Story is from the Los Angeles Westerners Corral newsletter Dated September 1966.

Written by COL CW Hoffman USA RET

TLDR = Get out!

LOST AND FOUND   When the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France in 1917 experience in trench warfare had developed the need of a trench knife. To fill this need, the Ordnance Department produced a bell-hilted, triangular-bladed monstrosity which was always in the way and when accidentally struck against anything rang like a bell. This could be most embarrassing when on a night patrol or any maneuver where silence was essential. I tried one for two weeks and decided to do without. Then I heard of a French ordnance depot fifty-five kilometers distant, where I could get a brass-handled two-edge knife which, with a little judicious filing on one side of the hilt-guard, would meet any requirement. So Lieutenant Thomas Massie Boyd - and I got transportation and went over. Tom was my inseparable buddy after Charley Deever was blown so completely to bits that he is still carried "Missing in Action."

Tom and I each got a knife. When back with my outfit, I took my pocket knife and, true to my cowpuncher raising, put my ''brand'' on my knife handle: "C.W.H. 131 M.G. Bn. 36th Div." In the months that followed we went through a lot of interesting experiences. We learned about war the hard way at the Suippes, Souain, St. Etienne, Medeah Ferme, Mont St. Remy, Beaumont Ferme and, finally, at Attigny and Forest Ferme. After the fighting at these last two places we went over to the Argonne. Through all the fighting my knife served me well. October 11, 1918 found the 36th below the River Aisne. We had arrived there after hard fighting following the relief of the decimated Second Division, consisting of the 9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments and the 5th and 6th Marines.

My patrol began at 2200 hours and ended at 0400. Rain was falling intermittently (that's normal in France) and the mud was very slick. If you saw a man three feet away you were lucky, and you had to depend on the shape of his helmet to identify him as German or American. At about 0100 -or 1:00 A.M. -we were in front of the center of our position when we en-countered a Boche patrol and I came charging up, knife in my left hand, revolver in my right. (I have a cowpuncher's aversion to automatics, so carried -and still have -a Smith and Wesson revolver .45.) In the dark I physically collided with a German; we both went down in the slippery mud, and I lost him. When I got back on my feet I was minus my knife. With the shooting and yelling all hell broke loose; everybody was shooting at everything, so we sought refuge in shell holes till things quieted down. Of course, finding my knife in the pitch dark was impossible. We attacked at dawn and I never saw the area again.

On September 24, 1944, we took that knife off a prisoner of war south of Le Mans, four hundred miles from where I had lost it, twenty-five years, eleven months and thirteen days before. The tanks had gone through so fast that they had cut the Germans into small groups.. We corralled them in a ravine and after a brief fight they surrendered. They fought until the hard-core Nazi captain in command was killed; then they gave up. In searching them this knife was surrendered to one of my sergeants. He was telling someone about it when I overheard him and became tremendously excited, pouring out questions. When the knife was brought to me, still cut in the handle was "C.W.H. 131 M.G. Bn. 36th Div." I took my knife and walked off into the woods to be alone with my emotions. I located the P.W. from whom the knife had been taken, but he could provide little information. Apparently, the knife had been given to him by a friend who had won it in a gambling game. As best we could reconstruct the story we felt that after the war left the farm where my knife was lost in l918, the farmer returned and found it. Then, in the Second World War the Germans came back and. after taking possession of the area, ordered all weapons of war turned in. So it came into German hands and, after some meanderings, back to me. Among the thousands of fast-accumulating P.W.'s there were some jewelers and engravers. Under their skilled hands the notches in the back of the handle, where, in 1918, I had excitedly used it to hammer loose the handle of a jammed Hotchkiss machine gun, were smoothed off and my crude pocket-knife cutting was replaced by professional engravings and new items of W.W. 2 were added. As the passage of time and changing conditions required other artisans added en-graving until finally on one side the original "us. 1918" had been changed to "FRANCE U.S. 1918-19" and below that "131 M.G. Bn. 36th Div." On the base of the blade appears the manufacturer's mark, the outline of a lion and the words "AU LION." On the other side, "C.W.H., C.C.E. 13•" (Continental Central Enclosure 13 was the chief of the seven prisoner of war enclosures I commanded.) Also, "England 1942-44, France 1944-45, Belgium 1946." There was no room to put Holland and Luxembourg where I also served. Today it hangs on the wall of my bed-room-study, and each time I look at it my heart leaps for joy at the miraculous return of my beloved knife.

Cool story

That was truly awesome

great story. sucks no picture of it or the starter knife. Was trying to figure if it was French army or just a knife sold at the time. or if it was the brass knuckled monster

Wow...

- Clint

I have pics. working them now.

Cool story, but there's something to be said about being able to see what they are talking about.

I seem to remember some less bulky knuckleduster knives that the French used but I might be mistaken.

Pics are up

AMAZING!
What are the odds of his getting it back?

Not too long.  I did read.  Thank you!

WOW crazy story what are the odds loses it in battle and regains in battle years later too crazy. Also i have a 1917 revolver makes me wonder about it now.

Interesting. I wonder if it's still in his family.

Looks for all the world like an LF&C, US made M1918 trench knife with half the guard ground off.  I don't know if maybe it was patterned on an earlier French model though.  The first knife he describes is the US 1917 trench knife.  



I could see where the straight blade on the '18 would be more useful for everyday tasks but it sure is heavier.

I inherited a similar knife from my grandfather who fought in the pacific during WW2 . The knife is still at my parents house in Tx, I will try to get some pictures of it

I saw an interview with a WW1 vet who had this type of knife.  He said he hit a German soldier with the knuckle part of the knife and it shocked him at the horrific damage it did.  He said he never used it again after that.

Odd to read that story listening to Rammstein

Very cool story. Amazing that he got it back.

Man...small fucking world

That is a cool story

also interesting-  The LA Westerners are still around.

http://www.lawesterners.org/category/branding-irons/

Very cool story, thanks for the pic adds

Nice post.

Amazing!

Awesome story, makes you think about your Mil Surp guns too.

Wow!

That is fascinating!