Model 1890 Turkish Mauser Bayonet

Model 1890 Turkish Mauser Bayonet. The hilt has plain wooden grips held to the tang with two screw bolts. The crossguard is stamped 77162 in Turkish Arabic, has a muzzle ring and a down-turned hooked quillion. The pommel is stamped with the sultan's crest under the locking bolt button. The straight single edged blade has a single fuller to each side and the ricasso has an arabic inscription over 1309 (1891).

This bayonet is an example of one of the diverse range of combat equipment that was issued to and used by the Ottoman Turkish forces during the First World War. Turkish front line troops who served against Australian, New Zealand, British and Indian (including Gurkhas) troops in Egypt, Palestine and the Gallipoli peninsula were armed with a range of weapons from antiquated pre-1900 rifles to modern German-made rifles and machine guns. This particular bayonet is for the Model 1890 Turkish Mauser rifle. An estimated 280,000 of these rifles were manufactured for their use during the First World War, with thousands of these falling into the hands of Australian and other British Commonwealth troops during the war. There are no details known as to the original user or place of capture of these relics.

For many years this bayonet was part of the uniform and equipment displayed with the Turkish soldier figure which was installed in the Gallipoli gallery of the Australian War Memorial from the 1980's until 2013.