The German armaments firm of Heckler & Koch were responsible
for one of the most successful series of assault rifles to be produced
during the post Second World War years. Their rifles have been sold to
well over 30 nations world-wide, as well as being employed by the
German (formerly West German) military.
In some ways, modern assault rifle bayonets are particularly difficult
to study as compared to the weapons of earlier eras. The
standardisation of muzzle (or flash-hider) dimensions for the rifles of
allied groups of nations, such as members of NATO, has been
necessitated by the desire to achieve interchageability of rifle
grenades amongst the armies of friendly powers. This means that whole
groups of modern assault rifle bayonets share the same muzzle ring
diameter. A consequence of this has been the development of bayonet
adaptors which allow bayonets designed for one type of assault rifle to
be readily fixed on a wide variety of other contemporary military
firearms. The German Eickhorn company has been particularly active in
developing bayonet adaptors of this kind. Such interchangeability can
make bayonet identification doubly difficult for today’s
collectors as it can make it hard to assign a particular bayonet to a
particular nation or to match it with a particular companion firearm.
Having said this, bayonets for Heckler & Koch assault rifles
nevertheless remain a relatively distinctive group, easy to recognise
and perhaps an ideal subject for a specialised collector. A rather
bewildering variety of bayonets have been developed for use with
H&K rifles during the last 50 years or so. Most of these have
been illustrated and described in books or magazine articles, and the
majority of bayonet collectors will have some general idea of the types
of bayonet employed. In many ways the bayonets are a particularly
interesting group – the method of fixing on the rifle is for
example extremely unusual.
As far as is known, no serious attempt has yet been made to study,
classify and identify these bayonets for the benefit of collectors and
other students of the subject. It is hoped that the information
presented here in PDF format will serve as a useful introductory guide
to a fascinating group of bayonets. It is by no means the definitive
treatment of these weapons as there is scope for much further research,
but it is hoped that it will stimulate interest among collectors and
encourage future investigations.
