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"1 of 70 ORIGINAL WW2 US Navy CASE V42 STILLETTO COMMANDO knife V-42 FSSF dagger" on eBay. Is this a real thing??


Boy Howdy
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Boy Howdy-   Cool!  Looking at the scabbard, I'm pretty sure it was a cut down long scabbard FSSF was issued. So far all the USS Omaha sheaths that we see are of the M6 style, and stamped.  This could actually be from the FSSF, and not the Omaha. I am curious as  what the seller's provenance is.  Thanks for showing!  SKIP

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Skip-you're welcome!

byf41-I am going to have to research "Omaha sheath" since I am not familiar with that item.

Is there a forum thread about it?

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Did a little searching.

Educated myself.😏

 

"Some 70 V-42 knives were issued with short U.S. Marine Corps Raider knife scabbards. This was confirmed by Case Cutlery shipping records, which indicate that some 70 V-42 knives were procured by the U.S. Navy and sent to the Brooklyn Navy Depot in late 1942 and early 1943. The knives were issued in 1943 to crewmen serving in USS Omaha Landing Force and Armed Boat Party while the ship was off the Florida coast at the start of a South Atlantic war patrol, searching for German commerce raiders and blockade runners. While USS Omaha did encounter German blockade runners,[5] there were no recorded instances of the V-42 being employed against an opponent in combat. The 70 V-42s procured by the U.S. Navy were the only known V-42 knives sent to a unit or branch outside the First Special Service Force."

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Allegedly the sheaths were stamped "USS Omaha" and had a number.  Later someone determined that the name of the ship should be xed out in case they fell into enemy hands.  Some were, some weren't.  Also, some time later they were all ordered to be dumped into the Philadelphia harbor, but no one is really sure if they were, or if so, how many were.  Lot of fakes out there.

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EmperorWangDong

Yep, it is a cut-down as stated. It is strange that so many USS Omaha knives show up for sale, given the small number of them made.

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Over the years I've often questioned the "dumped into Philidelphia harbor" story. More than likely the knives were merely distributed out to the sailors. The story was just an official way of getting the knives off the books. As stated there sure seems like quite a few floating around.  SKIP

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It is a bit intriguing how some were spared the fate of censoring. We find knives that the sheaths were personalized with name and ship all the time.  All sorts of loose objects on ships have its name. So it seems weird that they were concerned about this knife having USS Omaha for secrecy purposes. I believe the more likely scenario were that these knives we in the ships armory and when the ordnance was removed, the property mark to the USS Omaha was blanked out. Those that escaped the fate were likely in some measure of circulation amongst the crew or better yet officers and left the ship with them.  I would also think the stamps applied to the sheath were done by the ships armorers by direction. So the story of someone taking 180 on the markings seems a bit implausible, well at least to me. 

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19 hours ago, byf41 said:

The knife Is a genuine V42 but thats not an Omaha sheath . 

 

Agree as stated its a cut down standard V42 scabbard. The Ones of Navy origins have the USMC Stilletto style scabbards as shown in post #6 

 

Also I have always thought the story of over stamping / censoring the ships name a bit dubious and being done for security reasons etc was a bit Hollywood. In my thinking this was done to remove from inventory or surplus them out and remove the govt markings. Look at all the M3s we see with ground off markings as well as USN and USMC knives that marling were scrubbed. Also the M6 leather scabbards seen with US M6 over stamped.

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Indeed, and just one more quick point. So often all ships personnel had the ships name and/or hull number stenciled on their shirts and jackets, to also include kapok life preservers and helmets. So to think USS Omaha stamped into sheath is some measure of a breech of national security is a bit far fetched. 

 

Not to be a negative Nancy wet blanket, I'm not too sure about you guys but I'm growing weary of the all the BS story lines that were made up back in 1992 from dealers and such. Hence, why its fun to challenge some common beliefs.

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dustin makes a good point. I was in 7th Special Forces Group in the late 80s, all our issue MK2 knives had our company, and ODA numbers roughly engraved on the pommels, and blades,  for accountability. At that time we were running operations & training missions in Central and South America. No big secret, and well published.  SKIP

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On 6/12/2021 at 1:19 PM, dustin said:

Indeed, and just one more quick point. So often all ships personnel had the ships name and/or hull number stenciled on their shirts and jackets, to also include kapok life preservers and helmets. So to think USS Omaha stamped into sheath is some measure of a breech of national security is a bit far fetched. 

 

Not to be a negative Nancy wet blanket, I'm not too sure about you guys but I'm growing weary of the all the BS story lines that were made up back in 1992 from dealers and such. Hence, why its fun to challenge some common beliefs.

Agree. how often do we see the people with "unmarked"  M3s say they are OSS knives etc. There was a comment on a knife topic recently and person posting this was from France. He had been selling a few M3s . I had to comment that its a bit absurd to think the OSS would contract or order a quantity of unmarked M3 trench knives when they already had a stiletto from LF&C that was unmarked and the Smatchets made by WR Case. Leaving the markings off an M3 knife to be sterile and thinking the germans wouldnt know what country of origin the knife came from is a bit like leaving the numbers off  Kyle Pettys race car at the Daytona 500  thinking no one would know who he was.... 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update-the seller ended  the auction.

"This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another one popped up on the bay.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164952046163?hash=item2667e87a53%3Ag%3A3f8AAOSwYCdg6J~Y&LH_ItemCondition=4

 

there are more pictures in the listing.

 

Has anyone kept track of what scabbard numbers markings are verified as legitimate? ie: A-23 in this case. (no pun intended)

s-l1600 (6).jpg

s-l1600 (7).jpg

s-l1600 (8).jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

He did have this in his listing:

 

"The sheath is original. The dagger appears to be aftermarket. Maybe by windlass cutlery.'

 

Looks like someone bought it for the sheath...

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EmperorWangDong
13 hours ago, Boy Howdy said:

He did have this in his listing:

 

"The sheath is original. The dagger appears to be aftermarket. Maybe by windlass cutlery.'

 

Looks like someone bought it for the sheath...

Not when I posted it. It was listed for $3,000 and listed as all original. Someone must have sent him a message.

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