Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Recent Second Hand Store Fine - Pretty Cool

I recently found this USN Mark 1 PAL RH-35 Fighting Knife with USN Leather Sheath in a second hand shop. I think I paid about $12.

Generally, I'm not a collector of WWII stuff but I couldn't resist this one. The knife itself, from what I've read, isn't all that rare. Although this one is a little rarer than some as it has a very early wooden butt. When I bought it, I thought it might have been a GI field repair, but I have since found out that the early ones came this way from the factory. Prior to being issued to the USN, these were fairly ordinary hunting knives and soldiers could pick up at the PX. When the war contract went through, the wooden butt was changed.

What really makes this knife very cool are the writings on the scabbard. Of course I can't prove it, but I have a feeling that the following was written by the original owner...."Leyte", "Luzon", and "Tarakan". If these markings are legit, this knife could have seen some pretty heavy combat.

I also thought it was unusual to have "USN" marked on the scabbard. If it was a Marine knife, I would think it would have been marked accordingly. I have also heard that USN pilots often carried these knives in their kits. I would be interested to know what other naval personnel might have had the need to carry a knife like this. Anyway, here are this pics.

if only the knife could talk. That one is a keeper for sure.

They can talk Sam, they just don't speak out loud much.
Yep, a very cool find.
jmho
Tim

Could have been owned by a navy medic embedded with the marines.

My first thought, too.

Wow.

I hadn't considered a navy medic. I thought maybe a Sea Bee? They would have been all through the Pacific and probably at the three places written on the sheath. I figured they could have used a knife like this.

After a brief review of Wikipedia, I notices under Tarakan, "...The force which landed on Tarakan included nearly a thousand United States and Dutch troops. The U.S. troops included the U.S. Army engineers who manned the invasion force's landing craft and LVTs and United States Navy Seabee detachments on board the Landing Ship Tanks."

I don't have any specifics on who might have been at Leyton or Luzon, but the Seabee reference on Tarakan seems to make sense.

Nice grab, very cool knife.

Nice. That leather sheath looks amazingly good for its age.

Steve