Joe,
You are correct that these markings should not have been placed on these bayonets after 1937. I had not considered that they may be remnant markings. That is possible.
The fact is, that is really what most of these markings were on the reworked standard police bayonets that were shortened for the nationalized police. It is just possible that this "S.H." marked PSS bayonet started out life as a Hannover S98/05. We do know that not all the old markings were removed from these reworked PSS as has been discussed. It is no different from any other Prussian marked long clamshell that was reworked into a shortened police bayonet with the clamshell removed. We presume that these bayonets were reworked and returned to, or remained in, the stores of the various police agencies, as they were the property of those police agencies and the marks were not cancelled. It is possible that this particular Hannover PSS was simply reworked and returned to the Hannover Police stores in the same manner as all the other property marked bayonets were.
Good thinking! I do not see any good argument against this marking being a remnant. Although, it could also have been newly applied by a Hannover Police armorer who simply wanted to mark the weapon when he received it or reworked it himself.
The one thing that I am certain of is that the PSS is a police bayonet and was not something issued to any SS unit. All this nonsense seems to have begun with the PSS designation and a misunderstanding of the meaning of Polizei-Seitengewehr Sonderausfuhrung. Anything that has two Ss together seems to ring the cash register.
George
