Original German WWI Spring Handle Trench Raiding Mace – Featured in Book At Arm’s Length Volume 1 Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. Purchased directly from David F. Machnicki, the author of At Arm’s Length Trench Clubs and Knives (Vol. 1), where this very club is featured on both the cover and on page 42! Please note that the attached page image from the book is copyrighted material and the use of the page is done by permission of the author. A printed copy of the page will accompany the purchase of this club.

This example of a World War One German trench club has five sharp spikes equally cast about the surface on the egg-shaped iron head. The initials “FKG” and the number “202” were stamped into the head’s surface. Friedrich Kottenhoff Gevelsberg was a known manufacturer of weapons, which included edged weapons (i.c.Faschinenmesser), during World War One. The “202” maybe a lot or run number. There is a 6.0 mm thick eyelet attached through the base of the iron head designed to articulate with its 13.5 mm diameter spring handle. The handle’s flexible steel spring is embedded approximately 110 mm into the wasp-waist wood grip. Its grip has 12 regularly spaced, 1.5-millimeter deep grooves turned about its circumference. Located near the bottom of the pommel is a 12-millimeter wide groove for its leather Lanyard with its single rivet. A 41 mm long cone-shaped steel ferrule (with a 22 mm upper diameter and a 28 mm lower diameter) was attached to the top of the grip by a twelve-millimeter diameter rivet. This ferrule was designed to minimize the chances of splitting the wood when the dub was used as a weapon. The head of the pommel is flat. Note: Other examples for this model of club exist, which bear the manufacturer’s mark on the pommel and or the leather lanyard. There is no record of a Kriegsministerieller Erlass (War Ministry Order) for the manufacture and distribution of this type of club. Further research is required.

Total length: 461 mm
Head dimensions 74 x 59 x 59 mm
Grip diameter: 29 mm
Pommel diameter: 35 mm
Lanyard: leather
Terminal spike: 13 x 11 x 11 mm
Spring dimensions: 228 x 13.5 x 13.5 mm Mass 540 grams
Other: (4 points) 15 x 11 x 11 mm

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.