German WW1 Ersatz Bayonet – Carter Type EB4
Spear-pointed knife blade with a single long and broad fuller, 12¼ inches in length, 17¼ inches overall. Feldgrau painted hilt and grip, the hilt with split muzzle ring. Black-painted steel scabbard with frog hook.
The hilt is stamped with the serial number '4366'.
The ‘ersatz’ bayonets were simplified models produced near the beginning of the war to fit the Gewehr 88 rifle: production had to be ramped up rapidly to equip the expanding German army, and existing factories either could not cope with demand or preferred to manufacture rifles, leaving bayonets to be made in many cases by smaller firms or ones which did not previously produce weapons.
These hastily crafted bayonets had a hard life: many were used to destruction or sold into Turkish service. There are many types to collect: in the nomenclature of Carter’s definitive book on the subject, this would be an EB4 type.
