German Bayonet with Unit Markings

[calibre792x57.y]

A difficult bayonet to find nowdays. A Seitengewehr 71/84 c/w it's steel mounted black leather scabbard. The bayonet was made by Alex Coppel, Solingen, and has the Inspector's stamp on the back of the blade, a crowned 'W' over 88 for 1888. The crossguard is stamped with 43.R.R.228, - Infanterie-Regiment Herzog Karl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz Nr.43 - Recruiting Depot. The rifle was obsolete during the Great War although it appears in studio portraits and was carried by troops who were not usually expected to be in combat, at the rear areas. It was worn as a sidearm by N.C.O.s and by those whose primary weapon was not a rifle, e.g. machine gunners. The reverse of the scabbard locket has matching markings. It has suffered slightly through the attentions of somebody with a wire brush but has survived. There are two blade patterns, this, and one with the fullers running down nearer the point. This is said in Carter to be the earliest of the two. - S.W.

[trajan]

Let me be among the first to congratulate you on this lovely find! With scabbard also!!! These 71/88 'a.A.' are indeed difficult to find, w or w/o scabbard. Coppel and WKC seem to have made roughly equal numbers of these in 1888 for Prussia. I guess you have Carter vol II, and if not Carter vol IV, then that adds two more each of Coppel and WKC, the WKC ones both being R.R. issues.

Lucky lad!

PS: the Infanterie-Regiment Herzog Karl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz 43 was also known as the 6. Ostpreußisches.