The men's team épée was one of seven fencing events on the fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics programme. It was the eighth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 5 August 1948 to 6 August 1948. 113 fencers from 21 nations competed.
The competition format continued the pool play round-robin from prior years. Each of the four fencers from one team would face each of the four from the other, for a total of 16 bouts per match. Bouts were to three touches. The team that won more bouts won the match, with competition potentially stopping when one team reached 9 points out of the possible 16 (this did not always occur and matches sometimes continued). If the bouts were 8âÂÂ8, touches received was used to determine the winning team. (Because double-loss bouts were possible, these victory conditions were adjusted where necessary.) Pool matches unnecessary to the result were not played.
The top two teams in each pool advanced to round 2.
Argentina beat Poland 10âÂÂ6, Poland beat Cuba 8âÂÂ6, and Argentina beat Cuba 9âÂÂ5.
Belgium defeated Mexico 10âÂÂ6, Denmark beat Canada 13âÂÂ2, Belgium beat Canada 12âÂÂ1, and Denmark defeated Mexico 9âÂÂ2.
The United States (9âÂÂ5) and Luxembourg (8âÂÂ6) each defeated Finland.
Chile withdrew before competition, leaving France and Norway to advance.
Italy (14âÂÂ2) and Great Britain (8âÂÂ6) each defeated Brazil.
Egypt (10âÂÂ5) and Switzerland (8âÂÂ6) each defeated Portugal.
Sweden (16âÂÂ0) and Hungary (9âÂÂ1) each defeated Greece.
The top two teams in each pool advanced to the semifinals.
Italy beat Poland 14âÂÂ1, Hungary beat Norway 7âÂÂ7 (34âÂÂ35 touches against), Italy beat Norway 12âÂÂ2, and Hungary beat Poland 10âÂÂ6.
France defeated Denmark 12âÂÂ4, Egypt beat Great Britain 11âÂÂ5, France beat Great Britain 12âÂÂ3, Denmark beat Egypt 8âÂÂ6, France defeated Egypt 8âÂÂ5, and Denmark defeated Great Britain 8âÂÂ4.
Switzerland (11âÂÂ3) and Sweden (9âÂÂ3) each defeated Argentina.
Belgium (9âÂÂ5) and Luxembourg (8âÂÂ6) each defeated the United States.
The top two teams in each pool advanced to the final.
This semifinal was one of the more chaotic of the tournament, as Belgium defeated the heavy favorite France but also lost to the last-place Switzerland.
Denmark beat Poland 7âÂÂ6, France beat Switzerland 12âÂÂ3, Belgium defeated France 10âÂÂ5, Denmark beat Switzerland 12âÂÂ3, Switzerland beat Belgium 7âÂÂ7 (33âÂÂ39 touches against), and France beat Denmark 7âÂÂ5.
Sweden defeated Hungary 15âÂÂ0, Italy beat Luxembourg 11âÂÂ4, Sweden beat Luxembourg 11âÂÂ3, and Italy defeated Hungary 8âÂÂ1.
In the first pairings, France defeated Sweden 11âÂÂ4 and Italy beat Denmark 12âÂÂ4. The second pairings saw the favorites again win, with France 9âÂÂ1 over Denmark and Italy 8âÂÂ6 over Sweden. The Sweden-Denmark match was thus a de facto bronze medal match, with Sweden winning 8âÂÂ7. France defeated Italy 11âÂÂ5 to take the gold medal.