British WW1 1913 Pattern Bayonet, Dated 1917 by Winchester
Straight single-fullered knife blade, steel hilt with muzzle ring, wood slab grips with characteristic pair of cut grooves on each slab, secured by two screws. Steel beaked pommel with oil hole and locking button. Black leather scabbard with steel locket & chape piece, black leather frog with retaining loop.
The ricasso is stamped on one side with ‘1913 4-17 W’, indicating that it is the 1913 Pattern, manufactured in April 1917 by Winchester. On the other side it is stamped with a ‘broad arrow’ War Department stores mark, two crown inspection marks with ‘A’ for America and an ‘X’ indicating that it passed a manufacturer’s bending test. The leather section of the scabbard is stamped next to the seam with ‘C.H.V.’ while the chape piece is stamped next to the staple with ‘GF’ within a circle. The rear of the frog is stamped with ‘I’.
The U.S. made 1913 Pattern bayonets, having identical blades to the British 1907 Pattern, were entirely compatible with British scabbards and vice versa. This scabbard is the US type which lacks a frog stud.
Inspired by the German Mauser M98 rifle, the experimental Pattern 1913 Enfield was intended to be the next generation British infantry rifle, firing the new .276 cartridge. The outbreak of war curtailed its development and the well-established SMLE was retained in service instead. However with an urgent need for rifles the government opted to redesign the 1913 to take the existing .303 cartridge, calling this new rifle the Pattern 1914 (NB: the bayonet’s design did not require modifications, therefore it remained the ‘1913 Pattern’ bayonet). The production of these rifles and their bayonets was contracted to American manufacturers – an early handful were made by Vickers but it was clear that British plants were best left to make the SMLE.
Winchester produced the 1914 Pattern and its associated bayonet between 1916 and 1917. It was the rarer of the two US manufacturers of the bayonets, producing 225,000 bayonets compared with the 1,243,000 produced by Remington, and the rarest US manufacturer of the rifles, behind Remington and Remington’s subsidiary Eddystone. The 1914’s design was vindicated in that it proved to be more accurate than its predecessor and it was deployed principally as a sniper rifle, the Winchester-made rifles in particular thought to be of high quality, suitable for fitting with telescopic sights. It saw service again during WW2 as rear echelon equipment, e.g. with the British Home Guard, although some were again used in a sniper configuration. The distinctive pattern of frog that has been fitted suggests that it this bayonet was issued to the Home Guard during WW2.
The 1913 Pattern should not be confused with the M1917 Enfield, also known as the ‘American Enfield’, which was essentially the same rifle design, this time adopted by the Americans and rechambered in their own .30-06 Springfield cartridge. Its bayonet was also essentially the same as the British model, but with US service marks and a ‘1917’ pattern stamp.
The blade has no damage to its edge, fractional wear at the tip (>1mm). It retains its original parkerised finish and blued area at the ricasso. The hilt, exposed tang and pommel have a blued finish. The wood grips have a few small dents. The throat piece of the scabbard is bright with traces of blueing, the chape piece is blued with small areas of black lacquer. The frog is flexible with some rubbing to the belt loop and retaining loop. The leather body of the scabbard is glossy with only very light scratches and dents.
