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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Royal Air Force marked bayonets


trajan

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That would make sense. I’m not up to speed on RAF issues bayonets and saw the sale mark as quite interesting. 

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@Mattr82 all good mate, it’s a bit of an “unknown” topic. These bayonet have had multiple refurbishments and many years of service.
 

Having looked at them for a while now, I believe the marking was applied to bayonets that were in stores at the time when transferred from the Army Air Corps to the Royal Air Force and henceforth were no longer “Army Property” 
 

but that is just a theory. 
 

kind regards

g

Edited by navydoc16
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8 hours ago, navydoc16 said:

@Mattr82 the “sale” marks added to likely indicate transfer from the Army to the RAF - which only part of these bayonet batches have

kind regards

g

The rarity of these 'SOS" marks on the RAF ones makes that unlikely. But what is the CAL marking on the one bayonet?

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@trajan why would be that be unlikely? Genuinely curious - for me it is the only timeline and application it makes sense 

Don’t know about the CAL, I have searched but to no avail

kind regards

George 

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1 hour ago, navydoc16 said:

@trajan why would be that be unlikely?

Simply because IIRC, very few, if any of the RAF ones I and JMB saw, have this 'SOS' mark. I think possible the SOS mark on the CAL one refers to later post-RAF use. 

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My first thought was that “CAL” referred to Calcutta, capital city of British India, and this is confirmed by a Google search.

Of course, there could also be a home station beginning CAL but none was found in a listing of inter-wars RAF fields.

So, RAF Calcutta it is.

Regards,

JMB

EDIT: Bayos marked to a particular RAF Station are very uncommon; this one joins only RAF Leuchars and RAF Waddington that Trajan and I have recorded.

Edited by JMB1943
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On 19/09/2024 at 22:59, trajan said:

Simply because IIRC, very few, if any of the RAF ones I and JMB saw, have this 'SOS' mark. I think possible the SOS mark on the CAL one refers to later post-RAF use. 

I have seen quite a few, and also we only regularly see the RAF marking side of the pommel opposite to the SOS, hence why I believe it is so uncommon. 
 

crucially the SOS mark goes out of fashion in terms of British context in the mid 20s from examples we have. Standardly it denotes sale from the Army to another entity or country 

as such we have Sale to the Royal Canadian Navy and Australia

it only makes sense that sos marks were applied to Army or Navy bayonets transferred to RAF - mainly as we have not seen any Royal Navy pieces with sos and RAF markings, it is more likely Army than Navy. 

kind regards

g

F93E9C0E-1C5B-4AC0-AB61-E735E56D2B9E.jpeg

Edited by navydoc16
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1B 2165

Late war Wilkinson Pall Mall

SOS and SD 3.21 - March 1921 

N.R.I on the grips

 

kind regards

g

 

56D4BD59-1BA2-4CFD-9302-91ECB0C0C9CF.jpeg

FC483C16-A9EF-45C3-B778-61C6371A246E.jpeg

Edited by navydoc16
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Thanks Navydoc! I am hors d'combat in the UK but I know JMB will take note.

Trajan

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@trajan,

Duly noted!

Regards,

JMB

EDIT: I also have just noticed that you started this thread on this date in 2014…….

Edited by JMB1943
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On 27/09/2024 at 15:27, JMB1943 said:

@trajan

EDIT: I also have just noticed that you started this thread on this date in 2014…….

Time to celebrate - if you haven't been washed out of home!

Julian

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Julian,

Time for both of us to celebrate (cheese, smoked back bacon etc) and other things, I hope!!!!

Very little rain, but a lot of high winds and therefore a long, tiring clean-up from many small branches that came down.

Still at almost 90 F and high humidity here....

Best regards,

JMB

Edited by JMB1943
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Here is updated list of RAF-marked Patt. 1907 bayonets.

