Historic context :

Belgium citizen born in 1859 and military engineer until 1889, Siméon Delattre jopined again the Army in 1914 at the war outbreak. After the Antwerp retreat, he was incorporated in the Belgian Army's Ateliers d'Artillerie du Havre where he was apponted 1st class Artillery Engineer then Artillery Reserve Principal Engineer, with a grade of Captain-Commandant then Major,

Delattre had participated at the end of the XIXth century to the design of the Belgian high explosive 'Macarite', but he also had designed a grenade launcher that was being tested by the Belgian Army at the beginning of 1914. This interesting weapon with a shape close to the one of the old 'Louis-Philippe' French mortars had been designed to launch clusters of 1 kg fragmentation grenades linked to each other by long steel wires. The grenades time wicks were set so that the explosions would happen with a 1 second interval, each of them moving the cluster to a unpredictable direction and range, creating a 300 square meters dangerous surface and probably some panic ! It could also launch a single 2.5 kg grenade.

180 launchers (later turned down to 150) were ordered to the Chantiers de la Marine et de Homécourt located in Saint Chamond close to Saint Etienne in France, giving to the weapon its definitive name of 'Lance-Grenades Delattre / Saint-Chamond de 142 mm'.

In its original version, the cast steel barrel had an inner diameter of 142 mm (after a first version of 52 mm quickly abandoned firing a unique 52 mm projectile). The firing was done with a handle electric magneto, the charge being connected to it by contact on 2 studs. A wheel allowed the elevation aiming.

Numerous combat accidents showed a real weakness of the cast steel barrel, so successive improvements were made, first with an external 10 mm jacketed steel circle at the junction between the propulsion chamber and the tube, then by using forged steel barrels from 1917.

Technical data :

• Complete description : 142 mm Delattre - St Chamond grenade-launcher
• Design year : 1915
• Calibre : 142.00 mm
• Weight in firing position : 150 kg
• Weight for transportation :
• Tube length in calibres : 1.20
• Grooves : 0 smooth bore
• Projectile weight : 7 x 1 kg (grappes de grenades) - 2.5 kg (bombe unique)
• Initial speed :
• Fire rate : 6 to 8 rounds / minute
• Range : 100 m - 260 m
• Elevation range : +5 to +80 degrees
• Direction range : 15 degrees total range

• L'Artillerie de Tranchée Belge et les Batteries d'Accompagnement 1915-1940           Colonel Roger Lothaire                   Editions du Patrimoine Militaire   2015