WWI knives

[Justin Presson]

Recently the wife and I visited the national WWI museum here in Kansas City. I thought I would share a couple pics of the knives...there was alot more I should have taken more pics.
The brass knuckle one is just bad ass!

 

[opaul]

It is a bad boy. Thanks for sharing!

 

[John Wilson]

I don't think people reflect upon WWI as much as it deserves. WWI had to be the most grisly, personally brutal and gruesome war ever fought. People often talk about "what If you had a time machine and you could go back in the past with today's weapons, imagine what would happen." And that's exactly what WWI was in reality. Modern, mass casualty weapons were introduced onto the the battlefield where the soldiers and tactics were no different from the American Civil War.

What's always amazed me about WWI was how certain things were taboo, such as shotguns, yet they were fine with chemical warfare and belt fed machine guns. It had to be utter chaos and madness and I'm shocked that anyone at all survived.

If any knife can represent the horror of WWI, it has to be that 1918 Trench Knife.

 

[C Craft]

I don't think people reflect upon WWI as much as it deserves. WWI had to be the most grisly, personally brutal and gruesome war ever fought. People often talk about "what If you had a time machine and you could go back in the past with today's weapons, imagine what would happen." And that's exactly what WWI was in reality. Modern, mass casualty weapons were introduced onto the the battlefield where the soldiers and tactics were no different from the American Civil War.

What's always amazed me about WWI was how certain things were taboo, such as shotguns, yet they were fine with chemical warfare and belt fed machine guns. It had to be utter chaos and madness and I'm shocked that anyone at all survived.

If any knife can represent the horror of WWI, it has to be that 1918 Trench Knife.

John, that is so true. Much of WW1 was fought in trenches, hand to hand combat. Artillery and gas were two of the biggest nasties, tanks and such were in their infancy and although may have changed a battle or two, played on a small part of the actual fighting.

One soldier was quoted as saying, the battles at night were like live nightmares. The enemy snuck into our trenches at about 2:30 in the morning, until they were already in the trenches we had no idea they were there. In the dead of night I fought an enemy I couldn't see. You would call out to a figure and if it didn't answer, you knew you had to kill it. At one point I was hit in the head and went down, when I came back to myself he was standing over me with a rifle pointed at me. It went click and from then it was a blur, until I realized I was in a sitting position and he was dead in my lap. I had cut his throat!!
The battle of Somme involved 3 million soldiers, and one million men were wounded or killed . Can you imagine that many being involved in one battle!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme


I once saw on another forum where the issue of the Civil War was reported to have been fought with little hand to hand combat. Because the soldiers didn't like it! The discussion was over Confederate Bowies!

BS they fought until there was no fight left in them or they ran completely out of anything to fight with and then it was brutal hand to hand combat. Yep the Confederates were proud of their knives, they grew up with them and they were used as an everyday extension of themselves. So when it came to hand to hand combat it was a naturally a part of using whatever knife they had on them!

War is hell and if you ain't ready for what war brings then stay out of it, if war is you only option then go into it like you life depends on it, cause it will!! Fight to win or don't fight!!

OK I am stepping down from my soap box. Didn't mean to get off topic. Great pics

 

[Justin Presson]

I would agree, the weapons and guns in the mueseum is crazy and to see how far things have come today.

If any one is in the Kansas City area I highly recommend visiting the museum it is impresive. I thought to myself the men that fought and died in that war were some tough SOB's.

 

[John Wilson]

John, that is so true. Much of WW1 was fought in trenches, hand to hand combat. Artillery and gas were two of the biggest nasties, tanks and such were in their infancy and although may have changed a battle or two, played on a small part of the actual fighting.

One soldier was quoted as saying, the battles at night were like live nightmares. The enemy snuck into our trenches at about 2:30 in the morning, until they were already in the trenches we had no idea they were there. In the dead of night I fought an enemy I couldn't see. You would call out to a figure and if it didn't answer, you knew you had to kill it. At one point I was hit in the head and went down, when I came back to myself he was standing over me with a rifle pointed at me. It went click and from then it was a blur, until I realized I was in a sitting position and he was dead in my lap. I had cut his throat!!
The battle of Somme involved 3 million soldiers, and one million men were wounded or killed . Can you imagine that many being involved in one battle!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme


I once saw on another forum where the issue of the Civil War was reported to have been fought with little hand to hand combat. Because the soldiers didn't like it! The discussion was over Confederate Bowies!

BS they fought until there was no fight left in them or they ran completely out of anything to fight with and then it was brutal hand to hand combat. Yep the Confederates were proud of their knives, they grew up with them and they were used as an everyday extension of themselves. So when it came to hand to hand combat it was a naturally a part of using whatever knife they had on them!

War is hell and if you ain't ready for what war brings then stay out of it, if war is you only option then go into it like you life depends on it, cause it will!! Fight to win or don't fight!!

OK I am stepping down from my soap box. Didn't mean to get off topic. Great pics

Great post.

Whoever thinks the Civil War had little hand to hand combat must live in a cave, or must be preoccupied with the study of field maneuvers and have given little thought as to what happens after brigades of men close upon each other and decide to charge. They must also have never considered what a charge against fortifications, carrying a single shot black powder rifle, would entail once you got to the picket line. Ignorance abounds.

As gruesome as the Civil War was, there was some level of decorum at least in the first three years. There were things you just didn't do, such as using field artillery directly against personnel. If I recall, that was first done at Gettysburg during Pickett's Charge and was considered by both sides to be a war crime. Gettysburg was the turning point and both armies were nearly exhausted by that point and my understanding is that Gettysburg and Chickamauga were the points in the war where it was do or die for both sides and the gloves came completely off. Lee's second in command, Longstreet, had been advocating for trench warfare and it was not well-received in the slightest.

World War I had to be completely unreal for the men involved. Their training and tactics were still choreographed field maneuvers based on past wars which employed single shot weapons, bayonets, and swords. Then they ran head first into belt fed machine guns, artillery, gas, mines, barbed wire, and all manner of mass-casualty weapons.

How bad must it have been in those trenches that during the Armistice all sides agreed that while the whole point of warfare was to kill people in droves certain things simply aren't acceptable, such as using gas.