WW1 RACQUET GRENADE WITH BATTYE BOMB

The French magazine L'ILLUSTRATION 22 May 1915 shows a picture of a soldier in a trench throwing one of these and the title refers to it as a 'Racquet' bomb.

Units like these were hobbled together near the front line by the French and English alike. As new armaments became scarce during the early years of the war, men at the front improvised. Using a casing from a Battye Bomb that was usually thrown on its own, and attaching it to a handle improved the distance it could be thrown, containing Black Powder and lit by a simple fuse such devises could be quite affective.

Your comments:

• Improvised munitions of this type were manufactured or produced in "bomb factories" established by the Engineers, not by 'men at the front'.In the British Sector the Second Army factory established at Hazebrouck employed almost 1,000 French civilians, mostly women and girls, to manufacture its munitions and other equipment for the trenches. It was a significant munitions factory producing over 700,000 pippen rifle grenades in 1916
  .......... John M Sneddon, Newcastle u lyme Staffordshire, 6th of May 2022
  
  

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