dano1917
RIP
Pictured here is a raquette petard grenade. This is actually a question that was tossed around my other grenade group sometime ago. It resembles the German WW1 raquette petard (box petard) but does not have the hinged lid. This grenade actually sold on specialist auctions sometime ago and I suspected that it was German. Again, there is no hinged lid and just a hole for a simple type fuze. Almost every country used a petard raquette grenade at one time or another as an emergency stop-gap grenade until better ones could be mass produced. Someone had come up with the the idea that it was definately Austrian, and many other countries were suggested by different people. I still think it is a German grenade and was just looking for some general opinions here. I bid on it at the time, but had to "jump ship" when the price hit the ludicrous zone. The petard grenades have always intrigued me and I really wanted this one bad. As you can see is is a simple rectangular shaped tin simply nailed to the paddle type handle. The various stopgap grenades, especially the artisnal German sticks turned out for the Verdun offensive have held a special interest to me. Well here it is and all opinions, comments and the like very welcome. Dano
