Knuckle Knives
Knuckle Knives was common form of combat used during World War I. After an initial advance into Belgium and northern France, the German army was halted by the Allied forces. Both sides “dug in” and fortified their positions with trench systems that extended for hundreds of miles. This stalemate situation led to hand-to-hand fighting on a limited scale. If one side mounted a full-scale assault, rushing en masse across the landmines and barbed wire of “no man’s land”, any troops who were fortunate enough to get past the enemy machine guns had to be prepared to fight at close quarters in the confined environment of the enemy trench. Here the long-bladed bayonet was of little use, since there was no space to wield it. Trench combat thus necessitated the military reinstatement of the dagger, or fighting knife.