Camillus USAAF Emergency Kit Knife WW2

[bayonetman]

Some years ago Frank Trzaska wrote an article for Knife World magazine titled Camillus: The Early Years of WW2.. With the assistance of Tom Williams, the historian for Camillus, and well known knife expert Bernard Levine several documents were found that detailed the contributions of Camillus that were otherwise overlooked. The article appeared in the April 2001 edition of Knife World.

 

Among other knives in the article, Frank described a knife ordered by the AAF to be included in the Emergency Kits being produced by the Liberty Electric Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. A total of 35,500 knives were ordered, making it a fairly common knife compared to many others produced during the war.

 

These knives were not military marked, but instead had only the standard 4 line Camillus mark in use at that time. Most had stagged rosewood handle grips, but some used stagged bone as it was on hand and had been used on the commercial version of the knife, Camillus # 5665 "Hunting Knife". One of the significant differences between this one and the commercial version is the use of 12 gauge spun steel rivets holding the handles. The commercial version used brass, which by the time of the contract (early 1943) had been replaced by steel because of the critical listing of brass.

 

The sheath for the knife was supplied to Camillus by J.H.Mosser Leather Company of Williamsport, PA. The sheath was reinforced with 11 steel rivets, used only on the wartime production of this sheath.

 

There were several versions and contracts for this knife, anyone interested should procure a copy of the Knife World article as it has several illustrations.

 

I keep my eye open for these knives although I no longer get out much to shows, but recently saw one for sale on eBay. I was the high bidder, apparently there is not a lot of interest in these. It is identified to a WW2 pilot who was killed in action over Burma. I have has some discussion about this on another thread, see: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...0016&hl=b24

 

The knife and sheath match Frank's description exactly, so I do feel comfortable in stating that this is a specimen of the Camillus #5665 knife as supplied to the AAF for their survival kits. I am illustrating it here in the interest of acquainting the members of this forum with this knife so possibly those of you who are interested in both knives and the AAF might know what to look for.

 

 

 

I am in the process of making a display to honor the memory of this veteran. It is still in the planning stage, but will look something like this when completed.

 

[Charlie Flick]

Hello Gary:

What a nice find you made with that blade. The history attached to it is priceless. It is a little surprising that more buyers were not chasing it on Ebay. Given the Lt.'s death in the CBI I suspect that the blade was returned to his family along with his other personal effects.

I agree with you that these martial knives are little known in the collecting community. Like you, I first learned of them when I read Frank T's 2001 article in Knife World. Unless one is familiar with that article, or is a dedicated Camillus collector with access to Tom's factory drawings and related materials, these blades are not going to be readily recognized as legitimate USGI knives by casual observers.

Shown here is an example of this USAAF blade in my collection. It does not have the history that your fine example does, and probably sat in a USAAF warehouse (or stuck in an unused Emergency Kit) throughout the war as it appears to be in pretty nice shape with no evidence of sharpening or use. I believe this example is the second type of Camillus Model #5665 blade that formed part of the USAAF purchase for Emergency Kits. It has the distinguishing features of the four line blade marking, the steel rivets, the unique Mosser-made 11-rivet sheath, and the jigged rosewood handles as compared to the jigged bone handles on your knife.

Thanks for the post. I am glad to see that you are still chasing knives.

Regards,
Charlie Flick

[bayonetman]

Charlie, that is certainly a fine looking specimen! I would imagine that most of these actually spent most of the war packed in the emergency kits and I was happy to get one with what is hopefully an authentic history. Now I am on the lookout for a specimen with the jigged rosewood handles.

 

Health and age are causing me to sell off most of my reference collection. This does not indicate a lack of interest in knife and bayonet collecting, just the reality that there is no real need to have one of everything.

 

I have a few knives that do have history attached, as I got most of them directly from the veterans. Those I will keep along with a few "favorites". I have always had a soft spot for Camillus military knives and will still pick up one that comes my way at a price I can afford.

[gunbarrel]

Very nice knives, gentlemen. Mine is like Charlie's, but unlike his, it saw a lot of use (no abuse, though). I do have a question. When Frank identified it for me a few years ago (I thought it was one of the early USMC knife), he told me that Camillus made 1466 dozen of them for Emergency Sustenance Kits. That's 17,592 knives. Gary says that a total of 35,500 knives were ordered. Does that mean that another company (or other companies) made the other 17,908 knives, or that Liberty Electric Company canceled the order for half of them?

 

Thank you.

