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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

P1888 Bayonets in Great War


shippingsteel

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"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate" ;)

Yeah, yeah - "Occam's razor" - so I take it that you are now in agreement, I think .....?? :unsure:

How 'bout this one, "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances." (Isaac Newton)

I think I like mine better - at least it's in English.!!! Also sounds quite pertinent to the case in hand.

Cheers, S>S

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I would be very wary of the veracity of some of the descriptions on the REME site. Despite it being part of the army, the people who run the museum and the web site are professional museum staff, not firearms people. There are a considerable number of erroneous entries on that site

I have visited on a couple of occassions to carry out research, but one has to notify them in advance what weapons one wants to see so they can be brought form store. This means that there might be something really interesting there that has been mis-identified but one can never know.

I offered to go through the collection with them to correct any entries, and whilst the guys on the ground were very interested, the message from on high was "What do you know...."

Regards

TonyE

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I bet that bloke was wearing a crisp clean barbour and on his way out the door with his labrador. That is a generalisation but that describes a couple of senior museum staff I have met. Including one who whilst I was engaged in conversation with an assistant came over took the assistant away and within earshot bollocked him for not putting the cones out to save his car park space.

Don't you have any REME contacts Tony?

Mick

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Unfortunately, no-one with any influence!

TonyE, as you probably have guessed I am trying to track down information relating to the issue of a certain rifle to a certain unit, any suggestions as to where to look.?

(Or to be more specific, the issue of a certain bayonet attached to a certain rifle that was issued to a certain unit - just to make things perfectly clear.!!)

I do know the date.... :blush:

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Unfortunately you will not find any records of individual rifle issue. The best that can be done is establishing issue to a particular unit at a certain date from the issue markings (if they exist).

I wish you well with your quest, but unless you can find references for your theories, they are no more than that, theories. I say that not to discourage you, but rather the opposite, to keep researching.

Regards

TonyE

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Here is something a little interesting that I found earlier. The problem was that I had always taken the P1888 to be a Lee-Metford or MLE bayonet.

None of their cavalry carbines have provision for the bayonet - so finding this came as quite a shock. That pictured bayonet looks very familiar.!!

I'll let you rifle boys have some fun and tell me which model you think it is.!!! :D

Cheers, S>S

post-52604-1265118069.jpg

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I think it looks rather like mine doesn't it?

post-14525-1265176137.jpg

which has some fascinating markings on it BTW

Chris

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I've been studying up on the Martini story - just amazing how many times rifles were "reborn" during that era, what with all the upgrades and modifications.

Yours looks to have nearly the same forestock, same barrel but obviously different and older butt. You know those rifles have a Rigby Nosecap that allows the fitting of the P1888.

Probably the same fitting that went onto the NZ carbine and the RIC carbine to allow the bayonet to be attached. Have you tried fitting one of yours yet.??

Does your rifle have markings that indicate all the various mods and are they dated.?? Also any issue markings to units - c'mon spill the details.??

Cheers, S>S

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  • 4 years later...

How 'bout this one, "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances." (Isaac Newton)

I think I like mine better - at least it's in English.!!! Also sounds quite pertinent to the case in hand.

Cheers, S>S

Well, the Principa Mathematica - where this comes from - was written in Latin, and not everyone around at the time could quite get through Newton's neologisms, etc., hence the 19th century translation! (My old maths teacher used to say the Princ Math 'lost in the translation' - but I think he was talkeing a load of you know what and had no idea himself!)

But, that aside, I am working backwards through "arms" to see what I might have missed so that I don't commit the cardinal mistake of opening - shock, shock! - opening a new thread on an old topic! The thing being that I have two P 1888 and one 1903 scabbards with single sets of numbers on the top of the throat piece (or locket) - so what's the consensus, regular army weapon numbers (my take) or Yeomanry or what?

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