There were quite literally many hundreds of Infantry regiments. Add in all the other branches of service and the numbers grow correspondingly. German regiments were the basic "building blocks" of the divisions. After WW I the German Army (in theory anyway) was reduced 100,000 men. With the Allies not paying much attention to the reserves. Which for the active army would have been roughly equivalent in terms of manpower to something less than 10 divisions for a total of 30 to 40 regiments depending on how they were configured. After Hitler came to power the German Army steadily began to grow from that supposed 100,000 man baseline. The mobilization of 1939 called up portions of the reserves and eliminated the relatively short two year enlistment's of currently serving soldiers. Which I think is why we are seeing with these bayonets the lower numbered regiments of the not yet fully expanded army. Trying to connect these units with the divisions sometimes can be challenging, and when you factor in the changes it gets even more interesting.
Not only is this particular grouping of bayonets a testament to the skills of the Solingen craftsman who made them, but it seems to show something else chronologically. There may be another grouping of bayonets waiting to be presented. But I don�t think I see any of the later wartime Eickhorn trademarks - as seen for example on some of the late German naval daggers. FP
