Gendarmerie bayonet, slotted version by P.D. Luneschloss

[jamie7d7]

Here is my newest blade, surprisingly enough it is a Police bayonet!

A 1920s slotted Prussian Police bayonet which has been cut down and amended to meet Third Reich requirements.

Nice clean blade with manufacturers name stamped near the crossguard. Whilst the scabbard looks black in the photos, it is very dark brown and can be seen easily in the sunlight.


This particular bayo is matching numbers, with S.D.I 192 stamped on the crossguard and the scabbard. I couldn't find an exact match for these three characters though.

As for the portepee, it didn't come with one so I bought a variation that I hadn't seen before. It is a very late war version and is made of plastic. It has the feel/look of liquorice.

[Richie B]

Schützpolizei Dusseldorf I think.

[jamie7d7]

Thanks Richie, yeah I found SD no probs, it was the I that threw me.

Cheers

Jamie

[Richie B]

The "I" represents an administrative sub-division. As I am away from my books at the moment I can't tell you any more !

However, the man who wrote the book has this to say ...

"S.D.I is convincingly identified in the book as the Schupo command at either Essen or Düsseldorf. Upon further consideration, I believe it is more likely to be Essen as that city was the location of the headquarters of the police general responsible for the Ruhr region and probably would have been designated by the Roman numeral I. This is however a tentative identification.

New Insights

[jamie7d7]

Ahhh, it's a Roman Numeral rather than a letter. That's where I was wrong.

Thank you for the link ����

[Anderson]

Very nice example Jamie. Yes, Richie is correct it is Dusseldorf, the third character represents the Police duty location or "station", and always in roman numeral. I have seen some marked "S.D.V." where "V" is the roman numeral for 5, so we could say "Police station 5".

[AndyB]

Strange or wrong there is the czechoslovak or austrian frog. The eagle was mostly moved on grip to lower position, i assume Schutzpolizei is not a Gendarmerie(Landjaegerei) pcs in that direction.So the leather of scabbard should be black not brown. Its possible the color was lightened in years? b.r.Andy

[jamie7d7]

Unfortunately at the time, I did not pay enough attention to the positioning of the eagle on the grip. I can only imagine that this bayo has been denazified after the war and at some point (a long time ago by the looks of the patina etc) another eagle was placed on it.

For the price I paid, I should have paid more attention and I've contacted the seller to discuss.

Cheers

Jamie

[Anderson]

Probably a good idea Jamie. Clearly the eagle badge is low and not where one originally was positioned. Was it removed as a post war de-nazification? That is a little harder to be sure of, (there's always a chance the pin broke and made the badge loose). Likewise when the replacement was attached (if in fact it is a replacement and not the original) is also difficult to be certain, at least from photos. Can you see behind as to how it was attached? It is odd it wasn't re-positioned in the original place, but a broken off pin is visible in the left hole.

[Watchdog]

Ahhh, it's a Roman Numeral rather than a letter. That's where I was wrong.

Thank you for the link ����

Yep, it is still the same in the German police, at least it was during my service in Germany. The designation is similar to a UK police division which as you know most of the 43 forces nominate as; A Div, B Div etc. The German word is Direktion I, II, III, etc. The smaller sub units include; Polizei Wache, Abschnitt, Polizeirevier, Meldestelle all subordinate to the "Direktion". Further up the chain is Polizeipraesidium which is like our Force HQ although if memory serves me correctly the Polizeipraesidium sometimes has a presence in more than one location.

My one polizei bayonet is an S.D.II also by Luneschloss



Regards

Mark