Category Archives: knives

M948 Bayonet Alert!

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I am a bayonet freak.

Perhaps even a bayonet superfreak with probably 150-200 in my collection dating back to the 1700s and often opining on them.

So, when I saw that Centerfire Systems has Portuguese FBP m/948 bayonets on sale in three grades from $39 to $59, I was all in. I mean, who has too many Portuguese bayonets on hand?

My “good condition” FBP m/968 bayonet. At some 11.75 inches long overall, it has a dagger-style point and double edged 7-inch blade with a steel scabbard. It is probably the most “fighting knife” oriented bayonet I have ever encountered.

Note the lack of a muzzle ring and a very Mauser-style (though it will not fit a Mauser) locking mechanism on the rear. I also love the fact that it has wood grip panels rather than plastic, a rarity in a Cold War-era bayonet.

Notice the similarities between the m/948 bayonet and the German-made Portuguese Mauser M937A Rifle bayonet

These were all made between 1948 and 1988, with the bulk in the 1960s. As such, they popped up in several African hot spots in any number of hands and are still sometimes encountered on the continent.

What was the m/948?

Portugal, which suffered over 30,000 casualties serving with its British allies in the Great War, rearmed in the 1930s with what eventually turned into 150,000 German-made (and Swazi-marked) Mauser-Werke AG Oberndorf 98K bolt-action rifles (adopted as the Espingarda Mod.937). These were augmented by Steyr MP-34 sub guns dubbed the Pistola Metralhadora (machine pistol) m/938 (in 7.65 mm) and m/942 (in 9 mm).

While they largely sat out WWII but aligned with London and Washington (keeping Franco’s Spain neutral in the process), the Cold War soon came around, and Portugal was one of the original 12 NATO alliance members in 1949. This meant the country needed to modernize its forces should it be forced to fight the Soviets.

This need was kicked into overdrive when all of Portugal’s overseas territories slowly slid into revolt– with a little help from Moscow. What followed was the 13-year (February 1961 to April 1974) Guerra do Ultramar (The Overseas War), spent fighting Communist-backed insurgent guerrillas in the country’s African colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, as well as in East Timor and Goa in the Indian Ocean.

In other words, the Portuguese needed new guns. Lots of them.

Some 800,000 Portuguese military and colonial paramilitary members fought in the Guerra do Ultramar during the Cold War, with an average of 100,000 deployed overseas at any given time. To arm these troops, Lisbon’s Fábrica Militar de Braço de Prata (FBP) factory began licensed production of HK G3 (Espingarda Automática m/961) rifles and HK21 (m/968) machine guns in 7.62 NATO, as well as a locally designed m/968 60mm patrol mortar, and the m/948 sub-machine gun.

The Portuguese also purchased small numbers of Belgian-made FN FALs (13,470, designated the m/962) and Dutch-made AR-10s (about 4,500, designated m/961) to help fill their needs until the home-built HKs came online. As you can see, all was well within the NATO extended family.

Designed in the late 1940s by Portuguese artillery Major Gonçalves Cardoso, the FBP m/948 was a simple blow-back action 9mm open bolt SMG that borrowed elements from the German MP40 (bolt and recoil assembly, barrel and nut design), British STEN (mags, mag release, ejector), and the American M3 Grease Gun (stock, sights, grip, etc). The imitation is so complete that m/948 bolts can apparently be used in MP40s as a drop-in replacement, and the gun readily accepts STEN mags.

The FBP m/948 was a simple spot-welded “tube gun” made from inexpensive stampings that borrowed from the MP40, STEN, and M3. This intact model in the IWM collection, IWM (FIR 10392)

Production was only about 20-30,000 guns, mostly in the 1960s, and they were issued primarily to NCOs, commandos, and guards– which meant they were also often captured and used against Portuguese units as well.

These production numbers from FBP are available:

“In 1963, 11,867 G-3s and 5,572 FBP submachine guns were manufactured; in 1964, there were 23,724 and 6,561; in 1969, the numbers were 45,660 and 694. In total, until 1988, the factory produced 442,197 G3 and 19,113 FBP submachine guns.” (Pinto, Renato. Portugal and Weapons – A History of Small Arms and Military Industries. Colibri, 2024.)

Guerrillas of the PAIGC on Como Island with a motley accumulation of weapons, including PPsh, PPS, and FBP SMGs. The PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) was a communist organization formed in 1956 and openly backed by the Soviets.

A Portuguese air force T-6 Texan, and a Dornier Do 27, atCazombo field, Angola, guarded by a sentinel with an FBP. The Portuguese used an amazing 250 T-6s and 150 Do-27s in the African Bush Wars, being an ideal combo for COIN and transport/liaison work from small fields. 

