CZECHOSLOVAK PARA/SPECIAL FORCES KNIFE UTON VZ 75, UNPRFOR ISSUE
HISTORY UNPRFOR
The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: Force de Protection des Nations Unies) was the first United Nations peace keeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav wars. The force was formed in February 1992 and its mandate ended in March 1995, with the peacekeeping mission restructuring into three other forces (the United Nations Preventative Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the Republic of Macedonia, and the United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO) in Croatia, with restructured UNPROFOR operations ongoing in Bosnia and Herzegovina until their replacement by NATO and EU missions in December 1995).
UNPROFOR was composed of nearly 25,000 personnel. It consisted of troops from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. According to the UN, there were 167 fatalities amongst UNPROFOR personnel during the course of the force's mandate. Of those who died, three were military observers, 159 were other military personnel, one was a member of the civilian police, two were international civilian staff and two were local staff.
ITEM DESCRIPTION
UTON vz. 75 was a knife designed for the special units (paras, recce and pilots) as a personal weapon for self defense, silent termination of enemy and also for solving issues with parachute. During the jump they were worn on the chest attached to the reserve parachute. Latter it became available to other units as well. Now it is used also by special police units and some prison guards.
Design of the knife is pretty simple. Chrome steel blade with fake upper edge and rubber anti-slip handle. The handle has small round and larger rectangular hole in it. The knife came in leather holster with approx. 1m of para cord and two additional tools - saw which could be used also as the screwdriver and the file. Both tools should fit into rectangular hole in handle and then it is secured with metal end of para cord.
This example is complete and its original owner was a serving soldier with UNPRFOR (see above history of UNPRFOR) which is stamped to the scabbard along with the UN motif.