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french F1 grenade with M1916 Billant fuse
- Thread starter al'saad
- Start date
dano1917
RIP
Hi al'saad, first off real nice grenade and seeing it brings to mind a question, one i've been pondering for some time. The fuze on yours has the twist and pull pin. An example I have has the straight pull pin. A web-site which i'll not name says the one with the twist and pull pin is an M1915 percussion fuze (which makes little to no sense to me) and the one with the straight pull pin is the M1916 Billant automatic fuze. Or is the straight pull pin a collectors replacment for a missing twist pull pin?? My thought is they are both the same fuze but with just different pins (for whatever reason). Both are shown in the Delhomme book (which has an excellent sub-section on automatic fuzes used by France in The Great War) but I cannot read the French language so that is no help to me. Also very intrigued with the location where the grenade was found, interesting to say the least. Well anyway just something that has perplexed me for some time. Back to your find. I have never made any secret about being partial to relic stuff and that grenade is just one fine example. NICE FIND. Also al'saad is that a grenade that will be inerted and saved? Just curious because it would absolutely make me sick if such a fine relic were to be destroyed!!............Dano
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hi, dano...
well i am not an expert for french hand grenades so i can not take part in discussion regarding nature of the fuse or differences among fuse types. i have identified this fuse matching it to the several pictures i found on internet.
my assumption is that this grenade is issued to serbian army by france as serbia and france were allies during WWI or is brought as souvenir by some bosnian who fought in a WWI.
and this grenade will be inerted altogether with some serbian egg grenades and one mils grenade.
well i am not an expert for french hand grenades so i can not take part in discussion regarding nature of the fuse or differences among fuse types. i have identified this fuse matching it to the several pictures i found on internet.
my assumption is that this grenade is issued to serbian army by france as serbia and france were allies during WWI or is brought as souvenir by some bosnian who fought in a WWI.
and this grenade will be inerted altogether with some serbian egg grenades and one mils grenade.
.
