Hi!
Recently I purchased this dagger for my collection, but I am a little confused for correct attribution.
Namely, in this forum and in some various books there are the followings states:
- This is the Danish Female Army Officers Dagger
- Danish air force dress dagger m.1966 for female officer.
- Only about 6 made as I understand it.
- Supposedly only 15 of these daggers were issued.
- Danish female off. dagger: Dolk m/79 (k)
- Danish air force dress dagger m. 1976 for non flyer officers (ground duty officers)

PLEASE CAN ANYBODY CONFIRM ANY OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED STATES?

quote:

Danish female off. dagger: Dolk m/79 (k)

This is probably the most correct designation of this dagger. The first female officer in the RDAF came in 1979, so that was the occasion.
It is described in an article from 1983/4, I will see if I can get hold of this somehow...

Best regards,

Actually, I disagree. The one I see here is the Air Force non flying dagger.
the Female Army Officer dagger came later and is not marked with the Air Force Proof mark as is this one. The Female Army Officer (6 made) are marked with the Army military acceptance mark.

This is why there are so many. One group is with the Air Force and the other with the Army. The Female Army daggers are dated 1986. The Air Force are generally dated earlier, as with yours 1966, which is before the regulations quoted above.
.

this is my new theory after becoming aware of the two different military acceptance marks. That plus I have it on good authority that there were only 6 Female Officer daggers procured.

Hi Jim,

The thought has crossed my mind that this dagger type is for female officers of the homeguard, but....
1. RD Army has no approved daggers. As with Norway, they only use sabres/swords with their best uniforms.
2. RD Navy has a completely different dagger approved.

So that only leaves the RD AF to consider amongst the homeguard troops, and the only model specified in regulations post 1966 RD AF officers daggers is the m/79(k) for female officers...

There may ofcourse have been many trials and prototypes in the AF before the m/79 was approved, but I find no references whatever to any other daggers than the 2 mentioned, m/66 and m/79.

Best regards,

Good points Tor-Helge,

But then, If the dagge is authorized in 1983, How do you explain all the 1966 dated versions.

How do you explain that the early ones are marked with the Air Force acceptance and the later ones, after the regulations for the female Army Officers Dagger, are marked with the Army accptance mark.

I do not believe that the lack of you finding a regulation, over rules the time line of when specific daggers are issued and dated.

And what explanation do you offer over the two different acceptance marks? How do you explain the discrepancy between when your regulations were issued versus the early daggers?

See, these are all valid questions based on the evidence we know. Production dates and acceptance marks are clear on the daggers.

As regards your statement1 "RD Army has no approved daggers. As with Norway, they only use sabres/swords with their best uniforms."

This is absolutely correct. Remember how this all came about. The queen saw the female Army Officers on parade with swords. She thought it was not lady like. So, the army ordered up some daggers. The Female Army Officers refused to be treated differently, so the program was dropped. After they pruchased 6 prototypes that were the same design as Air Force non flying daggers.

So, you are correct that there would be no current regulations for the female Army Officers Dagger.

Which is what I have maintained for about 10 years.

Let me know where my logic is incorrect.

Thanks for the comments.
Just for information the dagger maker is HOERSTER/SOLINGEN and the year 1994 is etched on the ricasso.

Tom whitman has an example. I have not seen the marking, but he says it is the non flying air force so I assume it has the air force acceptance stamp.

Jim,
There's a lot of things I can not explain

I'd rather wait to see what I can find from original danish sources than to start speculate about designations, acceptance marks and dates.


2 things to consider in the meanwhile on the actual timeline:
1971/72: First female soldiers/NCO's to be hired in active service in the armed forces, but not in combat units until 1985-88.

1978: Officers academies opened to accept women, but not for all combat-services before 1988. First active-service officer graduated in july 1979.


So I think daggers for female officers dated from before 1979 is not from the active-service armed forces. A closer look on the homguard-units seems to be in order..


Best regards,

Tor-Helge.

So, we are in agreement that the daggers like my Female Army Officer Daggers would be correctly dated 1986. Remember the argument. That there were a handful of these daggers purchased by the army for the Female Army Officers. All would be dated 1986. If you find a similar dagger dated before that with the Army acceptance mark, my argument is null.

As it is, we know the Air Force marked examples date anywhere from 1976 to 1993. these are the Air Force accepted ones.

So far you are making my argument correct.

Keep up the good work.

If you know any Danish dagger collectors from Denmark, it would be good to ask them.

Good work.

Jim

Jim, I am waiting to get 2 articles from the arms society of denmark about these daggers.
Hopefully we'll be able to conclude something then.

Best,