Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice original French WWI Pétard de la IIIe Armée, or IIIrd Army stick grenade, one of the distinctive improvised grenade types developed from the emergency “pétard-raquette” designs of the opening period of the First World War. These primitive weapons grew out of expedient constructions using a wooden handle or paddle together with an explosive charge and fragmentation material such as steel, wire, nails, or gravel. More standardized IIIe Armée examples subsequently employed a steel tube secured to a wooden handle, reflecting France’s urgent need to supplement limited supplies of purpose-built hand grenades during the early years of the war.

Unloaded or dummy grenades, artillery shell casings, and similar devices, which are cut or drilled in an BATF-approved manner so that they cannot be used as ammunition components for destructive devices, are not considered NFA weapons. This example is in total compliance and is NOT AVAILABLE FOR EXPORT.

More of a firework than a real grenade, it is composed of a long stick, with an attached steel tube designed for the insertion of a conventional mélinite 100g m1890 explosive charge with a detonator in its center.

The first examples were triggered by igniting a 5 second wick connected to the detonator tube. That system was soon improved upon by igniting the wick with two hunting ammunition primers placed in a small wooden block. The primers were triggered by a percussion on a nail introduced into a hole of the wooden block, pressing on a small metal piece connected to the starters base.

About 5 different types of cylinders of the same size were used, and various designs were used until 1917. Cheddite explosive would replace mélinite, each time that the demand exceeded the industrial capacity for modern grenades, which was unfortunately often.

Condition is quite good, though as with most battlefield recovered items, it does have rust and weathering wear. There is only one band holding the top block in and two wires holding the grenade body. The device measures approximately at 13" x 2 1/8" x 1 1/4".

The IIIe Armée grenade represents an important transitional stage in French grenade development during WWI, when battlefield requirements forced rapid adaptation of improvised explosive devices into more standardized military forms. The surviving wooden handle, steel body, retaining band, and wire attachments on this inert example illustrate the crude but functional construction characteristic of these early French designs, while its weathered condition provides tangible evidence of its considerable age and likely field exposure.

Totally inert, cannot be converted to an explosive device, not available for export. This item is completely legal within the USA. International Military Antiques, Inc observes all Federal, State and Local laws. Everything for sale on ima-usa.com is completely legal to own, trade, transport and sell within the United States of America.

All deactivated ordnance sold by IMA, Inc is engineered to be inoperable according to guidelines provided by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF).