Description: The KA-BAR is a 12-inch fighting and utility knife (7 inches making up the blade) first used by the US Marines in World War II, and carried into battle by generations of Marines since that conflict. The knife itself was originally designed as a hunting knife in 1898, and would have been considered unremarkable at that time. In 1942, soon after the United States' entry into World War II, Americans soldiers experienced the problematic nature of "US 1917/1918" stilettos and "Mark I" daggers that they were issued initially, and realized the need for knives suited to trench warfare, and the KA-BAR design was chosen from a catalog of hunting gear.