In 1939, France's Edgar Brandt & Company offered the French Army a series of three HEAT grenades...a 50mm-diameter design to be fired from standard infantry rifles, a 60mm design to be fired from the rifle-caliber medium machine gun in single shot mode, and an 80mm design to be fired from the Hotchkiss 13.2mm HMG in single shot mode. In all cases, special blank cartridges were to be used, with more power than a regular ball cartridge.
The 50mm design proposal eventually was accepted by the Army, and a purchase order was issued. During the first several months of 1940, either 75,000 or 150,000 rounds (historical accounts conflict) of the ordnance were manufactured, and delivered to the Army ordnance warehouses near Paris. Unfortunately, this ordnance remained in the warehouses during the May-June fighting, because the associated training program and materials, to be provided by a third party, were not ready and French doctrine forbade issuing weapons for which training had not been completed.
The 50mm HEAT rifle grenade however was used later in the war, by French Resistance fighters and by Free French forces during the liberation fighting.
This was the 50mm HEAT rifle grenade, along with its spigot rifle adapter. Many examples of the 50mm grenade survive in ordnance collections. The illustrated spigot adapter was intended for the 7.5mm MAS 36 rifle, but similar adapters were designed for use with the other infantry rifles still in French service.
As far as I know, the 60mm and 80mm designs were never manufactured beyond possible prototype runs for use in efforts to sell them to the French Army and possibly the Belgian Army.
Drawings for the 60mm design were brought to the US by Henry Mohaupt, one of two individuals generally credited with invention of the military shaped-charge concept, and Edgar Brandt & Company's lead explosive-ordnance designer prior to the French defeat. That 60mm warhead design...expected by Mohaupt to be propelled from a more powerful gun than an ordinary infantry rifle...evolved into the M10 HEAT rifle grenade, which then led to the smaller M9 grenade that could be fired effectively from an infantry rifle.
Ironically, Henry Mohaupt...who held the Allied-world patents on shaped-charge devices for armor penetration...was blocked from obtaining a US security clearance because he was a Swiss citizen, so he was not permitted during WWII to work in the US on the weapons category that he had invented, and for which in 1940 he probably was the Allied nations' leading expert.
The 80mm design was expected by Edgar Brandt to be utilized in conjunction with two heavy weapons: an infantry multi-purpose 13.2mm HMG that Hotchkiss was trying to sell to the Infantry branch of the French Army; and a light tank, the AMR 35, that was used by the Cavalry branch of the French Army.
This was the Hotchkiss 13.2mm HMG, mounted to a field-mobile cart. The gun was mounted to a spring-balanced arm that could be extended upward to make the gun suitable for anti-aircraft use, or lowered downward for firing against ground targets. Brandt and Hotchkiss envisioned the 80mm HEAT projector-grenade as providing the cart-mounted gun with an effective anti-tank capability.
And this was the AMR 35, a light tank armed with the same Hotchkiss 13.2mm HMG. The Brandt 80mm projector-grenade would have given it a limited capability to engage much heavier armored fighting vehicles.
It's possible that examples of the 60mm and 80mm HEAT projector grenades exist in modern ordnance collections, remaining from the prototype manufacturing runs, but if so they are not well known. I'm particularly looking for more information on the 80mm variant.
The 50mm design proposal eventually was accepted by the Army, and a purchase order was issued. During the first several months of 1940, either 75,000 or 150,000 rounds (historical accounts conflict) of the ordnance were manufactured, and delivered to the Army ordnance warehouses near Paris. Unfortunately, this ordnance remained in the warehouses during the May-June fighting, because the associated training program and materials, to be provided by a third party, were not ready and French doctrine forbade issuing weapons for which training had not been completed.
The 50mm HEAT rifle grenade however was used later in the war, by French Resistance fighters and by Free French forces during the liberation fighting.
This was the 50mm HEAT rifle grenade, along with its spigot rifle adapter. Many examples of the 50mm grenade survive in ordnance collections. The illustrated spigot adapter was intended for the 7.5mm MAS 36 rifle, but similar adapters were designed for use with the other infantry rifles still in French service.
As far as I know, the 60mm and 80mm designs were never manufactured beyond possible prototype runs for use in efforts to sell them to the French Army and possibly the Belgian Army.
Drawings for the 60mm design were brought to the US by Henry Mohaupt, one of two individuals generally credited with invention of the military shaped-charge concept, and Edgar Brandt & Company's lead explosive-ordnance designer prior to the French defeat. That 60mm warhead design...expected by Mohaupt to be propelled from a more powerful gun than an ordinary infantry rifle...evolved into the M10 HEAT rifle grenade, which then led to the smaller M9 grenade that could be fired effectively from an infantry rifle.
Ironically, Henry Mohaupt...who held the Allied-world patents on shaped-charge devices for armor penetration...was blocked from obtaining a US security clearance because he was a Swiss citizen, so he was not permitted during WWII to work in the US on the weapons category that he had invented, and for which in 1940 he probably was the Allied nations' leading expert.
The 80mm design was expected by Edgar Brandt to be utilized in conjunction with two heavy weapons: an infantry multi-purpose 13.2mm HMG that Hotchkiss was trying to sell to the Infantry branch of the French Army; and a light tank, the AMR 35, that was used by the Cavalry branch of the French Army.
This was the Hotchkiss 13.2mm HMG, mounted to a field-mobile cart. The gun was mounted to a spring-balanced arm that could be extended upward to make the gun suitable for anti-aircraft use, or lowered downward for firing against ground targets. Brandt and Hotchkiss envisioned the 80mm HEAT projector-grenade as providing the cart-mounted gun with an effective anti-tank capability.
And this was the AMR 35, a light tank armed with the same Hotchkiss 13.2mm HMG. The Brandt 80mm projector-grenade would have given it a limited capability to engage much heavier armored fighting vehicles.
It's possible that examples of the 60mm and 80mm HEAT projector grenades exist in modern ordnance collections, remaining from the prototype manufacturing runs, but if so they are not well known. I'm particularly looking for more information on the 80mm variant.
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