Épée-baïonnette modèle 1886
Also known as: Rosalie, Épée-baïonnette Mle 1886
The French spike bayonet of the Lebel M1886 rifle, with an unsharpened blade 52 cm long, known today by the nickname Rosalie.
Quick Facts
FranceAbout the weapon
The Épée-baïonnette modèle 1886 is a bayonet designed specifically for the French Lebel M1886 rifle. The French army adopted it in 1886, and the rifle with the bayonet fixed measured about 1.8 m overall. Instead of a flat, sharpened blade it carries a spike 52 cm long, which an English source describes as square and a French one as cruciform in cross-section; the blade, called the soie, does not cut. Regulations distinguish two types, one with a short and the other with a long soie. A steel scabbard was fitted to a leather frog. It differs in type from the bayonet of the older French Chassepot rifle. For the breechloaders of the 1860s, such as the Chassepot and the Snider–Enfield, sabre bayonets suited to mass production emerged. A surviving bayonet for the Chassepot M1866 rifle in the Imperial War Museums collection has a single-edged, curved yataghan blade 576 mm long and a brass hilt, measuring 699 mm overall. Besides the Lebel, the M1886 bayonet was also fitted to other weapons, for example the Berthier M1907/15 rifle. The nickname Rosalie comes from a song by Théodore Botrel. Among French First World War soldiers, called poilus, it was unpopular, yet today it is widespread. The bayonet is mentioned in David Diop's novel Frère d'âme and in Georges Brassens's song Les patriotes.