First M4 bayonets

[Barryeye]

Gentleman. Can anyone tell me when the M4 bayonets first reached the troops. I am well aware that few if any carbines had bayonet bars until very late in the war. However, I'm told the M4 was also issued for use as a knife only prior to the carbines being altered to take them as a bayonet.

[Johnny P]

Have no idea when they first reached the troops, but M4 Bayonet production started in July of 1944. Production was low for the first couple of months.

[Barryeye]

Thanks Johnny. That narrows it down a bit.

[m1ashooter]

Add this link to your resources. Mr Cunningham is my go too source.

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_16.htm

[Barryeye]

Thank you m1ashooter. Mr Cunningham is THE man in this area and I don'tknow how I missed the information I needed when I first checked ?? Your link took me directly to what I needed to know. Thanks again.

[m1ashooter]

I enjoy reading his research.

[Ironlip]

Somewhere I've seen a picture of a group of paratroopers seated one behind the other, each pretending to give the one in front of him a mohawk haircut with a knife. Obviously they had already received the haircuts and this was a posed shot for a photographer, probably for Life. Some of them have M3's and some have M4's. I've always presumed it was for Normandy, but based on the data in the Cunningham piece above it could only have been for Market Garden or the Rhine jump. The picture may be in the multi-volume Time-Life book on WWII.

[Barryeye]

Thanks Ironlip. I'm an M3 fan as well so that would be a picture worth finding.

[Misfit-45]

I found it interesting that the M4 was issued to troops as the supply of M3s dwindled even though the M1 Carbines had not caught up with the barrel lug modification. So, a GI with a carbine could have an M4 bayonet and no practical way to use it.
Marv

[Barryeye]

Never thought of it that way but yes. That has to be a first in bayonet history.