Completely random post, but this was in my grandads house when he passed away and was obtained by his dad in WW1 I think. Can anyone help with info on what it's called? I'm guessing it wasn't a bit of kit regularly used and probably for an officer or something similar
Yeah that didn't even register. This was on my nan and grandads wall when I grew up, but by the time I showed an interest it was too late. Now my mum doesn't have long left, I've got a desire to find out as much as I can to pass on to my boy before the same thing happens again.
Eickhorn Made in Solingen. Look just bellow the eagle.....there is a large letter E, next to it is a sword or dagger which represents the letter i in Eickhorn, Solingen is known as the City of Blades in Germany. I also notice there is an anchor engraved on the blade.....the middle image .........I would think that nails it on as a WW2 Kriegsmarine officers dress sword.
Could well be worth a nice few pounds, This one went through Sidcup Auction a couple of years ago. Was sold for £1250 pound and I believe that was cheap.with the scabbard and the pommel still attached adds significantly to the value. If your selling go to a specialist auction, don’t take it down your local. An it’s for ceremonial /dress functions use rather than day to day wear, and yours is almost certainly Kriegsmarine (Navy) .
His service record might throw some light onto where or how he got it. What ships did he serve on ? Could he perhaps been given it by a German Officer in thanks for being picked out of the water. Might be hard to establish where and how but might throw some light ?
His service record might throw some light onto where or how he got it. What ships did he serve on ? Could he perhaps been given it by a German Officer in thanks for being picked out of the water. Might be hard to establish where and how but might throw some light ?
Dont know that unfortunately, full name is: Edgar Cyril Potton Born 1910, Died 1979 Age 69. Turns out he was in the army and not the navy. Its a interesting project to dig out info.
His service record might throw some light onto where or how he got it. What ships did he serve on ? Could he perhaps been given it by a German Officer in thanks for being picked out of the water. Might be hard to establish where and how but might throw some light ?
Dont know that unfortunately, full name is: Edgar Cyril Potton Born 1910, Died 1979 Age 69. Turns out he was in the army and not the navy. Its a interesting project to dig out info.
Blows my theory out of the water a bit but I’m pretty sure someone can dig out a reasonable amount of info on your Grandad. We have some genuine experts on this forum.
The company Eickhorn still exists in Solingen (https://www.eickhorn-solingen.de/). But I don't know if they are proud of products from this period and want to answer question.
As mentioned German WW2 dagger, a mint example can be over 2k, a German mint para helmet will fetch approx £10k, an SS one £15k, consequently there are a lot of fakes out there, I’ll show the dagger pix to a chap at work on Monday and get back to you.
Cheers for posting. I learned something there. I was questioning why a German dagger would have the English word 'original' on it. Turns out they have the same word.
Icing on the cake would be to find out exactly how it came to be in your grandads possession but that’s likely to be much trickier.
British troops would routinely nick as much as they could from surrendering German troops, with a Luger pistol or a Nazi dagger (particularly SS or Hitler Youth daggers) highly prized - my Grandad had quite a few bits I remember, incl a Luger - he also had a WW1 German helmet with a spike on the top of it - no idea what happened to it all
From scratch groups, to regiments and divisions after June 1944 many of the Kriegsmarine men fought on land. A simple guess would be that your grandfather went through an area the Kriegsmarine had been and got hold of one of these. On it looking ceremonial I guess it's an officer's? It looks considerably smarter than SS or Army Heer daggers, and no doubt did to him.
A little bit connected - one of my client’s was in 2 Para and served in the Falklands War - when the Argentinians surrendered, he was in charge of a group of their soldiers in Port Stanley, and he noticed one of the officers had a rather fancy Colt pistol, so he nicked off him - turns out it was gold plated with an ivory grip !!!
The Paras sailed back to England, and just before the ship docked in Plymouth, an officer got on the tannoy and told all onboard that they would be searched for illegal weapons when leaving the ship
This prompted loads of the soldiers to make for the deck, and loads of guns, ammo and other things were thrown overboard - my client threw the Colt pistol and some other ‘stuff’ into the sea (he wouldn’t tell me what the other stuff was, but I would take a guess it was explosive or grenades !!!)
When the disembarked were they searched - nope
He was VERY pissed off he told me
So on the bottom of Plymouth Sound is enough guns, bullets and other stuff to equip a Battalion of soldiers !!!
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Here are a couple more sites about WW2 German daggers
wardaggers.com - German Dagger Reproduction Awareness ... German Army Dress Daggers (realorrepro.com)
Look just bellow the eagle.....there is a large letter E, next to it is a sword or dagger which represents the letter i in Eickhorn, Solingen is known as the City of Blades in Germany.
I also notice there is an anchor engraved on the blade.....the middle image .........I would think that nails it on as a WW2 Kriegsmarine officers dress sword.
Great find btw and like said should be worth a few Reichmarks.
We would buy it for £400 and probably retail it for £500.
The Paras sailed back to England, and just before the ship docked in Plymouth, an officer got on the tannoy and told all onboard that they would be searched for illegal weapons when leaving the ship
This prompted loads of the soldiers to make for the deck, and loads of guns, ammo and other things were thrown overboard - my client threw the Colt pistol and some other ‘stuff’ into the sea (he wouldn’t tell me what the other stuff was, but I would take a guess it was explosive or grenades !!!)
When the disembarked were they searched - nope
He was VERY pissed off he told me
So on the bottom of Plymouth Sound is enough guns, bullets and other stuff to equip a Battalion of soldiers !!!