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My Two French Grenade finds.

T

tommatt3

Active Member
Last week in my travels, I came across a collection of French military items, uniforms mostly. There was an assortment of ordnance items, including four or five grenades. I thought that the pineapple shaped one may be WWI French, and therefore U.S. by our using French ordnance items. I was not sure if the grenades were reproductions or inert original ones. I put two grenades on 'hold' and went home to look them up. I have identified them, from a 'Google', as a DF1 and OF1 grenade. Whatever goes under the 'spoon' is missing, but they look neat. The DF1 had a lead plug in the bottom. It had been filed smooth so the grenade would stand up. I drilled it out to have a hole in the body to keep the 'thought' police happy.
 

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  • French WWI hand grenades, types OF and F1..jpg
    French WWI hand grenades, types OF and F1..jpg
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  • French WWI concussion grenade, type OF. Inert..jpg
    French WWI concussion grenade, type OF. Inert..jpg
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  • French WWI fragmentation genade F1, Inert..jpg
    French WWI fragmentation genade F1, Inert..jpg
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Nice Finds Tommatt!

Also It looks like someone has added a current style US Type Pull Ring and Pin to the OF Type Grenade?
 
Inertordnance,.. Yes, you are correct the OF1 grenade sports a U.S. WWII pull ring and pin. Left that out of my posting in error...:tinysmile_classes_t
 
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Well, having an original to copy made making a replacement M1916 fuse pin assembly an easy matter. Here is the OF1 grenade with my home made pin assembly.
 

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  • OF replacement pin assy..jpg
    OF replacement pin assy..jpg
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history in metal

Hi tommatt, Very nice grenades, both are WW1 French F1 grenades, actually OF1 (offensive F1) and DF1 (defensive F1) and correctly stated the defensive F1 was used by the US during WW1 more than the US MK1 and has been cited many times as why the US had so many problems using the difficult MK1 with the MK1 fuze as it required more than just a pin pull (the Billant (not Brilliant) was just a pin pull and throw) to arm it. Then the MKII fuze came out eliminating this confusion. The F1's are beautiful and historic as well. The offensive F1 is much harder to find these days due to the frail sheet tin body. Your OF1 is one of the finer examples i've seen to date. Great finds and good living.....Dano
 
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