World War I 33rd Division (Machine Gun Battalion) First Lieutenants combat uniform with trench coat and Aulion made trench knife.
I enjoyed this post a lot…thank you sir! Ive always had a think for the old knuckle knives. Not to derail your post, but do you or anyone else know if anyone makes a high quality, authentic as possible repro that would actually be “war ready”?
SteyrAUG - you obviously know your way around military artifacts. Has it ever struck you that the average soldier back in WWI and prior, was smaller statured than modern man? I go through the Cavalry museum at Fort Riley every now and again, and it never ceases to amaze me how petite many of the horse soldiers were.
Funny enough, back in 1983 I actually wore that trench coat for an entire school year. So yeah, it didn’t belong to a big guy.
As for the cavalry soldiers…Ive read numerous times that the max weight of rider AND gear was not to exceed 200lbs. So, they were all smaller men in order not to tire out their mounts with excess weight.
Every repro I’ve seen is junk when it comes to the blade.
Me too.
Very cool, now you have an excuse to acquire an M1917 since you have the appropriate uniform.
Always loved the trench knives. Some of the non-issued custom ones get pretty wild.
Very cool stuff. More please. 
Very cool! Thanks for sharing Steyr, was this from a relative of yours? I dont think WWI, the history or the artifacts, get the attention they deserve.
Steyr,
I’ve got a complete WWI uniform (tunic, hat, pants, putties, belt with I.D. tag) The person who wore it was part of the “Rainbow Division” (patch still on tunic) I bought the uniform from a former landlord, who found it in the house of the former owner after he’d bought the house. I managed to find the former owners grave, in the local graveyard, took pics of it to go with the uniform, as it was a govt issue headstone with all the info. This person was small, maybe 5’-5’2" Tag on belt also has “IOOF” scratched on to it. I figured out later, this was those letters stood for the Oddfellows, a popular org. back then… Left sleeve down by the cuff, has what appears to be corporal’s stripes, sewn on point down.(looking at the stitching, is was clearly done by hand) I’m assuming these were used as campaign stripes? It’s a interesting piece. not is as good a shape as yours, But as sgtrock said above they don’t get the attention they deserve. WWI was by any standard, horrible.
You are correct.
I had a buddy retire and was wanting one.
He was SF in VN,
had a ten year break in service, came back in,
and was getting his GWOT full on as an older guy.
The kind that is wiry and tough as woodpecker lips and running and climbing ropes with guys half his age.
He got a one time only, do not pass go 4 year activation that started the day after his retirement. He wanted a trench knife.
I ended up using the handle from a repo and putting a very nice blade into that.
As soon as his 4 years were up I saw him again at BAF when I was passing through. He was also passing through as a contractor.
Thanks for the post, this inspired me to do some reading up on World War I.
Not in this case. My Great Grandfather was trying to leave Germany right after WWI, he didn’t fight for either side. But the original owner was a friend of my grandparents and came from the same Iowa county. Wish I knew his name, because it’s somewhere in this book I got with the uniform.
My trench coat has one. War Service Chevron (‘overseas stripe’). It represents between 6 and 11 months of overseas service in the Theater of Operation. If yours has two it means overseas for 12 months (each gold service chevron represented 6 months of service).
Thanks for the info… I’ll see if I can get some pics up later…
See if this works… Opps…Guess not
I think I have a couple more… Pics of the pants, hat, won’t upload… I guess I was wrong about the overseas stripes, this guy had 3, not 2… This was his “dog tag” a simple metal tag riveted to his belt with limited information stamped on it. The image in the center was put in by Mr Barton himself, I believe it has something to do with the Oddfellows… as for the F.(?)L.T. in the upper corner I don’t know…Pretty sure he wasn’t a officer, as the pic I have of his headstone said he was a private…
Damn computers… Well, I guess it got worked out… Clearly, posting pics is not one of my strong points of computer operation…Sorry about the PPQ pics, folks…