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Unknown Grenade


tigerfan
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Bought some WWI - WWII American military things today and this grenade was part of it. I have searched everywhere I can think of but can't find this one. Does anyone know what this one is? Thanks.

 

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Very interesting grenades. Would a VC grenade have what appears to be a makers stamp on it? Notice that this one has the letters FA.

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Very interesting grenades. Would a VC grenade have what appears to be a makers stamp on it? Notice that this one has the letters FA.

 

the grenade body could also possibly be a piece of scrap metal off of something like a pipe cap or something like that?

 

the letters FA could be a company that made the mouldings for something, like plumbing or pipes, etc?

 

the VC often used anything to make a grenade / bomb, old coke cans, c ration cans filled with nails, & broken glass, anything to use as shrapnel

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Take this for what it's worth, but I saw our bomb disposal unit with one extremely similar to that one years ago. They said it was French WWII era. Of course the French were in Indochina as well so if it is VC that may explain the shape....just my 2 cents.

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Looks similar to this one with a different fuse.

 

http://lexpev.nl/grenades/europe/france/df1917.html

 

 

Yes, looks very similar besides the fuze. On another note: I had a chance to go back where I got this grenade along with other WWI - WWII military things as a few more things were found. I was informed that the WWI items were from the grandfather and the WWII items were from an uncle. There were a few French WWI related things in this lot including a bayonet, a few insignia and a 1918 brass knuckle knife French made. Everything is being found in a house clean out not far from me.

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maybe the uncle that was in WWII brought the French style grenade back during the 1940's, lots of older stuff left over from WWI was also reused during WWII.

 

could be something used by the French resistance, the different fuze could be a later modification from the 1930's - 40's or possibly a variation of the WW1 model, since they mfg three different versions.

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the grenade may not even be related to the estate sales grandfather or uncle's WWI - WWII service, it could be something acquired some other way , could still be something a vet brought back from Vietnam, a modified French DF 17 grenade body so the use by the VC / PAVN or some other country is still a possibilty.

 

lots of vets have collectables in their collections that came from another source, not always something they brought back personally.

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