About the Commandos dagger

31. října 2022

When we blogged about our participation in the Future forces exhibitions last week, we mentioned how visitors to our stand were interested in replicas of historic cool weapons, such as the Model 27 air cord, or the knife from the War Veteran project.

One of the weapons on display was a Commandos dagger. We have had it in our assortment for a long time and perhaps we sometimes forget the story behind it. It is a type of weapon called the F-S dagger

The name F-S is derived from the surname of the authors W. E. Fairbairn and E. A. Sykes, British military instructors in close combat. The daggers were developed for surprise attack, silently killing enemy soldiers, especially sentries and guards. It inflicted deep wounds that bled profusely, making it impossible for the enemy to raise the alarm or mount any effective defence. The narrow blade of the dagger easily penetrated the uniform and even the bones of the rib cage. The hilt could also be used for strikes.

One of the authors of the F-S dagger, Captain William Ewart Fairbairn, also spent a day personally training Gabcik and Kubiš before their deployment to Operation Anthropoid. The dagger, of course, could not have been absent from the equipment of the paratroopers who were sent to our territory from Great Britain during World War II to help fight for our freedom.

Of course, we don't buy Commandos or other such weapons today to use them as paratroopers or to threaten anyone with them. Apart from being an example of quality knife craft, they are above all a reminder of a past of which we as Czechs can be proud.