Earliest C1 bayonets?

[Lee Enfield]

What's the earliest C1 bayonet you own/have seen?

I would like to find a 1956 dated C1 bayonet, but the earliest I've seen is dated '58... Is there any hope?

Has anyone owned/seen a tool-room/pre '56 dated C1 bayonet?

Anyone have any other weird & wild bayo's to show off?

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[Cantom]

What's the earliest C1 bayonet you own/have seen?

I would like to find a 1956 dated C1 bayonet, but the earliest I've seen is dated '58... Is there any hope?

Has anyone owned/seen a tool-room/pre '56 dated C1 bayonet?

Anyone have any other weird & wild bayo's to show off?

Both of my C1 bayos are 1959. One is a chrome parade example.

I have a rare bayonet I'm told...a Canadian Navy bayonet from WW1. Apparently our navy was pretty small and there weren't many of these.





I got the bayonet on ebay and the scabbard from a militaria collector from Alberta.

[Dimitri]

I have a rare bayonet I'm told...a Canadian Navy bayonet from WW1. Apparently our navy was pretty small and there weren't many of these.

The Canadian Navy probably didn't issue many rifles or bayonets as most of the War supplies like thouse would be going to the Army and thats why there was smaller numbers of them. But by Wars end the Canadian Navy was pretty big.

By war's end, the Royal Canadian Navy had grown into one of the world's great navies -- 100,000 men and women and 365 warships. Just six years earlier, it had been tiny, with only 3500 permanent and part-time ('reserve') members and six modern destroyers and four minesweepers.

Dimitri

[Cantom]

The Canadian Navy probably didn't issue many rifles or bayonets as most of the War supplies like thouse would be going to the Army and thats why there was smaller numbers of them. But by Wars end the Canadian Navy was pretty big.



Dimitri

Wow-was that WW1 or WW2?

[Stevo]

IIRC, by the end of WWII, the RCN was the third largest navy in the world, behind the RN and USN.

Then we cut it all up.

[Lee Enfield]

Both of my C1 bayos are 1959. One is a chrome parade example.

Snip...

There are 2 1958 dated C1 bayos on Ebay right now, but I'd like a first year....

I have a C^ marked M.1907 chromed "parade" bayonet.

It hung over someone's mantle or in their smoke room for so long that it accumulated an awesome golden shade (which unfortunately wipes off )

[Cantom]

IIRC, by the end of WWII, the RCN was the third largest navy in the world, behind the RN and USN.

Then we cut it all up.

I agree. This is a WWI bayonet though...wouldn't they have used No 4 rifles with pigstickers in WWII?
I was told this is a rare bayonet.

[Cantom]

There are 2 1958 dated C1 bayos on Ebay right now, but I'd like a first year....

I have a C^ marked M.1907 chromed "parade" bayonet.

It hung over someone's mantle or in their smoke room for so long that it accumulated an awesome golden shade (which unfortunately wipes off )

I have a perfect chrome parade 1907 bayo too(not C/|\ though), it looks awesome on my chrome parade rifle...C/|\ marked. Would you part with yours or swap?

[green]

Most P1907 parade bts I have seen are nickel plated. 1RCR issued one to their duty segeant at Wolsey Barracks until the late 60s.

[Claven2]

I agree. This is a WWI bayonet though...wouldn't they have used No 4 rifles with pigstickers in WWII?
I was told this is a rare bayonet.

The No.4Mk1 with No.2Mk(whatever number of stars) spike bayonet was not beginning to see mass issue until about late 1941 or so. Even then, most units would have retained the SMLE for some time to come.

The Australian forces retained the No1MkIII* and P1907 bayonet until 1956. The Indians retained it in reserve status until at least 1987.

Even after the 1944 D-Day landings, it was not an uncommon sight to see some units in theatre still equipped with the WW1 era SMLE. Lots of photographic evidence supports this.

One of my friends' father often told him a war tale about how he preferred the tangent sights on the SMLE as it was what he had been taught musketry with. Everytime he returned to depot they would take away his SMLE and give him a brand new No.4 which he would then replace with an SMLE battlefield pickup ASAP. Aparently he went through this proceddeure 3 or 4 times while in Europe.

In essence, the SMLe and No.4 rifle are basically the same weapon mechanically and payload-wise. The No.4 was adopted more out of mass production concerns and its easier and cheaper manufacture more than any major gains in performance.

I also think it's safe to say sizeable numbers of No.1MkIII* rifles and P1907 bayonets crossed the rhine in March of 1945, despite the fact that by then the No.4 would have outnumbered the older SMLE by this time.