WW2 Dagger, Black

Age: 20th Century

Condition: Excellent

Size (cminches): 32 x 6 x 3

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Item information

History & Provenance

This knife / dagger was used in the recent Afghan campaign and secured the user an OBE for successful use. The F-S knife is strongly associated with the British commandos and the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and Marine Raiders (who based their issued knife on the Fairbairn-Sykes), among other special forces/clandestine/raiding units. It features in the insignia of the British Royal Marines, the Belgian Commandos, the Dutch Commando Corps, founded in the UK during World War II, and the Australian 1st Commando and 2nd Commando Regiments, and the United States Army Rangers, both founded with the help of the British Commandos. Large numbers of Fairbairn Sykes knives of varying types, including some with wooden grips, were used by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division that landed on Juno Beach on "D" Day and by the men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion who jumped and fought on the same day. A solid gold F-S fighting knife is part of the commandos' memorial at Westminster Abbey. The first batch of fifty F-S fighting knives were produced in January 1941 by Wilkinson Sword Ltd after Fairbairn and Sykes had travelled to their factory from the Special Training Centre at Lochailort in November 1940 to discuss their ideas for a fighting knife. 1500 knives of this first pattern were ordered in Nov 1940. An order for 38,000 of the second pattern (slightly revised for wartime exigencies) followed in 1941. By the time of the third pattern of design refinements (dating from October 1943) it was being produced by multiple manufacturers. No formal specification existed until after the war, but the 1949 UK government specification E/1323E remains current. In December 2019, an SBS commando in Afghanistan also used an F-S knife during an ambush by ISIL fighters – such is the proven worth of this knife.

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