Épée-Baïonnette Modèle 1886 Modifié 1915 French bayonet

My father-in-law gave me a cool item yesterday. It was his fathers'. It is a Épée-Baïonnette Modèle 1886 Modifié 1915 French bayonet. After some research this bayonet is even more interesting than I thought. This is a World War piece…except it is WWI not WWII. The research I have done mentions all the various markings (20+) that could be on this French Infantry weapon. Strangely enough this piece has no marking. I finally dug up the reference below:

"During WWI Remington Arms Company which was based in Ilion, New York was contracted to make Épée-Baïonnette Modèle 1886 Modifié 1915 for the French military, most of these bayonets will not have any markings on them at all as very few of these were sent to France during the Great War."

This bayonet is just short of 100 years old. It even had some of the old cosmoline (military type grease/preservative) inside the scabbard.

25" overall with a 20" long 4 sided blade that would pierce you completely and leave a nasty wound. It was designed to fit on the French Lebel model 1886 rifle.

Hmmm....no love for “la Rosalie”?

hso said:

That's great that you have your grandfather's bayonet and even more so that it could be a Remington. Now you just need the rifle to put it on for display.

Do you have a picture of the butt?

Did your grandfather serve in WWI or was he a collector?

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This was my Father-in-laws father's bayonet. He served in WWII. Nobody is sure how he obtained this WWI era bayonet. My FIL just gave it to me.

SlamFire1 said:

Captain Herbert McBridge wrote in his book, A Rifleman Goes to War, that he carried the epee bayonet on trench raids. He said it could not be parried. I don’t know why it could not be parried unless the stickey was expecting a blow instead of a thrust.

The blades on these things can be bent and broken easily. Shortened ones are common.

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As trench warfare progressed the blades were made shorter and shorter.