Pattern 1907 Bayonet

Origins

When the British Army adopted the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle in 1903, it was shorter than the rifles of other armies, and its first bayonet, the Pattern 1903, had a 12-inch blade. Critics argued that a British soldier with a short rifle and short bayonet would be at a disadvantage in a bayonet fight against an enemy with a long rifle and long bayonet. The answer came from Japan: the Japanese Type 30 bayonet had a long blade, and the British tested and adapted it. The result, the Pattern 1907, had a 17-inch blade, giving the SMLE with bayonet fixed a reach about equal to the German Gewehr 98 with its bayonet. It was approved in 1908 for use with the Lee-Enfield Rifle.

Design & Construction

The Pattern 1907 is a sword bayonet with a single-edged, fullered blade about 17 inches (43 cm) long and an overall length of about 22 inches. Its grip has two wooden scales riveted to a steel tang, and it attaches to the rifle by a mortise slot in the pommel, which fits over a bar under the rifle's nose cap, and a ring on the crossguard, which fits over the muzzle. The first version had a hooked quillon on the crossguard, supposedly to catch an enemy's blade; it was found to be of little use and to snag on equipment, and from 1913 it was removed, and many earlier bayonets were modified. The bayonet was carried in a leather scabbard with steel fittings. It was made by Wilkinson Sword, Sanderson, Chapman, Mole, Vickers and others in Britain, by Remington in the United States under wartime contract, and at Lithgow in Australia and at Ishapore in India. The maker's name and date are stamped on the ricasso.

Combat Use

The Pattern 1907 went to France with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and was carried by every infantryman of the British and Commonwealth armies of the World War I. It was the bayonet of the charges at Loos and the Somme and of trench raids, although in the confined space of a trench its long blade made it clumsy, and raiders often preferred clubs, knives such as the Mark I Trench Knife or the entrenching tool. Soldiers used it as a tool too, for cooking, digging and opening tins. The Gurkhas carried it alongside the kukri. Between the wars and in the Second World War it remained in use with the SMLE, especially in North Africa, Burma and with Commonwealth forces, although the new No. 4 rifle had its own short spike bayonet.

Legacy

The Pattern 1907 was one of the most widely made bayonets of the twentieth century, and it stayed in service in India, Australia and other Commonwealth countries into the 1950s and beyond. It is the classic bayonet of the British Tommy, seen in photographs of soldiers going over the top. Its many makers, dates and inspection marks make it popular with collectors, and hooked-quillon examples from before 1913 are the most sought after.