[bayonetman]

My number came both from Frank's article that I referenced, and from the Camillus factory sketch of this knife. Possibly this information came to light sometime after Frank gave you the number of 1466 dozen.

[gunbarrel]

My number came both from Frank's article that I referenced, and from the Camillus factory sketch of this knife. Possibly this information came to light sometime after Frank gave you the number of 1466 dozen.

 

Gary,

 

Frank's e-mail to me quoting that number is dated December 14, 2004. Maybe he'll come around and clarify.

 

Thank you.

[Frank Trzaska]

Ha, your both correct!

 

Liberty Electric had the contract for 35,500 E1 Emergency Sustenance Kits. Camillus supplied the knives for all the kits. The knives were Camillus Model #5665. They produced them with both stagged bone and stagged Rosewood grips. They produced 1466 dozen in Rosewood after running out of bone.

 

All the best

Frank Trzaska

[bayonetman]

Just to show that all things come to he who waits, I managed to snag a specimen of the stagged (jigged) rosewood grip version of this knife from eBay. Not as nice as Charlies, but still a decent specimen and with the correct sheath to go with it.

 

The Title on eBay was Camillus Knife and the description read"Camillus Knife and sheath. Stamped "Camillus Cutlery Co Camillus NY USA". Been in my basement for at least 40 years." Not something to draw the attention of the serious military collector. I contacted the seller asking if he knew anything about the original owner and he said he would ask his mother, he thought it belonged to someone in the family so I may yet get further details.

 

Top is the Podawiltz knife, bottom is the one I just got. How much you ask? $26.50 including shipping.

 

[Charlie Flick]

Well done, Gary. That new one is a handsome specimen and now you have this knife in both flavors!

 

Regards,

Charlie

[Tony V]

Gary

 

WOW ! :drool2: :twothumbup: ............................yes it does say $26.50 Congrats !

 

Tony

[tsellati]

Gary,

 

Holy cow, consider yourself lucky I didn't see that beauty first . And talk about a steal of a deal - $26.50 :w00t: !

 

Tim

[gunbarrel]

Wow--NICE :thumbsup:

[Still-A-Marine]

Outstanding :thumbsup: Bill

[bayonetman]

Getting back to the original story on this thread, I have continued to seek information on Lt. Podawiltz.

 

Recently I found some information that gave me a name which I discovered to be the pilot of the plane at the time of Lt. Podawiltz's death. He is still living and has a sharp mind and was willing to share some of his experiences. As I had guessed from the fact that there was no crash report for the plane, he was killed by anti-aircraft fire but the plane survived and returned to base.

 

The Colonel says he has a group photo of the plane and crew, and kindly agreed to send me a copy along with some of his memories of the time. So it looks like I will have a nice information package to display along with the knife in the future.

 

My advice is to keep checking the internet if you have something identified as there is always new information being posted, and you never know when you will get lucky!

 

 

[Frank Trzaska]

Anyone interested in seeing the original factory prototype it is posted here.

 

Camillus Factory Knives

 

 

All the best

Frank Trzaska

[dustin]

I thought I would revive this great old thread. In addition to these knives the USAAC also procured Camillus pattern # 5679L36 which is a copy of the Marbles Ideal 5" hunting knife. This pattern and the one depicted here were purchased for inclusion in emergency sustenance kits principally the E-1, E-5 and E-12. the model 5665 was intended to supply the equal amount of E-1 sustenance kits from Liberty Electric. Half way through the production Liberty Electric received contracts for the E-5 kit, these knives were then distributed between the two and also more likely the later as Liberty Electric was responsible for supplying the knives for this kit, The E-1 they were government furnished. Several equipment layouts of the E-5 display the Model 5665.

The equivalent to the 5665 the model 5679.

Variation in the tang stamping. The right knife I would consider a late production due to the similarity in known late (1944-1945) tang stamps on 3 line Camillus pocket knives.

[dustin]

This is what I am pretty sure is a Model 5679 being worn by an airmen but unfortunately it is behind the mad pouch. The rivet pattern on these sheaths for the AAC knives are unique, photo taken April 1943.

[dustin]

The Camillus #5665 in a display of the E-5 sustenance kit

 

 

The #5665 being worn, both appear to be the bone model when observing the jig patterns on handles. For some reason this photo zoomed, if you were to scale it back more detail appears.

 

The #5665 in a E-1 sustenance kit display.

 

If you watch the movie Strategic Air Command they wear both these models in many of the flight scenes. Jimmy Stewart wears the 5679 and the guy who plays the colonel on Mash, Forget his name, wears the 5665.