Struggling to identify this (German?) knife

[TH2002]

Hello all,
New member here, and made a quick post about this knife in the wrong thread, so hopefully I got it right the second time... I took a few more photos this time around as well.

Anyhow, purchased this intriguing little knife from an older fellow who had had it for at least 30 years before I got it. According to him, he got it from a Frank who served in Germany during WWII and took it from a deceased enemy soldier... and here it is now, in my possession. Even if the story is partially or completely fabricated, for 17 bucks I wasn't gonna pass up this curiosity

That's the thing though, I have had absolutely no luck identifying this knife, or even finding a picture of the same one. There are no markings anywhere on it that I can find, which leads me to believe it could be a wartime production item, although there was no standard issue pocket knife for the Wehrmacht as far as I know. It is nearly identical in dimension to a Swiss Army knife, but is thinner at 0.7 inches thick. The handle is probably made of aluminum, and it's a surprisingly lightweight tool coming in at 2.2 grams.

Does anyone have any idea what this is, or at least approximately when it was made?

Thanks!
Trevor

[TH2002]

Sorry to dig up this thread, but after over a year, I've finally figured out what this probably is...

Turns out, it's not German, but French. I found a post on Reddit of a very similar Pradel knife: https://www.reddit.com/r/reenactors/com ... tify_this/

The one in the reddit post isn't an exact match, the biggest difference being that it's actually labeled, but overall it's very close. All of the tools are the same, and the body style is very similar.

My knife being French is further corroborated by the fact that similar knives (labeled and unlabeled) show up on French auction sites once in a while. https://www.naturabuy.fr/Lot-2-couteaux ... 12476.html

The lack of markings and a lanyard hoop on mine could mean it's a wartime production, but I'm not 100% sure.

What about the story? Considering France was very intimately involved in WW2 and German troops were present there during the course of the war, it's still plausible. The knife in the French auction listing apparently came from the Allied siege of La Rochelle.

So while the knife's true story will likely forever remain speculative, I think we can fairly conclude that it's French-made.

[CarMan]

I was just getting ready to ask if it might be a Pradel. I guess I’m a day late & a dollar short again.