New Mystery Grenade and Fuze

[ordnance]

Here is another new piece from the Louisville Show last month that I need help with.

The body appears to be a WWI French Mle 1917 DF type intended for both hand throwing and VB launching. The fuze is unknown to me and is closest in appearance to Viet Cong types but is made much nicer than any VC/NVA striker release fuze seen before. The casting details, threading, and embossed gripping lines on the spoon are all very well done. The pin is of the French twist-and-pull type but that feature is commonly seen on VC grenades as are many other recycled French design features. But of all the Vietnam era grenades I've seen, I have never encountered one with that body style.

The fuze threads are larger than those of the Mle1916 Billiant fuze normally seen on this grenade and a Mle1916 fuze just drops into the hole. That feature also has me leaning toward a Vietnamese grenade.

While the base diameter is close to fitting in a French VB tromblon, it is still a bit large to go in. I have a shop-made VB style launcher that came back from Vietnam and was originally attached to a 1903 Springfield rifle, but have not tried the grenade in that launcher yet. As always, all opinions are welcome.

 

[no3nh4]

Hi,

I think that the grenade and the fuze are Brazilian, and I think that the name is DMB, or similar (I am "speaking" from memory)

 

[sgdbdr]

Right !

Available on lexpev : http://lexpev.nl/grenades/americas/brazil/dmbdefensive.html

Fuze is different, though.

S.

 

[ordnance]

Interesting. I knew I'd seen the fuze someplace before and there it is on the Brazilian BMB offensive version, right down to the horizontal grip lines on the spoon. Even more odd is that the BMB seems identical to a Belgian grenade used by the Germans in WWII as the "330 (b)". And Lexpev also shows two other Belgian variants using the same fuze, one a defensive and the other a gas type, the "331 (b)" and "350 (b)".

I will assume that the fuze design probably originated in Belgium and was adopted by the Brazilians, but who knows?

By coincidence, I have one of the Brazilian Mauser VB type launching cups and that was the first one the grenade was tried in......didn't fit in it or French or U.S. launchers either. I guess it is more likely to be from Brazil but perhaps Belgium. At this point, I've seen no evidence that Belgium used the Mle 1917 DF French type grenade body, but I think I'll contact a friend in Belgium and see what he says.