How effective were trench knives in WW1?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “world war 1 trench knife“
About Eva
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How effective were trench knives in WW1?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “world war 1 trench knife“
About Eva
I am unaware of any studies that would give a definitive answer to this, but I would suspect that the answer is not very.
I take it that by” trench knives” we are talking about something like this:
However, even in the confines of an actual trench the rifle and bayonet has more uses. Certainly it is very difficult to get past. While by World War II there are a host of submachine guns that were small and handy to operate. So even if we limit ourselves to World War I what choices do we have?
For actual trench raids the troops tended to arm themselves with the likes of sharpened entrenching tools or various brands of club as well as the old standbys the bayonet and the pistol. The rationale being that these things all have a far greater reach than a trench knife and are therefore effective from further away. They would also, most probably, be more instantly lethal. Which is exactly what you want in a confused hand-to-hand confrontation, probably in the dark.
Many different types can be seen on display in the Imperial war Museum, in London:
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Mark I trench knife – Wikipedia
For the general infantry, it really wasn’t needed, but there was some that found a good fighting knife was vital.
“On the left a Mark I knife used to dig up an anti-personnel mine (specifically, an S-mine). “
Every night, some soldiers in both sides would sneak into the no-man zone, to remove or plant mines, cut or place barbwire, scouting, or kill senties.
They need a silent weapon to kill or knock and capture the enemy soldiers they ran into, and the trench knives were good at that.
Most of the Mark 1 trench knives were not issued during WW1, but some from storage were issued during WW2, to elite army ranger and airborne formations, and also particular marines serving with the four Marine Raider battalions.
They found problems with the Mark 1 use as a utility knife. “Army and marine field reports concerning the effectiveness of the Mark I knife were mixed; some men liked the design, while others complained that Mark I was poorly balanced, with a relatively thin blade that was prone to snapping at the blade-handle junction, particularly when employed for utility tasks. “
Ka-Bar – Wikipedia
It was eventually replaced by the famous Ka-Bar knife that is still produced today. The Ka-Bar basic design is still used today with small changes in materials, coatings, ext…
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You can have both ways: it was very effective or it was completely useless. It was effective considering that it gave to its owner the psychological feeling that he was enabled for combat, with an functional tool, capable of inflicting grievous wounds in a brawl. On the other hand, iIt was completely useless because, in case you needed it, there were a lot of weapons available that would the work more efficiently, as the trenching tool used as an improvised axe. In fact, in World War I less than 0,1% (less than one soldier in one thousand) of wounded US soldiers was hospitalized with wounds from knifes, swords, lances or bayonets (this last one the most common blade weapon). The great killer was artillery, which accounted for more than 70% hospitalized wounded.
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Great for opening up cans of food. They bayonets were used for the same thing in WW II on c-rations. Yeah, if you stuck someone with one it could kill him. But I am reminded of an old Bill Malden cartoon from WW II. The new guy has his bayonet affixed to his M-1 and one of the old guys is saying to him “…you is close enough to stick him, you is close enough to shoot him….”
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They were a weapon of last resort, effective if in the right hands at the right time, but much had to go badly before all a soldier had was a knife.
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