Regards, JMB

Alpha-numeric

1

1 A

1 B

1 C

1 D

1 E

1 F

UNK*

 

0681

0371***

0140

0049

0871

0116

1113

6701

 

749**

0943

0993

0231

1481

0306

2103

7409

 

0768

1063

1594

1011

2017

0398

6802

8029

 

0984

1078

1601

1175

2360

0511

 

 

5

1594

1606

2165

1809

2664

0852

 

C/D 760X

 

1712

2705/6

2406

2013

3021

0897

 

E/F 3056

 

1735****

4027

2994

2202

3515

1016

 

 

 

1878

4335

3157

3124

3605

1550

 

 

 

2279

4613

4274

3527

3713

1559

 

 

10

3114

4771

4607

3641

3822

1787

 

 

 

4878

6349

4650

4032

3869

2135

 

 

 

5003

7338

5050

4128

4360

2394

 

 

 

5552

7580

5059

4613

4379

2440

 

 

 

5806

8065

5652

5222

4480

2527

 

 

15

5809

8719

5860

5306

4586

318X

 

 

 

5860

 

6682

5398

5282

3242

 

 

 

6209

 

7112

6371

5319

3429

 

1/E/K/R 4541

 

6682

 

7173

6557

5375

3881

 

 

 

6719***

 

7175

7364

5546

3991

 

 

20

6731

 

7448

7808

5553

4032

 

1/E/F 318X

 

7912

 

7625

8080

5713

4033

 

 

 

8353

 

8089

9235

5868

4042

 

 

 

8356

 

8225

9303

6021

4044

 

1/A/371X

 

9369

 

8238

9798

6557

4232

 

 

25

9505

 

8757

9911

6563

4285(L)

 

 

 

9957

 

8782

 

6641

4341

 

 

 

9996

 

9557

 

7390

4442

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7486

4460

 

 

 

XXX2

 

 

 

7564

4594

 

 

30

 

 

 

 

7600

4791

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8029

4840

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8082

4950

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8292

5018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8490

5292

 

 

35

 

 

 

 

8634

5448

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9219

5476

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9287

6070

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9298

6206

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9500

6341

 

 

40

 

 

 

 

 

6802

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8196

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28

15

27

25

39

41

3

8 = 186

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Many thanks JMB! I am hoping to be out of UK and back in Turkey November from when I should be able to take a more active part in discussions...

Julian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just appeared on a forthcoming auction site,  Sanderson, date difficult to make out, but possibly 11 13.  

R.A.F.

1.E.

015

Described as 'highly unususal one of less then 100 known examples'.  Auction house;-  Rydale Auctioneers of Kirbymoorside, York.

Mke.

 

 

 

Edited by MikeyH
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MikeyH,

Hhhmmm…..”one of less than 100”…..wonder which Table that came from?

Regards,

JMB

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JMB,

A couple of photo's for the record, RAF 1E 015. I have twisted photo every which way and still not sure if something after the 5. It does not appear to be listed which ever way we look at it. Nothing on the description to help.

The second, RAF 1 0769 is another with the front of pommel stamped. You have RAF 1 1068 listed which I can't see a photo of, so not sure with that last numeral if we are looking at the same bayonet.

Cheers,

TR

 

RAF 1E 015.jpg

RAF 1E 015a.jpg

RAF 1 0769.jpg

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@t.ryan,

Yes, I would take that as 1E/ 015 (no additional digit), and 1/ 0769.

If you don’t have a photo of 1/ 1068 that is because when Trajan and I started recording these numbers we did i not save the photos; in retrospect, probably should have!

Regards,

JMB

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Could be an 8 but probably not clear enough to be sure 

kind regards

g

 

1A2AFAF6-B10B-4EBB-A3BD-4100930D066B.jpeg

Edited by navydoc16
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I just re read the Description on RAF 1 0769/8 and it says 0768 but if you magnify the number it looks 9, so it may have been mistaken before.

RAF 1E 015 looks to have something there after the 5 but it is not mentioned in the description.

Cheers,

TR  

Edited by t.ryan
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