Filled the Last of the British Enfield Type Bayonets

[Peter Laidler]

The No7's were all good, firm and solid when they were new from Ordnance, 'new' rebuilt at workshops, sat on the shelf in the Armoury or on parade. But once you used them on the bayonet fighting gantry/gallery, they were crap. The shaft worked loose from the blade as it was only fixed with (I seem to remember.....) three rivets. You couldn't weld the shaft to the blade because it'd upset the temper at the critical part of the blade (although they did allow us to tig the loose rivets of the L1A1 crosspiece to the blade at that point.......). And no play was acceptable. So after a few trips into the Armourers shops to be re-rivetted, they were scrapped in large numbers, especially at the Infantry Training regimental depots. Practically, the No9 was far better but...... In fact, so said, the only good thing about them was that the now unserviceable blades made good scrapers or straight-edges for the Armourers and Carpenters shops!

When the old 34 Command Workshop closed down there were absoluitely loads of spares for these bayonets in the trays. I took a few bits and bobs - as you do and I noticed that most were marked M47, BSA. Not your usual bayonet contractors!

Just a minute......... I seem to recall doing a big spiel about the techynical aspects of these bayonets a couple of years ago, taken from the Command workshop informal work-notes. Duplicating work....., It's old age creeping up on me