British Bayonets,

[Khaki]

I understand that the German military not only utilised obsolete models of rifles together with their bayonets, but also modified all manner of bayonets both domestic and foreign to fit rifles for Great War service.

My question is, did the British ever consider at any time having to go down this road of modified obsolete bayonets?, and if they did what would have been possible choices.

thanks

khaki

[trajan]

Methinks, as Sgt. Jones always reminded us with reference to the P1907, that as they 'didn't like it up 'em!' the higher ups were content to let this be the standard...

Seriously though, interesting question. I suspect the answer is no, as the UK had access to enough metal sources etc. to produce enough of what was needed without having to adapt any existing supplies in store plus the corresponding rifles for these. That said, I am still amazed at the unprepardness of the Germans for WWI, in the sense that they did not have enough suitable bayonets and so had to go on this major programe of making so many ersatz versions, including recycling socket bayonets of all types.

Trajan

[shippingsteel]

My question is, did the British ever consider at any time having to go down this road of modified obsolete bayonets?, and if they did what would have been possible choices.

On the face of it, the answer would appear to be no, but there have been reports of this kind of substitution before. I do know that supply was extremely tight during mobilisation.

There was an earlier thread which did discuss this prospect in some detail (linked HERE) Personally I believe the answer is undoubtedly yes, but finding the evidence is difficult.

Cheers, S>S

[Khaki]

Thanks Trajan and S>S

Interesting link, I hadn't seen it when I posted my question and haven't had time yet to go through it in detail, however I certainly will.

regards

khaki