ITALIAN WWII CARVED HANDLED FIGHTING KNIFE.

We have had many of these carved handled fighting knives over the past 40 years but never one as exotic and as attractive as this example. Standard Italian WWII fighting knife, black scabbard, which has lost the majority of its paint finish. The 11cm long wood grip hand carved, to the top in abbreviated form ‘BTGD’ which should read Brigade D’ASSALTO 18’ followed lower to that is a name ‘Enrico Maria Cleonice’ followed by ‘ORNELLA’. On the reverse side the Albanian double headed eagle followed by more carving of a division in 1935/36, followed by ‘GRAN SASSO’ to the lower part butting up to the cross guard the Italian fascist symbol with the German swastika. All of the S’s in the lettering are in the form of the German SS runic symbol and further in-depth research should reveal the unit that the owner of this knife belonged to.

Code: 81810