jwh 44

[Time Bandit]

That very well may be the case, I just had a look at http://k98.free.fr/ and find that of the several bayo's he has posted for that year, the "s" block is the earliest. If anyone would know it would be Andy,

Jim

Hopefully with a bit of luck he might see this and confirm it one way or another?

[AndyB]

Yes the procduction is confirmed to 40 - 45000 pcs in 1944, switch in range r, the ranges s,t,u and v are all 44 jwh marked.

[kriegsmodell]

Not sure, probably not that far away!! Any idea on when they actually stopped making them? Was it prior to D Day or were they still churning them out until the last possible moment?

Have been doing quite a bit of research on this very issue as part of a book that I am in the process of writing. The best information currently available indicates that the German occupational forces abandoned Staatliche Waffenfabrik, Châtellerault on/about July 19 or 20, 1944. That of course does not mean that bayonet production continued until that date. One might presume that actual factory operations probably ceased prior to the time that the facility was abandoned.

Andrej is correct regarding the serial number/letter block extensions. Staatliche Waffenfabrik did not "zero set" their serial numbers at the end of 1943. Production for 1943 actually ended in the r block and 1944 dated examples commenced in the same letter series without interruption. With this in mind, jwh44 bayonets are observed in the r, s, t, u, and v blocks with total production somewhere slightly less than 40,000 pieces. Hope this helps .....