A constant need of trench warfare in the First World War was to know what your enemy was doing. On the Western Front, the British organised regular raids of the German trenches to find out information such as what and how many troops were in the area and what weapons they had. Most of these raids happened at night and as silently as possible. Small but vicious daggers like this were invaluable in the hand to hand fighting that happened in the narrow confines of the trenches.