Blanch-Chevallier Grenade Discharger

The Blanch-Chevallier Grenade Discharger is a prototype grenade launcher patented in 1916 by Herbert John Blanch of the London gun company J. Blanch & Son and Swiss arms technician Arnold Louis Chevallier. It is built on a Martini-Henry rifle, with the original barrel assembly replaced by a large 2.5in bore barrel with a recoil-dampening spring inside. The weapon works on a similar principle as a rifle grenade; a proprietary grenade is loaded into the barrel from the front and fired by a .577-450 blank loaded into the chamber. A tall tangent backsight made it clear that the weapon is intended to be fired from the shoulder.

Only one example of this strange weapon is known to exist, found "in a back room at the UK National Firearms Centre" by Jonathan Ferguson, who also said that it came to them "from a movie prop house". Ferguson also notes that his example is strangely marked with "Enever – Chevallier Patent Automatic Small Arms Company Limited", referencing a third Edwin Alexander Enever, who had founded the said company with Chevallier, but is not referenced on the patent.

Blanch-Chevallier grenade discharger - 2.5in. PR.9711 © Royal Armouries

Specifications

(Prototype only, patented 1916)

Type: Grenade Launcher

Caliber: 2.5 in

Capacity: 1

Fire Modes: Single shot

Video Games

Game Title	Appears as	Mods	Notation	Release Date
Battlefield 1	Martini-Henry Grenade Launcher		Added via the Turning Tides DLC	2016