page_title: 11×59mmR Gras
section_title: World War I service
hierarchical_section_title: 11×59mmR Gras / History / World War I service
context_page_description: The 11×59mmR Gras, also known as the 11mm Vickers, is an obsolete rifle cartridge. France's first modern military cartridge, the 11×59mmR Gras was introduced in 1874 and continued in service in various roles and with various users until after World War II.
context_section_description: Despite being superseded, the Gras rifle and the 11×59mmR cartridge continued in wide service with territorial and second line troops as well as throughout France's colonies, continuing in these roles during the Great War. In addition to arming second line troops, old Gras rifles and the 11×59mmR cartridge were widely used by front line troops as converted grenade launchers, known as Bombardes DR (grenade throwers) these conversions had cut down barrels and butts of varying workmanship and always fired cartridges with the bullets removed to propel the grenade, and were used as a crude form of trench mortar.
  In 1916 it was decided to re-equip the Kingdom of Serbia's Army with French-made weapons, and from October that year the Serbian Army received 20,000 Gras rifles along with other French weapons.  Due to a chronic shortage of modern rifles within the Imperial Russian Army, 105,000 Gras rifles and a quantity of 11×59mmR cartridges were supplied to Russia during the war, these rifles were subsequently used by the Red Army in their early years.
caption: Bombardes DR.
exif: {"Image Make": "Phase One", "Image Model": "IQ280", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Capture One 8 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2017:02:06 16:36:14", "Image ExifOffset": "2434", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "444", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "1856", "EXIF DateTime": "2017:02:06 16:36:14", "EXIF ExposureTime": "161481/2422214", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:02:06 16:36:14", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:02:06 16:36:14", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "390689/100000", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8372", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5680", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "GP001349", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[1, 1, 1, 1]", "EXIF LensModel": "1.0 mm f/1.0"}