British L3A1 Bayonet.

[Peter Laidler]

I knew someone would come up trumps.......... Thanks Gary. I seem to think that these are quite rare now and highly prized. I had a drawer full of these serially numbered bayonets, taken over from the REME Capt 1/c the Trials Team section. In all states of repair and condition. Some were even ground away where the old bottle opener used to be..

I think I have mentioned it here somewhere, but the original SA80 bayonet design had a bottle opener that cost thousands upon thousands of £££££'s to develop. Major Joel put a stop to the whole stupid palava by stating the bleedin' obvious on several counts. First he said that everyone had a jack-knife that already had a tin AND bottle opener on it. b) everyone had a 'stable-belt', the buckle of which could be used to open a bottle. c) If these were insufficient, it would still cost less to give everyone a Leatherman/Gerber multi tool and d) In his years, he's never seen a report of a death, serious or even slight injury of a soldier being caused by not being able to open a bottle of water!

It was quietly dropped!