Page "Dagger" Paragraph 28

Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the Fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.

The resurgence of these dress daggers and accoutrements in post-World War I Germany gave a much needed boost to the flagging fortunes of the metalworking center Solingen.

Dress daggers were used by several other countries as well, including Japan but never to the same extent as those worn by the Military and Political bodies of the Third Reich or Fascist Italy.

As combat equipment they were carried by many infantry and commando forces during the Second World War.

British Commando and other elite units were issued an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, developed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes from real-life close-combat experiences gained while serving on the Shanghai Municipal Police Force.

The F-S dagger proved very popular with the commandos, who used it primarily for sentry elimination.

Some units of the U. S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific were issued a similar fighting dagger, the Marine Raider Stiletto., though the design proved less than successful when used in the type of knife combat encountered in the Pacific theater.