A scribble I did for another board...
100 years of the American entrenching tool:
My range begins with Model 1910, which was still the most common one in use for WWII.
1910 was a simple small, short spade with a wooden T handle...the design made an excellent and sturdy digging tool, but I think the T made it an awkward weapon. All the WWI references I have seen indicate that full sized shovels were the tool of choice as weapons. There was a shortened version of 1910 for someone...airborne? Cavalry? Probably utterly useless when shortened...
The rigid design likely renders this impractical for belt carry and awkward on a modern pack; in WWII the long, thin model 1928 pack most generally used (and its similar WWI ancestor) were shaped and sized nicely to carry the 1910 vertically at the back.
Late in WWII, the Model 1943 started entering service. This was the first folder and was a straight-handled simple spade, with an ideal handle for use as a swinging weapon. It was entirely usable as a weapon even as it came out of its pouch folded, and the screw lock allowed the tool to be used as shovel or hoe. In Korea, it developed into the M1951 with a pick added giving more tool options and a point probably capable of piercing a helmet. This was the familiar Vietnam period tool...probably the best weapon entrnching tool, very slightly inferior to 1910 as a shovel, both because of handle design.
The tri-fold model started replacing this in the late '60's, M 1967, an excellent design for carry and a good shovel. The new edges were an improvement in root cutting or chopping IMHO. The handle loop gives a good digging grip but a poor swinging grip...probably irrelevant because if you needed the thing as a weapon you'd be dead long before you got it unfolded and locked. It may, though, be about as good as the 1910 for digging...
So there's our path to now. Modern design proposals seem to be compromised towards compact carry and well away from practical use as a swinging weapon, so better find an M1951 to carry in the Zombie apocalypse.
Maybe the next generation will be entirely digital...
This website provides good pictures, even though they cannot spell "entrenching" correctly:
http://olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_intrenching.php
For car carry, think chopping as well as digging...in my experience, the hard use is always the packed and frozen slicks that form when you are parked.
The modernish trifold is a good car tool...it comes in real USA and Bundeswehr surplus (essentially identical), surplus from various places in the Balkans, **** repro, etc.
As I notes, the old 1951 is a better choice for the Zombie apocalypse.
