Just got this from Bill Shea. Its probably one of the best value for money named daggers I have bought so far. Early Eick with second pattern crossguard. Neither Bill nor the previous owner ever found anything out about "O. Will" and so I got a good deal at just a bit above market value for this type of dagger. Regarding the engraving, Bill wrote to me: "I've probably owned 25,000 daggers and seen double that in other collections. I feel very comfortable that this is perod done. The quality and depth combined with the age and consistency meet with my degree of comfort." I agreeed and bought this piece.

The 1939 Heer Ranglist shows 4 officers with last name "Will". As far as I have ascertained so far, only one has an O. initial first name, Otto Will. I now have avery good and cooperative contact at the BA-MA (Bundesarchiv Militararchiv Freiburg) and I hope to have complete certainty on this soon. Meanwhile...

Generalleutnant Otto Will, was the army general in charge of inspecting the railway engineer corps throughout the war. Not a front line officer, but one tasked with an absolutely crucial task. More info soon.

pommel



Eagle

Already a beauty without it�s background! I agree, this is a kind of engraving (and "condition" of engraving I would expect when period done.
Congratulations to this one!
Regards,

Gustavo

nice work beatiful dagger. I looked at the same one i was going to buy it, but then Show of Shows would have been no fun. Looking forward to hearing more about this dagger. Nice work

Another beauty for sure.
Congrats !

Gustavo, Very nice dagger! I always value Bill Shea's opinion on an item. Charlie

Gustavo,

You sure get the nice ones. And as always great research. Thanks for showing it.

Hi gustavo

What a nice dagger, but how do you know for sure the dagger belongs to Otto Will.
It could be a other name.

Hi janjan, read my post above

Gustavo it's a very, very nice piece indeed. Many congrats to you.

Kind regards,

Davey

My process of eliminaiton continues...

The Freiburg archivists (Bundesarchiv Militararchiv Freiburg) are friendly and I have good traction with them, finally... but they are German public servants after all They have their standard ways of searching and if you request anything outside their standard procedure, its like pulling teeth

Of the 5 other "Will�s" listed in the Ranglisten we have managed to rule out Dr. Will, whose first name was Ernst. The Freiburg folks have actually sent me a copy of his "Karteikarte", the old library card type file with his name and rank etc... 4 more to go... Whats the chance of one of them having an O. first initial? we will see. I�m having fun in the process.

If I am successful in ruling out the remaning four "Will�s", I will share the highlights of Generalleutnant Otto Will�s Personalakten which I have. This is his pic and signature



Remaining four "Will" officers:

- Oberstleutnant Will, Stab, VI Armeekorps Munster. Date of rank 1.3.37

- Hauptmann Will, Infanterie regiment 41. Date of rank 1.36.38

- Hauptmann Will, Gebirgsbeobachtungsabtelung 38, previously Beob. abt. 17. Date of rank 1.11.34

- Leutnant Will, Artillerie Regiment 26, date of rank 1.9.38