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World War II 1944 Trench Art - French 1875 Gras bayonet "Steak Knife"
Before my Father passed in 2010 at the age of 93, I made notes of his travels during WWII from England to Normandy, through France, Belgium and into Germany. I did this by combining his memory and correlating that with a search I did through the official USAAF Chronology of WWII in Europe. This is the story of how this "Steak Knife" came to be.
After landing at Utah beach, a few weeks after the main landing, my Father a MSGT, slowly moved north East to Paris with the 112th Liaison Squadron. This unit was part of the 9th Air Force under Eisenhower, and was attached to SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces) and he was there for the liberation of Paris in late Aug 1944.
Later on the outskirts of Paris, while moving to their next airfield near Belgium, they came upon a bombed out metals factory. In it they found large piles of 1870's French Sword/Bayonets. The Germans had rounded these up to smelt down for war production. So naturally the men all grabbed as many as they could carry. Once at their next destination, a recently recovered airfield, dad set about converting one of these swords into this steak knife in his spare time. It was shortened from its original 21 inches to it's now 10 in. blade. Reshaped and sharpened, he added a wooden handle and then wrapped it with aluminum foil chewing gum wrappers. (He liked the crinkly, shiny look) Then, removing a broken canopy from a crashed airplane, he heated and formed the plastic around the handle. He was a Line Chief in the squadron and had access to tools.
I still have a few original sword/bayonets in the same shape as he found them. The nose of the blade was bent 90 degrees to demilitarize them. The engraving translates to the month, year, and location of manufacture. In this case it s St. Etienne.
Before my Father passed in 2010 at the age of 93, I made notes of his travels during WWII from England to Normandy, through France, Belgium and into Germany. I did this by combining his memory and correlating that with a search I did through the official USAAF Chronology of WWII in Europe. This is the story of how this "Steak Knife" came to be.
After landing at Utah beach, a few weeks after the main landing, my Father a MSGT, slowly moved north East to Paris with the 112th Liaison Squadron. This unit was part of the 9th Air Force under Eisenhower, and was attached to SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces) and he was there for the liberation of Paris in late Aug 1944.
Later on the outskirts of Paris, while moving to their next airfield near Belgium, they came upon a bombed out metals factory. In it they found large piles of 1870's French Sword/Bayonets. The Germans had rounded these up to smelt down for war production. So naturally the men all grabbed as many as they could carry. Once at their next destination, a recently recovered airfield, dad set about converting one of these swords into this steak knife in his spare time. It was shortened from its original 21 inches to it's now 10 in. blade. Reshaped and sharpened, he added a wooden handle and then wrapped it with aluminum foil chewing gum wrappers. (He liked the crinkly, shiny look) Then, removing a broken canopy from a crashed airplane, he heated and formed the plastic around the handle. He was a Line Chief in the squadron and had access to tools.
I still have a few original sword/bayonets in the same shape as he found them. The nose of the blade was bent 90 degrees to demilitarize them. The engraving translates to the month, year, and location of manufacture. In this case it s St. Etienne.
