached itself to a WWII frog before 1945! Trajan
