FP,
It would stand to reason that if the SS reworked rifles & Lugers why would they not rework & or Assemble bayonets. We have seen numerous pictures of the shops using slave labor to work on rifles. We also in some pictures can see bayonets. I have never seen any pictures of Lugers being reworked and or assembled but we have such pieces in collections today. I have seen numerous Czech Pistols that have had the SS Property stamp added to them and were refinished to a beautiful high blue.
Now getting back to bayonets. The work camps could not forge blades because of the machines and skill that was required to produce the blade. However, the work camps could make bayonet grips, flash guards, screws, nuts,scabbards, latches, etc. as well as do secondary finishing. During the period when the SS was in desperate need of weapons they were able to get replacement barrels for rifles & pistols that they were salvaging. Why would the SS not be able to obtain bayonet blanks and finish them with the massive amount of labor that they had at hand. I still can not buy into total blanko bayonets being fabricated for the SS. Also, the rejected blades that were used by the SS would not have been assembled up into a complete bayonet by the manufacturer. I will get into the variations and the salvage bayonets later tonight.
Richard K
Richard,
That there was KZ involvement in the German arms industry is not in question. And as you probably recall I mentioned a photo of some seemingly never used lathes in Dachau at the end of the war. Himmler's claims of xxxxxx thousand gun barrels made etc. etc. But I think that we have to look at things on an example by example basis. If Solingen makers subcontracted the plastic grips - would the KZ system have made them? I seriously doubt it. And what does it take to make wood grips? First you have to have the right machinery. But what about the wood? Could you just cut down a tree (if the foresters would let you, and the Wehrmacht did not lay claim to it first), and make it into bayonet grips? Or are you going to have to let the wood first season adequately so that it won't warp? And are you going to do it one tree at a time, or in quantity to make it economically worthwhile?
With my point being that what seems fairly simple at first glance, in reality might not have been that viable or easy in Germany 70 years ago.
Best Regards, FP
