French model 1914 ball hand grenade with its brass plug very nice condition recovered from the Somme battlefield of 1916-1918.

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This is a French model 1914 ball hand grenade and still has its brass transit plug which sits in the top of the grenade perfectly but does not screw in the grenade is in nice solid relic condition. The grenade which is empty and inert the case is complete and has no real damage it has only light rust and pitted but has no rust holes with some original black paintwork it is still very solid not braking up at all a cracking condition relic with a lot of original colour that has been very well cleaned and is perfect for display or any collection.The grenade was recovered from the Somme battlefield of 1916-1918.This grenade comes with A5 laminated information card.

The Battle of The Somme took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the River Somme in France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

The grenade modèle 1914 is an improvement of the grenade modele 1847 that was not only old but was also suffering from several issues like its bad resistance to humidity and the non-satisfactory fragmentation. Pretty heavy, that grenade could be launched with the help of a wrist sling that was not convenient in the narrow spaces available in trenches. The optimism at the start of the war delayed the manufacturing of this new version so it was not dispatched to the French soldiers before 1915. At this time, more modern grenade types were developed on the experience of the first fights were slowly arriving in the units