Firstly the Fred mentioned this"When he later described the piece to me, IMHO it had all the aspects of what I might expect to see on a limited contract of commercial S84/98s ordered by the SS. Same holds true (and you & I have discussed this in the past) about the WKC commercials having the totenkopf w/ "lazy S" surcharge on the crossguard. He told me it had a totenkopf-SS-2 marking under the curve of the pommel and no serial numbers. I believe it was also devoid of WaAs." so when i look to the piece You pictured there is WaA, so its not a commerzial contract, when the DH was there added i dont know but certainly not in 1938 as this piece initially went not to SS but to army because of WaA proof system.
The piece of WW1 of Haenckel dont have any sign of reworking, its a unreworked piece, the SG84/98 were reworked in majority of samples in period 1930-34.So i assume the DH and the numbers are engraved, which is for me problematic.
And about the pictures, without exact dating and situation there could be not made any resumes about wearing of bayonets by officers, the first mentioned Wheeler picture of is described as follows " Waffen SS major with rifle and bayonet.This Totenkopf Division officer is near the front line with the W-SS General Theodor Eicke,the officer is armed with a Mauser rifle and is carrying a S84/98 with officer bayonet knot.As officer is armed normally purchased their own uniforms and eqipment,this bayonet could very well be a commerzial product without military inspection markings."
Firstly the picture was done in west and with high possibility France or Belgium in 1940. As the officer was a combat unit leader i assume he got from depot a rifle with bayonet, certainly the info provided by Wheeler is wrong that the rifles and bayonets were buyed privately, and the reason why is the piece unmarked is that early SS obtained equipment commerzialy not through army WaA system, so the piece is probably a early WKC commerzial with wood grip.
The russian snipers have nothing to do with this, as they were efective later in war, then the cuff titles on uniform were hidden not only the weapons were changed.
The SD picture should be too dated but it could be one of the Police units, that were not involved in front battle but were used as Einsatz kommandos behind the lines.
