- Joined
- Jan 15, 2001
- Messages
- 3,753
Anyone familiar with a "Mattax"? It is a wooden handled version of a Roman Dolbra, with an axe head on one end and a pick head on the other. The US military brought it out, IMO, as the trip-fold shovel was such a poor digger. In WWII we started with the M1910 "T" handled E-tool, and a small wooden handled Pick Axe. Later the US, again IMO copied the German 1938 folding shovel, followed by the M1951 E-tool with a shovel head and a pick on the other side. The Trip-fold came out sometime in Vietnam, not sure of the exact date, although plenty of M1951's were still in use. During our last two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan ) not much digging was done for foxholes, so no idea how well the Trip-fold E-tool performed. Might be different in our next combat situation. John