Interesting WW1 Knuckle / Trench knife

[nbolinger]

picked this up yesterday curious if its anything , never seen anything like it.

[nbolinger]

cc

[nbolinger]

vc

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[Costa]

owner customized in the field??

[Navybean]

Is it a oss drop knife? Dark pics but looks like one

[gomorgan]

Weren't these made for the Philippine forces and dropped to them?

[empireguns]

looks like a drop knife from OSS to me. dropped into Philippines

[nbolinger]

Thank you all very much!

[doyler]

Yes its called the OSS drop knife purported to be dropped in the PI but have one that came out of the ETO.Mine was brought back by an officer who got it as a gift from a Brit Commando he befriended at wars end.Said commando needed a room to stay in one evening and the officer invited him to share the room.the Brit gave the knife to him the next moring in appreciation

 

These were made from sections of the bayonets for the trapdoor rifles and the section from the trapdoor bayonet scabbard.many seem to have gotten seperated from the scabbard over the years

[schmooser]

Thanks for sharing this, a great education?

[aznation]

The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was formed by the US Government during World War II, as an intelligence agency that was tasked with performing and coordinating espionage activities behind enemy lines. The agency was the predecessor of today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS not only coordinated and assisted local resistance fighters, but also provided weapons from time to time. Some of the more commonly known OSS weapons are the single shot “Liberator” .45 ACP pistol and the “Sterile Drop Knife”. While there is some dispute among researchers as the accuracy of the OSS association for these inexpensively produced “knuckle” fighting knives, but they have been referred to by this name by the most notable of US edged weapons researchers and authors including M.H. Cole, Michael Silvey, Homer Brett and Robert Buerlein. One way or the other the knives were produced in the US during World War II and appear to have been intended to provide cheap weapons to resistance fighters.

The OSS Drop Knife was manufactured in two patterns. The first was made from surplus US M-1873 Trapdoor rifle bayonets, and used their metal scabbard bodies as well. The second pattern used surplus M-1913 Patton Saber blades. The knives made from bayonets were built using the original bayonet blade, with the addition of a stamped metal, D-shaped handguard and a hilt that utilized rubber hosing for the grip. The knives were unmarked (thus the “sterile” nomenclature), and were intended to be “dropped” behind enemy lines to arm local resistance fighters. The knives had blades that varied between 8 ½” and 9” and the knives had an overall length of about 14”. The knives were essentially inexpensive copies of the US M-1917 Trench Knife. The bayonet blade extended through the grip, forming the hilt, and extended out the back of the D-guard, where it was shaped into a point to form a skull crusher. The original metal scabbards were shortened and then crimped closed, and the scabbard was intended to be suspended from a leather belt frog.

A really wonderful condition example of a classic American fighting knife made during World War II from surplus bayonets. These knives are relatively scarce and are a great example of the ingenious way in which many obsolete bayonets and swords were altered into useful weapons for American troops and allies.

 

 

[Frank Trzaska]

Old Wives Tales...

 

Please provide proof of this being an OSS Knife. John Brunner could not and the National Archives calls him for cataloging the OSS files. There is not a person alive that knew more then the Doc on the OSS of which he was a member during the war.

 

When did the OSS operate in the Philippines to drop these knives? MacArthur banned them in his theatre of operations and created his own AIB system.

 

Not one shred of proof to this old tale, please prove me wrong...

 

All the best

Frank Trzaska

[Cromwell]

I agree, imo these are not oss knives. My opnion is they were manufacturered after the war and sold maybe as late as the 1960s. Not sure when the oss story came in.

[schmooser]

Ok, so my education just took a left turn at Albuquerque...?

What is the market price for an example, just in case I come across one?