French trench raider with a revolver and knife, 1916
That kind of butcher knife was military issued in 1914 believe it or not.
I don’t have any information on an official issue butcher knife aside from Le Vengeur later on in 1916, can you tell me more please?
I don’t think it ever came close to being official but essentially in 1915, not 1914 mb, the army had tried to issue navaja-type folding blades for use in trench warfare. These were not really suited for the job and the army placed another order for regular butcher knives to replace them the same year, which were issued with a cheapo canvas sheath.
A lot of civilian manufacturers were contracted for this job to meet the demand quickly, which on top of the fact that soldiers would often just get their own knives from various other sources meant that there was never any type of standardization.
French soldier Georges Ripoull writes in September 1915: “Met Balat. He also has a butcher knife, there are fifty of those per company. It’s a war of knives in the 20th century. What will we do with them ? Finish off the wounded of course. It’s aweful what’s about to happen.”
Around the same time all cutlers that had been called to the front were demobilized or kept in reserve were they were put to work making equally ad-hoc but more martial blades, usually out of shortened bayonets. We can assume that the large order of butcher knives made in 1915 is what prompted the craftsmen of the time to then make products like the Vengeur de 1870.
