VB rifle grenade

The Viven-Bessières rifle grenade, named after its inventors[1][note 1], also known as "VB grenade", and officially referred to as the "Viven-Bessières shell" in the French Army instruction manual, was an infantry weapon in use with the French Army from 1916 onwards.

Cylindrical in shape, it was made of cast iron with internal grooves to facilitate fragmentation during its bursting.

It is launched by firing a normal cartridge, the ball (bullet) passing through the tube at the centre of the projectile.

According to the contemporary French Army instruction manual, there were two main modes of use of the V-B grenades.

For example, to neutralize machine gun nests; Or, in the defensive, to fire on those communication trenches by which the enemy reinforcements may come.

Initially, with material supplied by France; in a second stage, producing their own dischargers and grenades and adapting them to their M1917 Enfield and M1903 Springfield rifles.

The V-B rifle continued to be part of the inventory of the French infantryman at the beginning of the Second World War.

[5] After the conflict, the cup discharger concept was gradually abandoned by the army as a means of launching grenades.