Original British WWI Trench Raiding Club With Hobnail Studded End Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. Purchased recently from a private collection, this is an excellent example of the basic trench raiding club from WWI. This type was one of the most widely used type as they were easy to construct from items laying around a trench or dugout. These types are normally encountered with a lead core to give it a better weighted head, but this one does not. We believe it to be an original variation, but there is always the possibility of having been constructed in the immediate post-war era using original components.

This is a fantastic example of a World War One British trench raiding mace or club with 19 hobnails. Its length approximates 16 1/2 inches and has a mass of nearly 1 lb. The diameter of the head from one point to another is approximately 2 inches. The wood has aged wonderfully and may have originally been a billy club by its appearance. An incredible example of a nearly impossible to find Great War British Trench Mace.

Trench raiding clubs were homemade melee weapons used by both the Allies and the Central Powers during World War I. Clubs were used during nighttime trench raiding expeditions as a quiet and effective way of killing or wounding enemy soldiers. The clubs were usually made out of wood. It was common practice to fix a metal object at the striking end (e.g. an empty Mills bomb) in order to maximize the injury inflicted. Another common design comprised a simple stave with the end drilled out and a lead weight inserted, with rows of large hobnails hammered in around its circumference.

Most designs had some form of cord or leather strap at the end to wrap around the user’s wrist. Bosnian soldiers serving in the Austro-Hungarian army were fond of using maces. They were also used by officers to finish enemy soldiers wounded by poison gas attacks.

Trench clubs were manufactured in bulk by units based behind the lines. Typically, regimental carpenters and metal workers would make large numbers of the same design of club. They were generally used along with other “quiet” weapons such as trench knives, entrenching tools, bayonets, hatchets and pickaxe handles – backed up with revolvers and hand grenades.