The introduction of barbed wire in the mid nineteenth century changed the shape of modern warfare, it became possible to very rapidly construct barriers that anywhere on the battlefield that could slow down and stop an enemy attack. By the First World War the design of barbed wire emplacements had become a deadly and sophisticated science, with defence in depth and perpendicular to the advance of the enemy to force him into cleared kill zones beaten by heavy machine guns.

Obviously then a means of cutting wire was needed and a variety of devices were tried with varying degrees of success. Artillery was fairly useless as it tended to tangle wire further without cutting it and early attempts included devices that allowed wire to be cut by firing a bullet through it. Whilst tanks were very effective as they crushed the wire, they were noisy and slow and unsuitable for night attacks. Therefore the most commonly used method of cutting barbed wire was the hand held wire cutters. The British Army developed several types of cutters, in varying sizes, but the longest lived were a set of folding cutters that could be stowed in a webbing pouch on the belt: