View Single Post
Old 12th July 2022, 10:43 AM   #10
gp
Member
 
gp's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 658
Default

back to kama's ..... although the word dates back to Ottoman times but actually Armenian origin , see # 25 of http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=kAma but in & after WWII I found out recently, it was used also not only by the SS brigade kama but also Tito' s resistance and later in Balkan countries: officially in the JNA / Yugoslav Army since 1951 untill recently during the tragic events in Bosnia.

First resistance to and later collaborating the occupation of Serbia in WWWII f.i. this kama or qama by Draze Michalovic Cetniks:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27648

In the book "Hladno oružje Srbije, Crne Gore i Jugoslavije 19-20 vek" (Melee /cold (steel) weapons of Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia 19th-20th century) by Branko Bogdanović, you can find this illustration (page 143)


And on pages 48-49 the text says that after WW2, hand to hand combat got special attention and was under Soviet influence. At the beginning of the 1960s, the Army got a new homemade knife (kama) M.1951 (j), based on the Soviet army knife (NR)40.
The price of a single M51 knife was 25 dinara (cca 7 DEM), according to a price list from 1.7.1970.
It was meant for the soldiers (fighters) belonging to scout, saboteur and paratrooper units.
Its fiery baptism was 4 decades after being made (by then regarded as old, and mostly given to units of the Territorial defense - Teritorijjalna obrana /TO/), in the hands of the enemy of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).


During a brief conflict (The Ten-Day War), in June 1991, the Territorial defense issued this knife to all soldiers/fighter who were issued the M56 submachine gun - because of lack of M56 bayonets.

the No. 69 stands for Military workshop No.69, Zagreb, Croatia

FYI; the text in the book mentions "kamom"which is dativ for kama in Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian
Attached Images
       

Last edited by gp; 12th July 2022 at 12:19 PM.
gp is offline   Reply With Quote