USMC NCO sword

[hmm161-78/82]

I just picked up an NCO sword marked "GMS SOLINGEN STAINLESS".

I know blades marked stainless are post 1960. I have never seen the GMS maker mark before. Does anybody know when they made swords for the Marines?

 

Thanks,

 

Rod

[hmm161-78/82]

Here is photo of the makers mark.

[Horseclover]

Listed in German cutler/blade makers as GMS Gesellschaft. A bayonet page has the first reference I find in a general search.

 

http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/Germany__Post_WW_II_/germany_post_wwii_2.html

 

 

Gesellschaft für Metallverarbeitung mbH & Co. (GMS) [in English, Society for Metalworking L.L.C.]. GMS became the first successor to Carl Eickhorn Waffenfabrik AG, purchasing the Carl Eickhorn Waffenfabrik factory in 1975. GMS went bankrupt in 1981, so this example would date from that period.

 

 

I lack Bezdek's German makers book but there may be more to the company's history. I see more recent info but not in reference to swords. Going by the above, short lived as far as military blades and probably the last of the Eickhorn inventory.

 

Cheers

 

GC

[hmm161-78/82]

Horseclover,

Thanks for the info. The link you posted was a great help.

It dates the sword to the same time frame I was on active duty, which makes it knd of special.

Well, to me anyway.

Thanks for the help.

Rod Chapman