Grumpy, say, from battle between Germany and France (5)
I believe the answer is:
dwarf
'grumpy say' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'battle between germany and france' is the wordplay.
'battle' becomes 'war' (armed conflict).
'between' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'germany' becomes 'd' (vehicle registration code for Deutschland).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'france' becomes 'f'.
'd'+'f'='df'
'war' put inside 'df' is 'DWARF'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for dwarf that I've seen before include "Happy for one" , "Stunt the growth of" , "Dopey, perhaps?" , "Overshadow" , "Midget" .)