A Superb WW1 Imperial German Deluxe Officer's Deerhoof Trench Knife Nahkampfmesser Aciers Superfin. Blade Also Bears Small Crowned Inspection Stamp. Souvenir From The Battle of The Somme

"Aciers Superfin" (Superfine Steels) suggests good quality, possibly a brand name or descriptive mark, often associated with German manufacturers like W. Clauberg in Solingen,

Acquired, two officer's deluxe versions and an other ranks standard type from the Somme {sold separately}

We show original photographs of them being worn in combat, and an advertisement for them, stating "The Best Form of Defence In Close Quarter Combat"

The German WW1 standard trench knife, or Nahkampfmesser, was a sturdy, general-purpose combat dagger issued to soldiers for close-quarters fighting, featuring typical slab wooden grips with grooves, a steel crossguard, and a metal scabbard with a leather hanger, though variations existed, including officer's daggers and converted barbed wire stakes, with manufacturers like Ernst Busch, Gotlieb and Clemen & Jung producing them.
Often single-edged with a false edge, around 6 inches long, though double-edged versions were also used. Typically wooden with distinctive diagonal grooves (often nine) for better purchase, secured by rivets.
This rare type, the deluxe officer's version has a deerhoof hilt, S quillon crossguard, and blackened wood and leatherette scabbard

Solingen-based companies like Ernst Busch and Clemen & Jung were major producers, Gotlieb a much rare maker, often marked with their names and an Imperial Crown.
The most functional type was a robust, utilitarian knife for infantry.
However, Officer's daggers were more elaborate, privately purchased versions, with staghorn or deerhoof grips, nickel fittings
Soldiers sometimes adapted steel barbed-wire stakes into crude stabbing weapons after encountering French "nail" grenades.
These knives filled the need for a reliable hand weapon in the brutal close-quarters combat of trench raiding, where reloading a rifle was difficult, alongside tools like trench clubs and entrenching tools

Traces of old, light, surface russetting on the blade.

Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. It became archetypically associated with World War I (1914–1918), when the Race to the Sea rapidly expanded trench use on the Western Front starting in September 1914.1

Trench warfare proliferated when a revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, resulting in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage. On the Western Front in 1914–1918, both sides constructed elaborate trench, underground, and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties.

The development of armoured warfare and combined arms tactics permitted static lines to be bypassed and defeated, leading to the decline of trench warfare after the war. Following World War I, "trench warfare" became a byword for stalemate, attrition, sieges, and futility in conflict

Code: 26082