Yours is a late 1943 1219C2, USMC Fighting/Utility knife. Made after the 3 pommel construction changes (3/8" thick split nut to round peen to square peen to 1/4" pinned) and before the movement of the stamp to the guard.
One of the changes to the guard in 1944 (IIRC) DID include having the guard pre-bent at the factory but the bend in this knife is "user induced". The bend has been made to only the lower half of the guard, not the top half, and it is an extreme bend as well.
During the war, the designation for the USMC stamped knives was 1219C2 and for the USN MK2 stamped knives was 394831.
In 1957, when the government blew the dust off the old drawings to update the knife for new orders, 1219C2 and 394831 were dropped and the knife became the MIL-K-20227.
The requirements for a bent guard and branch stamps was dropped. The stamp became US over MANUFACTURER. The manufacturers were UTICA (May 1961), CAMILLUS (May 1962) and CONNETTA (1966), introduced in that order.
Kabar did not make any 1219C2/USN-MK2 knives from August 1945 to 1976 when they came out with their first "commemmorative" knives. After the government killed all contracts, Kabar and Camillus sold all their parts to companies that assembled the knives in various locations with other stamps - the blanks were all "blank" as the stamps would have been added to the knife on the guard. An example of these post-war surplus assemblies is the one by Weske of Ohio, stampes "SANSOUCCI DR".
