Australian L1A2 Bayonets-Short & Long

**Rick W** · 08-24-2020, 08:24 AM

Thought I resurrect this thread , even though its 9 years old its still relevant & has some good points .
I was looking around the internet the other day and found a link to a Face Poop page on Australian L1A2 bayonets and found someone describing them in detail .
Basically copying what Lithgow said in is 1st post ( above ) , and sure his shorty was a parade bayonet & frog .
Therefore over a long internet timeline of people copying and repeating stuff and years of it , all shorty's have become Parade Bayonets only & the Long Version is the real Combat deal.

I just found it amusing , and far from the truth.
I have examples of both types of tips in exactly the same condition .
As far as Im aware the Australian Army used both types , whether in Combat or Parade duties.
That's the Long & the Short of it

Cheers Rick

Attachment 1437139

**Rick W** · 08-24-2020, 08:52 AM

Really the only logical solution of them making a slightly shorter version would have been for making them easier to jam into leftover British No5 Scabbards.

Here's a copy of the Face Poop post I found.
Copied word for word from elsewhere & posted on Face Poop so it must be true then?

Cheers Rick

Attachment 1437144

**lithgow** · 08-24-2020, 01:21 PM

A point I made about the short point bayo being used as a formal RAAF parade item only referred to that particular one-when I was in the Reserve in the late 70s/mid 80s both types were issued with the SLR for field use or parades-they were just what the Q store held-as far as the scabbards went, these were repainted gloss or matt black at the unit level as they got banged up over time and were needed for formal parades-I was an acting storeman on one camp where the Royal West Australia Regt was doing a 'freedom of the city' parade through Perth and was told to spray paint the company's scabbards and SLR magazines matt black for it-other sub units had used gloss paint in a serious lack of coordination! This explains the differences in paint finish found now on examples from various units over time.

**Watchdog** · 08-24-2020, 05:00 PM

by Rick W

Therefore, over a long internet timeline of people copying and repeating stuff and years of it , all shorty's have become Parade Bayonets only & the Long Version is the real Combat deal.

Exactly!

This is another example of the unknowing self styled "expert" (Army definition = "an ex is a has been and a spurt(sic) is a drip under pressure" ) plagerising someone else's (Lithgows' in this case) knowledge and passing it off as his own without the experience to back it up!

Like the old favourite Chinese Whisper that starts of as the message "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" which having passed through multiple recipients becomes "Send three and fourpence we're going to a dance". This is dangerous to the collector and is what a current "world statesman" refers to as "Fake news". Anyone with personal knowledge of any of the Australian, NZ, Canadian, British et al armies Knows perfectly well that "parade bayonets" are not manufactured but are created by the blokes themselves in pursuit of a smart "turnout". Thus it may be a result of unit policy and once "bulled up" these bayonets may remain as a separate unit stock of "parade" items but they never came from the factory like that. Generally bayonets would not be personal issue anyway and when returned to the armoury go back into a quantity regulated not individually but only by total number. The item carried by my Coldstream Guardsman in the "Show your mannequins" thread is a case in point.

I have an Australian "short point" but I always assumed that the difference was simply one of variance between national manufacturing. I didn't realise there were two variants but never would I have ever considered the idea of a dedicated "parade" variant.

One thing I note is that the crossguard on my Aussie bayonet looks no different to that on my British L1A2 examples and I see no sign at all of the riveting mentioned by the FB expert. Also I don't really know (I am not a bayonet specialist) what he means by "double fuller" unless he means both sides of the blade which seems to be the norm to me?

As for the difference between long and short my money is on a minor revision of the design when a further production run was made possibly due to a perceived "tip breaking". Unless there had been a serious malfunction in use issue I think you would have to dig hard and long to find any documentary evidence. My gut says it was due to a draftsman re-drawing a manfacturing plan.

Regards

Mark

**Rick W** · 08-25-2020, 08:07 AM

Glad you guys found it interesting , I did.
It just goes to show how information on the internet morphs over time .
Via the quick copy & paste method.
Cheers Rick

**Rick W** · 08-28-2020, 08:06 AM

Here are my 2 variations .
Sorry for using white paper as a background , but new carpet & factory bayonet grease don't play well together

Cheers Rick

Attachment 1438168

Attachment 1438169

**lithgow** · 08-28-2020, 08:22 AM

Now you can have all the fun of blacking out and polishing the parade frogs!

**Watchdog** · 08-28-2020, 08:22 AM

Thanks for the clear comparison Rick. The frogs are a useful reference too!

As for the white background, the experts always say that white is the best background for pretty much all of the pictures we use here (although most of us don't heed the advice) because you get a better rendition of the item itself with no colour "reflection" from the background.

Regards

Mark