Exploring the French “Pètards Raquettes” Grenades

One aspect of buying militaria that we love to deal in are grenades. There are a myriad number of models, all designed to explode, but all doing it in different ways, with different shapes and different fuzes. From the classic German “potato masher” of WWI & WWII, to the American “pineapple” grenade, some types are well known and instantly recognizable to most people.

Today, we will be looking at a very unusual and rare grenade made in France during the early desperate days of WWI. These are known as French “hairbrush” grenades, stick grenades, or in French as pètards raquettes, or IIIrd Army (grenade de la troisiéme armée). They are primitive yet effective, and were widely used by the French Army until stocks of more conventional grenades were procured. Obviously, due to their fragile construction, very few are encountered today.

The hole for arming the grenade

The “disarmed” position of the pin

The grenades were basically a piece of wood with a metal cylinder packed with explosive that was tightly attached with thick wires. A block of wood was then attached to the wood body, right above the explosive filled tube. To arm the grenade, a nail was withdrawn from a hole on the side of the wood block, and then reinserted into a hole on the front of the wood block. The head of this nail was then smacked on a hard surface, igniting a detonator cap on a metal plate between the wood block and the wood stick. A length of fuze cord ran between the wood block and the explosive filled tube. Once activated, the soldier had 5-7 seconds to get rid of the grenade.

The “armed” setting on the grenade

For the collector, examples with the original wire and detonating nail intact are highly sought after. Most of these grenades were expended in wartime, or simply fell apart in the years after the war, so complete examples are exceedingly rare. The examples pictured here even have the original crude wire hooks for attaching a grenade to the soldier’s belt. While not nearly as iconic as more well known grenades, these French hairbrush grenades filled a vital role in arming the French soldier in WWI, and were a staple item in the trenches of the Western Front.

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