Original Austro-Hungarian WWI Zeitzunder Grenade Trench Raiding Club Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Trench raiding clubs were homemade melee weapons used by both the Allies and the Central Powers during World War I. Clubs were used during nighttime trench raiding expeditions as a quiet and effective way of killing or wounding enemy soldiers. The clubs were usually made out of wood. It was common practice to fix a metal object at the striking end (e.g. an empty Mills bomb) in order to maximize the injury inflicted. Another common design comprised a simple stave with the end drilled out and a lead weight inserted, with rows of large hobnails hammered in around its circumference. Most designs had some form of cord or leather strap at the end to wrap around the user’s wrist. Bosnian soldiers serving in the Austro-Hungarian army were fond of using maces. They were also used by officers to finish enemy soldiers wounded by poison gas attacks.

Trench clubs were manufactured in bulk by units based behind the lines. Typically, regimental carpenters and metal workers would make large numbers of the same design of club.They were generally used along with other “quiet” weapons such as trench knives, entrenching tools, bayonets, hatchets and pickaxe handles – backed up with revolvers and hand grenades

This totally original incredible example measures 22 inches in overall length featuring a thick wood shaft with a genuine WWI Zeitzunder Grenade head fitted to the top of the shaft and an additional 3 inch spike protruding from the top. Original markings of GRANATE ?ARBONE can be seen on the body of the Zeitzunder grenade. These grenade trench clubs are the rarest of the rare with only a few known examples within the collection at the Imperial War Museum in England. Purchased from a collection used in a new publication on weapons of the Great War. Exceptionally rare.