Total touches against were the tie-breaker if a match was tied 8 bouts to 8.

However, only as much fencing was done as was necessary to determine advancement, so some matches never occurred and some matches were stopped before the full 16 bouts were fenced if the teams advancing from the pool could be determined.

Italy defeated Great Britain on touches against (62–66) after each team won 8 bouts in their match.

The first two pairings saw Poland defeat the Soviet Union (9–7) and Hungary beat France (12–4).

The Soviet Union defeated France 8–7 (touches were 53–60, so even a 5–0 win for France in the final unplayed bout would have left the Soviet team the winners) to take the bronze medal, while Hungary prevailed over Poland 9–4 for the gold.