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Battye Grenade finish and fuzes.

BMG50

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I am trying not to reserect an old topic which appears now and then about the Battye grenade which has been mentioned a couple of times on the forum. It seems there are about 3 types of fuzes for this grenade, one a Nobel cardboard tube type, a nobel type with wooden wings to protect the fuze and a plain fuze type you light with a metal plate with nails or screws in place. Which is the official type used by the British army and does anyone have any dimensions and sizes of the fuzes used so i can make a replica for mine.
As for finish, it seems that they are black in finish in peoples collects as the standard finish, was that an original finish or were they varnished or shellacked otherwise they would rust in the damp trenches.
Seeing as they used [FONT=arial, sans-serif]Ammonal as a filling i thought they would have a pink band around the body as with the No 15 cricket ball grenade or was it that they were made by the French this wasn't applied.[/FONT]
 
Hello;
Sorry, I have been missing in action for a while. Here are my three Battye Grenades. 1. Ignition fuse, 2. Lugged Nobel fuse, 3. Nobel fuse. Vaughn
 

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Any clues to the original finish? I've only ever seen them in bare metal plus free rust.
 
Must have had some form of finish to protect against rust and moisture.
 
I'm not sure about that. The distance from the foundry at Bethune to the battlefields was very short. They were needed for immediate use. Why bother varnishing?
 
Looks like a friction igniter, but whose?

I've just remembered that I bought one, probably repro a few years ago in France. I'll try and find it and post a photo.
 
Found it. Looking at it now it might be an original. But I still don't know where it came from. The light blue paper around the body almost looks like cigarette paper.

DSCN1622.jpg
 
Just come across this Battye which had SD on one side and DS on the other. Could this indicate a different foundry than Bethune?

Also the solid end had been drilled for fuze.Battye SD 2023.JPGBattye DS.JPGBattye Base 2023.JPG
 
Here are three more Battye grenades, the one on the left has a brown varnish finish, the centre example is a rough casting (probably a different Workshop) and has never had any other finish, the one on the right is virtually mint and has a smooth black varnish finish.
Two have the remains of the Bickford fuze still in place, the other has the original wooden former that would be removed and replaced by the detonator and fuze before use.
And finally what appears to be the body of a pitcher grenade, Light or Heavy, but is cast in brass and not iron.
 

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Here are three more Battye grenades, the one on the left has a brown varnish finish, the centre example is a rough casting (probably a different Workshop) and has never had any other finish, the one on the right is virtually mint and has a smooth black varnish finish.
Two have the remains of the Bickford fuze still in place, the other has the original wooden former that would be removed and replaced by the detonator and fuze before use.
And finally what appears to be the body of a pitcher grenade, Light or Heavy, but is cast in brass
 
Here are three more Battye grenades, the one on the left has a brown varnish finish, the centre example is a rough casting (probably a different Workshop) and has never had any other finish, the one on the right is virtually mint and has a smooth black varnish finish.
Two have the remains of the Bickford fuze still in place, the other has the original wooden former that would be removed and replaced by the detonator and fuze before use.
And finally what appears to be the body of a pitcher grenade, Light or Heavy, but is cast in brass and not iron.
I knew an Belgium EOD guy who had one of those brass examples too, it was found on the battle field around Ypres
 
Here are three more Battye grenades, the one on the left has a brown varnish finish, the centre example is a rough casting (probably a different Workshop) and has never had any other finish, the one on the right is virtually mint and has a smooth black varnish finish.
Two have the remains of the Bickford fuze still in place, the other has the original wooden former that would be removed and replaced by the detonator and fuze before use.
And finally what appears to be the body of a pitcher grenade, Light or Heavy, but is cast in brass and not iron.
I've had about a dozen Battyes pass through my hands in the last year and about 5 of them had that jagged extension from the base as in the 2nd grenade from the left in the photo. So some of the moulds were reused multiple times.

The brass one, far right looks more like a No. 14 Heavy Pitcher than a Battye, yes the material is wrong but maybe there was a contract with a French maker similar to the Dunkirk Mills grenades?
 
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