Naval Contract Lanchester/1907 bayonets???

[Flying10uk]

Does anyone know if there is any such thing as a "Naval Contract" 1907 bayonet for the Lanchester SMG, please? If there is how would such a bayonet be distinguished, apart from any obvious naval markings? This question has recently arisen and I am inclined to think that there is no such thing, however, I don't really know if there is or there isn't. I've seen 1907 bayonets marked for RAF and these appear exactly the same as army issue and logic would tell me the same would be true for the Royal Navy? I've looked through previous threads but can't see anything specific to this question. Thanks for any information.

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[peregrinvs]

Yes. Naval contract ones were marked both WSC and S/294 on the ricasso. Of course that doesn't mean that only bayonets with those markings were physically issued with Lanchesters.

[Peter Laidler]

Personally, I and many others have always doubted that bayonets marked like this (Peregrine, thread 2) were solely Naval contract. I would suggest that there was simply a rolling contract with WSC for No1 bayonets during the war and all 3x services needed them! Some went to the Navy, most went to the Army and one or two went to the RAF! Simple as that. Unless someone goes to the Birmingham City archives (I think WSC's are at the Inst of Science and Technology museum.....) and finds that WSC made solely for the Navy.

A bit like the M48 - 49 - 50 No9 bayonet myth

Just been asked by PM to quantify my reason a but further. It's just that the idea of No1 bayonets obviously made at WSC after the introduction of wartime codes were for the Navy is tooooooo general a statement for whoever initially stated it was so. I could go on but....... Or could it be a good sales pitch for a dealer with a a couple of dozen so marked to make a killing? As far as the then Admiralty, Air Ministry and the War Department were concerned, a No1 bayonet was a No1 bayonet and WSC supplied what the old MoS contracted and paid for. Same as L1A1 bayonets later

[Flying10uk]

I'd always thought that it was probably as Peter suggests in Post 3, with regards to naval 1907 bayonets, until this question of Naval Contract 1907 bayonets" cropped up recently. I do have a late production 1907 by WSC but haven't paid that much attention to the markings. I just assumed it to be a late production 1907 bayonet made for the U.K. government to be used by which ever branch of the armed forces needed it. I'd better have a better look at the markings.

[Flying10uk]

Here is my late production 1907 bayonet, dated May 1942. There appears to be no dispersal code probably because it's slightly too old and I can't see anything to specifically define the branch of service that it may have been issued to.

Later edit. Is anyone able to offer any sort of explanation why if this bayonet were to have the dispersal code of S294 marked on it, it would make it more likely to have been used by the Royal Navy, please?

[Flying10uk]

For comparison, here is an example picture of the markings of a WW2 1907 bayonet by Wilkinson with the "S294" marking.

[old-smithy]

I have always believed the combination of the S294 and Wilkinson were specific to the Naval Lanchester contract, as i have other bayonets with one or other of the markings and that it was a fairly limited run

[green]

Wilkinson produced about 121000 P1907 bts from 1941 and total Lanchester production was 80790.
The 1941 WSC contract, 34707, was for the RN.

[Flying10uk]

The picture in post 6 I found by chance online while looking for something else and it was suggested that it was a "Naval Contract" 1907 because it had the dispersal code of S294. One would expect any "Naval Contract" 1907 bayonets procured before the introduction of the dispersal code system not to have the code marked on it. I don't, personally, see the connection between having the dispersal code and it indicating "Naval Contract".

[Peter Laidler]

Nope....... nor do I (thread 9, last sentence)
Thread 8: By 34707, do you mean that was a) the number of bayonets or b) that was the MoS contract number? (By 1941 and the fact that these bayonets had a MoS wartime code indicate that it was the Ministry of Supply who awarded the contracts to the ROF's and industrial suppliers following a demand from whoever was in need by the way). And in any case what earthly evidence - even if there is any - is that these were for Lanchesters! And by the 4/44 date on the example shown, the Lanchester was obsolescent. Nope......, the pragmatic and common sense part of me suggests that while a MoS contract with WSC for No1 bayonets was instigated by the Admiralty, bayonets are bayonets and they could and certainly would have been used for anything - and by everyone. It was just another quantity wartime contract to a grateful supplier!

The WSC files are at the B/ham museum of Science and Technology

It's like saying that MG contracted PSF for for 2,000 MGB doors or boot lids etc for MGC's - or 10,000 10" wheels were for Mini Coopers when they were exactly the same as MGB's or standard mini's