Note the distinctive bayonet lug on the m/948 and its STEN mag. 

The gun was made in a semi-auto variant (m/963) as well as one with a cooling sleeve around the barrel (m/976).

The FBP factory later became part of the unified national defense industries system (INDEP) and closed its doors in the early 1990s, with its last product being the even simpler blowback action Lusa submachine gun, which, designed to replace the m/948, was never put into production; its technical data package was sold to U.S. investors and faded into history.

It seems Portugal has been finally disposing of the last m/948s on hand over the past 10-12 years, and, while I’ve seen the bayonets pop up as components of torched parts kits, seeing them by themselves in good condition for under $100 was a no-brainer.

I’d recommend grabbing one while you can.

Pioneer Old Home Days

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In my normal EDC travels on the Gulf Coast, I typically carry a double-stack 9mm (currently the Hellcat Pro as I have 3K rounds through it without a single reportable issue) IWB as my primary piece, often augmented by a backup gun of the single stack 9mm or 38 snub variety. Added to this is a small tactical light, a small fixed blade or large folder, and a multitool, the latter typically a Victorinox Cadet Alox as I just love Swiss Army knives.

Well, on a recent 18-day working trip to Western/Central Europe to attend IWA and visit three historic firearms makers (more on this to come), to comply with local laws my EDC was whittled down to just a SAK and a light.

The SAK of choice? A 9-tool Victorinox Pioneer X Alox, which is larger and beefier than the slimline Cadet while still falling within acceptable limits for pocket knives in the countries in which I was traveling.

It came in handy on numerous occasions, particularly in building and taking down camera gimble frames and chassis.

And, of course, there was a moment of pause to salute it when passing through its Alpine birthplace in the Swiss Confederation.

How a Trench Knife in a French Cemetery Led to Honoring a Fallen Great War GI

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The Disson M1917 and later M1918 trench knives, or “knuckle dusters” were a uniquely American item in the Great War

In February 2018, a French undertaker working in a cemetery in Villers-sur-Fere, a village about 60 miles northeast of Paris, discovered a set of undocumented remains. The fallen warrior was found with assorted field equipment that included a steel helmet, a trench knife, and an ammo belt full of 30.06 cartridges.

The undertaker contacted authorities and, it was discovered that American forces battled German forces in the village in the summer of 1918. This led to calling in a Great War archaeology expert and the American Battle Monuments Commission.

ABMC historians consulted the memoir of famed Army Chaplain Francis P. Duffy, which describes the burial of U.S. Soldiers from the 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division in the location where the remains were discovered. Notably, three Soldiers of the 42nd’s 150th MG Battalion earned the Distinguished Service Cross at Villers-sur-Fere in July 1918, one posthumously.

They were not the only ones, as the main color in the Rainbow division in France was red.

During its time on the Western Front, the 42nd participated in six major campaigns across 264 days in combat in 1917-1918 and incurred 14,000 casualties– a whopping one-out-of-sixteen casualties suffered by the American Army as a whole during the war. The fallen included poet Sgt. Joyce Kilmer– -the author of the poem “Trees“-who was killed in action.

In the end, the lost Joe discovered at Villers-sur-Fere in 2018 was laid to rest with full military honors alongside 6,000 of his fellow countrymen this week at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France.

The ceremony is reportedly the first burial of an unknown U.S. Soldier from World War I since 1988 and the first burial at Oise-Aisne since 1932.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade carry a casket with the remains of a World War I unknown soldier at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France, June 7, 2023. Photo By: Russell Toof, American Battle Monuments Commission. VIRIN: 230606-D-GJ885-005

Notably, Kilmer, who was killed near Oise-Aisne, is buried at the same cemetery, (Plot B, Row 9, Grave 15).

With that, Kilmer’s “Rouge Bouquet,” a tribute to the 19 Americans killed by a German artillery bombardment in the Rouge Bouquet wood near Baccarat, France in March 1918 comes to mind. An excerpt reads:           

“In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet

There is a new-made grave to-day,

Built by never a spade nor pick.

Yet covered with earth ten metres thick

There lie many fighting men,

Dead in their youthful prime…”

Happy Birthday, Ka-Bar

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This week 99 years ago Union Cutlery registers for the KA-BAR trademark.

I’ve always loved them, from the pocket knives to the fighting knives.

WWII-era Ka-Bar Mk2 with original fiberglass sheath. The drawing is actually of the Ka-Bar commando a very similar offering

Two WWII Marine Raiders demo knife fighting– note the K.

The vehicle ran over the Ka-Bar and it punctured the tire and lodged in the wheel. the handle did not break off until it was inside the tire.

