Interesting reading on vets journal about carbine bayonette

[69 Stang]

I was reading a book about a WW2 Vets journal that he wrote day by day in Europe in 1944. The book is The Journal Of Scott Pendleton Collins A WW2 Soldier Normandy France 1944 by Walter Dean Myers. On page 74 his Journal reads that he picked up a carbine Bayonette at supply. It was the small carbine bayonet he said and that he also had his regular M1 bayonet on his cartridge belt as well. On page 76 he captured a German soldier had he tells of having the carbine bayonet pressed against the Germans neck. This was on July 5th 1944 that he made this entry in his journal. What do you guys say about this WW2 vets commet on a carbine bayonet in July 1944. He was wounded in the leg shortly after that and sent home.

[carbineone]

I could be wrong but that does not sound unusual. I have read the Carbine bayonet was being used but the Carbines were not equipped with a bayo lug yet. In other words I think the bayo came before the bayo lug. He could of also had a M3 Trench knife.. I am sure someone will know better than I..

[browningautorifle]

There were tales of the carbine bayonet being issued instead of an M3 trench knife.

[firstflabn]

Per Ruth's second volume, the carbine bayonet was standardized on May 10, 1944. That's cutting it pretty close - more like impossible - for receiving a shipment from the states. During that time period, it took about 60 days from NYPE approving a req from the ETO to the boat being unloaded in a European port. And that doesn't allow any time for making the things.

More than liklely it's a case of poor word choice by the diarist. The trench knife was still being issued in 1945 a full year after it was no longer being made, so no worries about stock.

[ABPOS]

Is it possible there was a small amount for "trials" in the field, previous to adoption and production?

[firstflabn]

And the GI in your story just wanders in and gets one, no strings attached? Don't you think if they were issued for trials, there might be some followup by the ordnance folks? 'Trial' doesn't mean the equivalent of putting a note in a bottle to see if someday the finder contacts you. Time for Occam's Razor.

[Bruce McAskill]

Well the carbine was not equipped for a bayonet till about November 1944 as that is when the type 3 barrel bands was first being installed. The first documented appearance of a bayonet on the carbine seems to be in the Philippines or Okinawa in 1945. None seem to have been documented as having been in the European theater till after Germany surrendered.

[ABPOS]

And the GI in your story just wanders in and gets one, no strings attached? Don't you think if they were issued for trials, there might be some followup by the ordnance folks? 'Trial' doesn't mean the equivalent of putting a note in a bottle to see if someday the finder contacts you. Time for Occam's Razor.

It wasn't my story. I was just throwing the "trials" thing out there. I have no clue. I know that sometimes GI's don't always get all the nomenclature or terms proper. I know this because I worked with two guys that were former US Army that told me the AK was designed to shoot the 5.56 in case of an emergency. Rumors get spread and even GI's fall for them.

As for the OP's story, I have no clue. But sometimes strange things happen in war, and I don't know if it would be the weirdest thing that an item like that might make it into the field for testing without many strings attached. There may have been strings attached in the beginning, but all kinds of things could happen in combat. IMHO. But I could be wrong.

[DaveHH]

Maybe he just knew someone who was in the arms room? That works.

Trials vary. I've heard that the selector switches on M14s were installed very selectively, only one or two to a platoon etc, etc. Lots of people saying that. Well, in 1967 our entire battalion had them installed, 500 guys, all at once, and we were a Signal Bn. Our trial was cross the river, shoot till you got sick of it and go back across. Nobody asked what we thought of it or cared for that matter.

[karl schmidt]

http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...rls42/bayo.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...arbinebayo.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...rls42/bayo.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...ayocaption.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...42/okebayo.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...kanawabayo.jpg