Help identifying inherited WW2 fighting knife !

[rockstar]

Hi all, Happy New Year! I inherited what research indicates to be a fighting knife from my grandfather who sadly passed away. The story behind it (from what I can remember) is that during World War 2, a British soldier crashed their plane/jet over France near my family's village and my great grandfather (who was French) took him in to hide in his cellar whilst others hid his plane/jet and fixed it. After it was fixed and the soldier was able to fly again, he thanked my great-grandfather for risking his and his family's lives and gifted him this fighting knife. The only markings I remember seeing are what I think are the initials of the soldier. I would appreciate any help in identifying this knife or just any information really! I've tried googling but struggling to get anywhere, I have no knowledge of weapons lol. It would be cool one day to maybe identify who this soldier was.

Many thanks in advance!

[rbminis]

I am not familiar with this knife, but I am going to go out on a bit of a limb and say that this is likely some form of a dress dagger.
Too much "bling" for a fighting knife, and the rings suggest a hanger is missing. This would not be in the normal fashion of mounting a fighting knife.
Ralph.

[MAP]

While I can not help with the identification of the dagger (others should be around shortly), I do think that over time, the family story has (as is not uncommon) been embellished.

This is a dress dagger and is not a fighting knife. It is really just for ceremonial purposes and would not have been worn in combat.

R.R.C. are probably not the initials of the soldier but of the dagger maker. If

Edit: Looks like Ralph beat me to it. I take too long to type!

Edit 2: This looks to be a French Air Force dagger. Model 1936

Dague francaise armee de l air modele M1936 R.R.C

Here is another link

French air force dagger with Fasces on handle

[rockstar]

Thanks for commenting! What's a dress dagger? Sorry I've no knowledge of any of this!

[rockstar]

Just googled french air force dagger and it looks very similar! Thank you for your help. Perhaps the person they helped was French then? Or just had it on them

Edit: Looks identical! Must be it! Thank you so much for your help

[MAP]

Just googled french air force dagger and it looks very similar! Thank you for your help. Perhaps the person they helped was French then? Or just had it on them

Edit: Looks identical! Must be it! Thank you so much for your help

I know very little about these dress daggers but I do think they were also made and used Post WW2. So a bit more research should be performed to determine when it was made. For some reason (and I could be wrong), I think R.R.C is a german manufacture. If so, this could be a post WW2 made dagger.

But lets wait for others to opine.

[Larry C]

The only thing thing that this dagger comes very close to is a French Air Force Pilot Dagger Dirk Officers Dress Parade Dagger.

The details are the same except the color of the grip.
I assume this dagger may be in the same family as the one posted.

The date of production I do not know and will leave that to the advanced collectors.

[Rescue190]

Interesting knife and story behind it. I found this based off of Larry's information.

Model 1934 French Air Force Dagger

Wittmann Militaria #27551C Model 1934 French Air Force Dagger

John

[MAP]

Apparently the handles came in different colors and the fittings were either plated or anodized. These (and the maker) determine the time of manufacture and rank.

All just little pieces I picked up here and there while doing some quick research. What is true I do not know. I have yet to find a good website for these daggers.

An interesting topic however.

[rockstar]

Looks like it! Been having a browse on a French thread discussing this type of dagger and it seems the different coloured grips represented different rankings (though at one point they changed it so everyone had the same colour, and then changed it again to having different colours?), however, I've not been able to find the meaning of a black grip, and it seems others on the thread are struggling to identify R.R.C. Thank you for sharing!