German WW1 Ersatz Bayonet – Carter Type EB50

Spear-pointed unfullered knife blade, steel hilt and grip with oil hole, the hilt of one-piece construction with split muzzle ring, grip with diagonal grooves. Black-painted steel scabbard with frog hook, partly wrapped with wire. Black paint to the hilt, traces of black paint in recessed areas of the grip like the grooves and the mortise slot. Blade 12 1/8 inches in length, the bayonet 16 7/8 inches overall.

The ricasso is stamped on one side with a crown inspection mark, as is the spine of the blade. The pommel appears to have some form of stamping, one mark with what look like arrows.

The ‘ersatz’ bayonets were simplified models produced near the beginning of WW1 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 EB50 type.