Today's Interesting Trench Art Piece

[jhazuga]

Hello All,

Believe it or not, this piece started out life as a K98 bayonet made in 1939 by Horster. It came from a Vet who had an interesting story on how it was obtained and made. He was a Ranger with a unit associated with Patton. He said that he took this bayonet from a dead German soldier (he said that he didn't kill the soldier or anything, he was already dead). Anyway, he took this bayonet back to their base and had a Jeep mechanic "modify" it to a boot or fighting knife. The grip panels were replaced with spare pieces of Jeep windows, the blade was shortened and re-shaped, the scabbard was sectioned and brazed back together, and the back of the bayonet was cut down by about three inches (only the hole for the cleaning rod is still present). He carried this knife through the rest of his service in Germany, and he said it even saved his life on the beaches of Normandy! I have had my eye on this piece for a while, and today he finally gave it to me. I'm sure that it's not worth too much, but I would never sell it anyway. The story is worth more to me than any amount of money . Anyway, I just thought I would share this interesting piece of history!

[rajko84]

interesting piece

[heers68]

That's pretty cool! Kevin.

[ivbaust]

Thanks for sharing this story and the pics of the knife

[dasboot2011]

Very cool knife and an interesting story!