Though it looks more brutal than a standard bayonet, the sawback models were generally issued as a field survival tool. Many nations issued sawback bayonets in several wars. During WWI, the Germans would sometimes file down the serrations to make it smooth. Rumor around German trenches was you would be shot on sight as a prisoner of war if you were caught with a sawback bayonet. Soldiers believed the bayonets were used to saw the limbs off captured soldiers, hence their hatred towards the design. In reality it was meant to saw small branches and wood for fires and improvised shelters.