Der General Rates a Umbrella on the Range

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Official caption: “Übungsschießen mit einem Scharfschützengewehr am Schießplatz in Ferlach, 03.11.1915” (Practice shooting with a sniper rifle at the shooting range in Ferlach), showing an evidently high-ranking Austrian officer test-firing a German Gew 98 Mauser, equipped with an early scope, some 107 years ago today.

Via the Austrian National Library (ONB) https://onb.digital/result/11242BC9

The shooter, decked out not only with his own personal poncho and goggles but also firing under an umbrella to make sure his carefully waxed mustache remains intact, is General der Kavallerie Franz Rohr, who at the time of the range session had recently returned to active service after being placed over the Hungarian Honved reserve in 1913.

Rohr, placed in charge of a scratch force along the Carinthian frontier upon Italy’s entry into the war, would go on to lead the newly-formed 10th Army, then the 11th Army, before switching to the Eastern Front in 1917 to command the prestigious old 1st Army, picking up a baron’s title and adding a “von” to his name. Made Feldmarschall Freiherr Franz Rohr von Denta in 1918, at age 64, he would go on to become the head of Hungary’s postwar army before his death in 1927.

Also, note the peculiar Austrian use of a “dress bayonet” in lieu of a sword, but still outfitted with a Portépée-style sword knot, as displayed by Rohr’s very wet ADC, who does not rate a regenschirm.

You’ve heard of Glock…knives, eh?

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A key early contract for Herr Gaston Glock, two years before the inventor would submit his first prototype pistol for review, was for a polymer-handled field knife for an Austrian Army tender. The lightweight and rugged knife submitted by Glock won over Bundesheer purchasing agents and it was quickly adopted by the Austrian military as the FM (Feldmesser) 78.

As its name would imply, it was intended for all-purpose field use ranging from opening ammo boxes and bottles to food prep and camp chores.

And it would go on to launch an empire.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Turning a Musket into a Pike: The Arcelin 1856

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The Cody Firearms Museum – Buffalo Bill Center of the West was founded in 1991 and has over 10,000 rare and interesting guns in their collection. One of the most curious they have shown off in the past couple of years for researchers is the French 1856 Arcelin system breechloading cavalry musketoon and its accompanying full-length sword bayonet, ideally for use together only when dismounted.

This thing.

The world’s foremost fan of oddball French firearms, Ian McCollum, did a great video on the Arcelin last January and just slightly more current, The Armourer’s Bench this week posted a new one that goes a bit more in-depth.

The Last American Bayonet Charge at 70

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This month remembers the fateful day on 7 February 1951 when the footsoldiers of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry (Wolfhounds) Regiment, under the command of 30-year-old CAPT Lewis Lee Millett Sr., would undertake a successful bayonet charge on an enemy position atop frozen Hill 180 near Anyang, South Korea.

An understrength unit of just ~100 men, they fought their way up every step of what later became known as Bayonet Hill, and for good reason. 

S.L.A. Marshall described the attack as “the most complete bayonet charge by American troops” since Cold Harbor in 1864.

Millett, who had received a Silver Star for driving a burning ammunition truck away from a group of soldiers before it exploded during WWII, would become a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions. He went on to found the famous Recondo school and left the military in 1973 as a colonel. He passed in 2009.

Here is Col. Millett describing his service and the action at Hill 180.

The U.S. Army in Korea remembered the event earlier this month.

For more on the Army in Korea, please visit the CMH site. 

Do you have a Wilde Tool M1905E1 bayonet?

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As a gun guy who also has a debilitating knife habit, of course, I am into bayonets, an addiction that I have regularly chronicled. Since my early teens, if I came across one in a swap meet, gun show, estate sale, or buddy’s collection at a decent price, it attracted my hot little hands.

If you have a similar monkey on your back, check your collection for a “WT” marked M1905E1. Produced by Wilde Tool out of Kansas City, Missouri, who made some 60,000 standard 16-inch M1905s for the U.S. M1903 Springfield rifle/M1 Garand, the “E1” mod is the later cutdown mod with the blade trimmed to 10-inches.

Thus

Apparently, they are running the same price as M1s themselves these days!

For Pocket Knife Fans

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Recently snagged these plastic cards as part of a T&E I am doing on Case knives. I have a few extra on hand to pass on to fans of folding knives. Just shoot me an email with your shipping address to egerwriter@gmail.com and I will drop one in the mail (no, this is not a plot to add you to a mailing list for anyone or send your info to an eagerly awaiting Nigerian prince.)

For those of you who would rather just have the digital version, of course just click “save as” on the images.

Happy Monday!

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