Smatchette knife

Hi
Reading Storming St Nazaire,page 141,states "was carrying in addition to his Smatchette" . This I have never heard of so checked

out on the net - wikipedia states designed by Capt Fairbairn as a heavy fighting knife.

Was this knife a troop weapon.was it a weapon favoured by the commando or is this reference a sort of one off.

Any thoughts

Regards

Graham

Hi Graham

I'm not sure how widespread its issue was, it always looked a pretty unwieldy thing to me! There are some early publicity shots of commandos with them in training but I can't seem to find them at the moment. There are a few pages dedicated to its use in the Fairbairn Sykes bible 'All in Fighting'. Someone has included them in a rather strange webpage here:
http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead_Long_Knives

I suspect most troops would have much preferred an FS knife.

Paul

The use of the Smatchet appears to have been quite limited. There is one publicity photo of a WWII British Commando soldier armed with a Smatchet, F-S Fighting Knife, machete AND a No. 1 (P1907 ) bayonet! He was also carrying a Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. III as well. Imperial War Museum photo. Shown on page 10 "Allied Military Fighting Knives" by Robert A. Buerlein.

The Smatchet was invented by Captain W. E. Fairbairn and how to use it is featured in his well known book "GET TOUGH".

There are versions made for the British military and the American Office of Strategic Services. I have one of each in my collection.

Colin Stevens
Canada

Belly wrote:Hi Graham

I'm not sure how widespread its issue was, it always looked a pretty unwieldy thing to me! There are some early publicity shots of commandos with them in training but I can't seem to find them at the moment. There are a few pages dedicated to its use in the Fairbairn Sykes bible 'All in Fighting'. Someone has included them in a rather strange webpage here:
http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead_Long_Knives

I suspect most troops would have much preferred an FS knife.

Paul

The smatchet was carried and used as much by SOE operatives as it was by Cdo's.

A formidable weapon, the weight and balance was such that it handles and moves as an extension of Fairbairn's unarmed combat techniques (strikes exactly as an edge of hand blow)
Paddy Mayne once removed a German's arm with one clean blow of a smatchet!

The British versions are recognisable with 5 small rivets in the grip. US OSS versions usually were constructed with two larger grip rivets.

The Commando smatchet image and weapon specifications can be found on our website page here -
http://macdonaldarms.com/armoury/FairbairnSmatchet.php