Mark I trench knife

The Mark I trench knife was an American trench knife designed by officers of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) for use in World War I. It had a 6.75 in (17.1 cm) double edged dagger blade useful for both thrusting and slashing strokes, unlike previous U.S. trench knives such as the M1917 and M1918. The handle is made of cast bronze and uses a conical steel nut to hold the blade in place. The Mark I's blade was blued with a black oxide finish, the bronze handle was chemically blackened, with cast spikes on the bow of each knuckle. The spikes were intended to prevent an opponent from grabbing the knife hand, as well as to provide a more concentrated striking surface when employed in hand-to-hand combat.

History

The Mark I was a development of the earlier U.S. M1917 and the slightly improved M1918 trench knives designed by Henry Disston & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both the M1917 and M1918 used a triangular blade and a handle equipped with a guard designed to protect the user's knuckles. By 1918 it was apparent that the M1917 and M1918 designs were too limiting to succeed in their intended role, and a new trench knife design was requested.

Trench knife

A trench knife is a combat knife designed to kill or gravely incapacitate an enemy soldier at close quarters, as might be encountered in a trenchline or other confined area. It was developed in response to a need for a close combat weapon for soldiers conducting assaults and raids on enemy trenchlines during the First World War. An example of a World War I trench knife is the German Army's Nahkampfmesser (close combat knife).

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the trench knife, by this time usually referred to as a combat knife, proved so useful that armies continued to develop and issue new designs. On the Axis side, the Nahkampfmesser and designs developed from it were again widely issued to the ordinary soldier as general-purpose fighting and utility knives, while Allied armies generally restricted issue of trench knives to elite infantry units and infantry not otherwise equipped with the bayonet.

Early trench knives

With the exception of the German Nahkampfmesser or (combat knife), most early trench knives were fabricated by hand by individual soldiers or ordnance blacksmiths for the purpose of silently eliminating sentries and other enemy personnel during trench raids. These early "trench knives" were often nothing more than shortened and sharpened Army-issue bayonets. One type of stabbing weapon, the French Nail, was made by cutting and pointing the steel stakes used to support the ubiquitous barbed wire protecting the trench lines. All trench knives share one common characteristic: they were designed specifically for military use in close combat encounters with enemy personnel. Some historians say that some trench knives models were inspired by the Bowie knife for its design.

Mark I

Mark I or Mark 1 often refers to the first version of a weapon or military vehicle, and is sometimes used in a similar fashion in civilian product development. In some instances, the Arabic numeral "1" is substituted for the Roman numeral "I". "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can itself be abbreviated "Mk."

Military and weaponry

British heavy tanks of World War I

British heavy tanks were a series of related vehicles developed by the British Army during the First World War. The Mark I was the world's first tank to enter combat. Born of the need to break the domination of trenches, barbed wire and machine guns over the battlefields of the Western Front, it was the first vehicle to be named "tank", a name chosen as an expedient to maintain secrecy and to disguise its true purpose. It was developed to be able to cross trenches, resist small-arms fire, travel over difficult terrain, carry supplies, and to capture fortified enemy positions. It is regarded as successful in many respects, but suffered from many problems owing to its primitive nature.

The Mark I entered service in August 1916, and was first used in action on the morning of 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Somme Offensive. With the exception of the few interim Mark II and Mark III tanks, it was followed by the largely similar Mark IV, which first saw combat in June 1917. The Mark IV was used en masse (about 460 tanks) at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. The Mark V, with its much improved transmission, entered service in mid-1918.

Mark I (detector)

The Mark I, also known as the SLAC-LBL Magnetic Detector, was a particle detector that operated at the interaction point of the SPEAR collider from 1973 to 1977. It was the first 4π detector, i.e. the first detector to uniformly cover as much of the 4π steradians (units of solid angle) around the interaction point as possible with different types of component particle detectors arranged in layers. This design proved quite successful, and the detector was used in discoveries of the J/ψ particle and tau lepton, which both resulted in Nobel prizes. This basic design philosophy continues to be used in all modern collider detectors.

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