{"id":25127,"date":"2017-11-26T07:25:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T13:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/26\/american-viven-bessieres-ww1-grenade-launcher\/"},"modified":"2017-11-26T07:25:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T13:25:57","slug":"american-viven-bessieres-ww1-grenade-launcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/26\/american-viven-bessieres-ww1-grenade-launcher\/","title":{"rendered":"American Viven-Bessi\u00e8res WW1 Grenade Launcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mejs-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oiPmPNgf4UU?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The standard American grenade launching system in World War One was the Vivien-Bessiere, borrowed directly form the French. It had been adopted by France in 1916, replacing copies of the British Martin-Hale rod grenades. The V-B was a cup type launcher using a pass-through type of grenade and standard ball ammunition. A hole through the body of the grenade allowed the bullet to pass clean through the grenade, triggering a 5-7.5 second time fuse in the process. The gas pressure behind the bullet would then launch the grenade to a distance of 80-190 yards, depending on the inclination of the rifle. It could be fired from the hip if necessary, but firing form the shoulder was just a bad idea. The intended firing method was to rest the stock on the ground &#8211; although launching racks were also built for using the system from fixed positions in trenches.<\/p>\n<p>The US would develop 4 iteration of the launcher, basically to improve its fixation to the rifle. This example is a Mk IV, with a spiral locking channel to firmly fix the launcher behind the rifle\u2019s front sight. Two versions were made; a smooth one for the 1903 Springfield and one with a knurled ring at the muzzle for the 1917 Enfield. Both were identical in function, but dimensioned to fit the specific barrel diameters of the two different rifles. The Model 1917 V-B launcher would remain in US service until the 1930s, actually seeing some use in WWII in the Pacific theater.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.bbtv.com\/collections\/forgotten-weapons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/shop.bbtv.com\/collections\/forgotten-weapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy Forgotten Weapons, check out its sister channel, InRangeTV! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/InRangeTVShow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/InRangeTVShow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The standard American grenade launching system in World War One was the Vivien-Bessiere, borrowed directly form the French. It had been adopted by France in 1916, replacing copies of the British Martin-Hale rod grenades. The V-B was a cup type launcher using a pass-through type of grenade and standard ball ammunition. A hole through the&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/26\/american-viven-bessieres-ww1-grenade-launcher\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">American Viven-Bessi\u00e8res WW1 Grenade Launcher<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}