I believe during the third battle of Passchendaele, the farm is between St. You are right, just a couple of grades below yoursĪs far as dates go, Varlet farm was taken by the Naval Btns. Its blade should be spot on the 20" inches in length, which is what you have described it as, so I'll take that as confirmation.! These were earlier bayonets that were rehilted to fit the Mauser Gewehr 98. The heavier looking example on the left is actually a M1871/98 bayonet which was usually issued to units of the field artillery. The lighter and narrower one on the right is the M1898 version, and would have originally been 20.5" long in the blade. Are you able to put any dates together as to when the Germans were in that specific area near Ypres.?
!!īut seriously, both of those are good examples of the "quillback" design bayonet still being in use during the Great War. but still of great historical value nonetheless. Hi Bob, your examples might possibly be a couple of grades below mine condition wise. Around the turn of the century it appears that size did matter, especially when it came to bayonets and their 'reach'.!īut when it came time for the Great War, the conditions of trench warfare quickly proved that these were far too long and unwieldy, and they began to be phased out almost immediately in favour of a much shorter bayonet. It comes as no surprise that both models of bayonets were of exactly the same length of blade - an extraordinary 20.5 inches. I believe these extremely long and slender blades were first introduced to compete with the French M1886 Lebel service bayonet. The very unique design of this type, which features a rounded spine through the centre of the blade, leads to them being described as "quillback" bayonets. Apparently these were only made up until 1902 when they changed over to the regular two-piece grips with the plate inserted behind the crossguard. This is the first (alter art) version made for the Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle. Recently picked up a nice early Model 1898 aA bayonet with the one-piece timber grips.