English M 1907 bayonet by Sanderson, unit marked: 2. Durham Light Infantry Regiment. (ABCN 1024)(K318)
British Lee Enfield (SMLE) No.7 rifle. Second pattern. Very good parkerized fullered blade with the first 1 cm blackened. Ricasso marked with English makers name SANDERSON (hard to read)on the ricasso and - Crown GR - 1907- and crisp dated 6 '18. There is another issue date '29. Three British Enfield inspection marks, X and /|\ on the reverse side of the ricasso. Very good walnut grips. Left grip has a little chip missing. Excellent blued pommel and crossguard with muzzle ring MRD 16.5 mm. Oil hole in pommel. Pommel is crisp unit marked: 2. DLI over 696(= Second Durham Light Infantry Regiment, rifle number 696).
This bayonet is issued July 1918 and reissued prior to WWII in 1929
Very good black leather MKII scabbard. Leather body is marked /|\ Crown over Enfield inspection mark. Blued fittings with Enfield inspection markings, round frog. All stitches intact and no dents.
Comes with a genuine khaki bayonet frog with an over stitched eyelet and a hard to read stamp on the reserve side.
This bayonet is issued July 1918 and reissued prior to WWII in 1929
After first moving to Scotland and then to Cambridge, as the 6th Division prepared for war, the 2nd Battalion DLI, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Bernard McMahon, sailed from Southampton for France. On 20 September 1914, this Regular battalion was the first DLI battalion to see action in the First World War, losing 41 dead and almost 100 wounded at Troyon on the River Aisne. These were the first DLI casualties of the war.
On the Aisne, at Armentieres, in the Ypres Salient, and especially at Hooge on 8-9 August 1915, the 2nd Battalion suffered the loss of over 50 officers and 1500 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing. By September 1915, there were few men still serving, who had landed in France twelve months before.
After a second miserable winter spent at Ypres, the 2nd Battalion moved south in late July 1916 to join the fighting on the Somme. Then on 20 November 1917, after months of trench warfare, 2 DLI, as part of the 6th Division, joined the British tank advance at Cambrai, taking prisoners and capturing German guns. A German counter-attack, however, forced the Durhams back with heavy losses.
On 21 March 1918, after a shattering bombardment of gas, high explosive, and shrapnel shells, the German Army attacked on the Somme front. The 2nd Battalion DLI was the only DLI battalion in the front line that day and within 36 hours, the battalion had been overwhelmed with only 60 men escaping death, wounding, or capture.
Rebuilt after the March losses, 2 DLI was again involved in hard fighting in September and October 1918, as the German Army was finally forced back by the Allied armies. On 11 November, when the Armistice ending the First World War came into effect, the battalion was resting at Busigny. A few days later the battalion joined the 6th Division’s march to the Rhine as part of the Army of Occupation of defeated Germany. The 2nd Battalion returned to Britain in April 1919, when most of its soldiers were demobilised. A new 2nd Battalion DLI was then formed at Catterick before it was sent overseas in October 1920.
