Ok, so who made the best grenades of WW2? I know that the German 'stick grenades' could be thrown further due to their design, but relied more on explosive power than shrapnel for effect. I was quite surprised to discover (reading more momoires) that (at least in the early stages of the war) American grenades were a bit crappy, with little explosive power and poor fragmentation of their casings. The guy who wrote one book ranked grenades in this order: 1) Mills bomb 2) Japanese grenades 3) American grenades But I assume that the problems with American grenades were rectified...
Grenades are quite odd, as you would think they are much the same. However I remember seeing an article explaining that Allied grenades were different to German stick grenades as their use and tactics differed. BTW, the germans did produce a mills clone type grenade (egg grenade) The german stick grenade was an assualt grenade designed to thrown into trenchs as you run into combat, as such it was loud, flashy, smokey and devestating to those caught in it, but did not have a massive fragmentation range. Allied grenades however were defensive grenades designed to be thrown from cover where you were protected from freak fragments goinb 30 or 40 feet in all directions. What do other people say/think on this? Tony...have you any nice grenade pictures/technical info for us? FNG
Yes, the Mk2 "pineapple" of WW II era was underpowered and the cast iron body broke into too few projectiles though they were large and lethal if you were struck. The M-26A1 of the Vietnam era was considerably more powerful (nearly 3 times the explosive content) and used a segmented coil wire which made for many more (though smaller) fragments. As to the Japanese grenade of WW II era I would have my doubts if for no other reason than it's method of initiation. One rapped it rather hard against the helmet which initiated the process and ignited the fuse. Not the most reliable method since if one were to hit the deck hard enough while carrying grenades it might not be apparent that the time was counting down. Also when closely engaged (the only time grenades are practical) the enemy could hear the grenades being rapped against the helmet thus giving away your position which is one of the primary uses of hand grenades as opposed to rifle fire since direct fire reveals your position.
Ah, I should have realised... we've hit the old 'define best' point. Good points all round though - the Japanese grenade's activation was an issue... We'd have to have best man-killer best 'user-friendly' AFAIK all grenades aside from the Japanese one used a fairly similar 'pull this pin then throw the bugger' activation system - did they all have the equivalent of the safety lever thingy that the Mills bomb & US hand grenades did?
German stick grenades had to be unscrewed at the base to reveal and release a pull cord I believe. This was time consuming and fiddly when under fire but would presumably make the grenade fairly safe in transport. If you ever see pictures of germans in trenches/field works you can often see grenades on ledges near the top of the front of the trench, where they would be left prepared for use. Of course I am making all this up :lol: and would be grateful for some backup FNG
grenades The 'BEST' grenade bar none is the one that doesn't go off when it lands close by! A good booby trap you may not of heard of was used in Korea by British troops using the '36'grenade. An empty jam/M&v tin was nailed to a tree or post about waist height, a string was attached to a '36' grenade, next removing pin and holding lever down place '36' in tin and tie other end of string to something on the other side of path, when someone wandered into string, '36' was pulled out of tin with great effect in the dark.
I know that there was a cap on the bottom as as you stated if under fire you might have trouble unscrewing it, but I dont think it was that time consuming.
it is when compared with the american granades where you only have to pull a pin out and throw it away
Re: grenades I don't know who originated it but US troops have long been taught to use the same method of improvising a booby trap. The C-ration tin cans were just the right size for this use. One thing you left out; you must first unscrew the fuse and shorten it considerably so that the grenade goes off almost immediately after the spoon is released otherwise there is time to avoid the trap. There is an obvious hazard inherent in this practice. Do not place the modified fuse grenades where they can be mistaken for the normal 4-6 second fused grenades! It can ruin your whole day
Hi. The main japanese grenades were at least pual-purpose. The type 91 grenade was really multi-purpose. It could be used as hand grenade, mortar grenade, rifle grenade and booby-trap with only light modifications. A propellant charge could be srewed inside the bottom. With this charge the grenade could be fired by the type 10 and type 89 50 mm grenade dischargers. With an additional tail piece the grenade could be fired by the tyoe 91 and type 3 spigot-type rifle grenade launchers. The type 97 grenade is similar to the type 91 grenade. The main difference is the different lower part. As the propellant charge could not be screwed in the type 97 grenade was a hand grenade only until 1940. In 1940 the type 100 rifle grenade launcher was added. The type 97 grenade could be fired from this cup-type launcher by using the propellant gases of the special ammunition. The type 99 grenade was a simplification of the type 97 grenade with a new fuze. This grenade could also be used as rifle grenade with the type 100 launcher. The main problem of this grenades was the powder-delayed impact fuze. This fuze was set off by hitting the grenade on a hard surface (stone, helmet....) The primer ignited a powder delay train with a burntime of between 8 and 9 seconds. This long delay was necessary for the use with grenade discharger or rifle grenade launcher. The gases of the burning delay train were set free by a hole in the fuze body slightly above the grenade body. With the type 99 grenade the delay time was minimised to between 4 and 5 seconds. The gas vent was reworked so that the gases were set off along the fuze body to ptrevent the throwing soldier from beeing burned by the gas spray. Less known is this japanese grenade: This is the type 98 stick grenade, a copy of the german model but with a slightly larger amount of explosive. It was fuzed by a friction fuze with a delay train of 4-5 seconds. The use of powder for the delay train was problematic as the burntime was slightly variing. Another japanese grenade was this one: It used an impact fuze without delay. The penetration ability was 70 mm. Due to the large weight of 1250 g the throwing range was limited. There were also a lot of different types of incendary, smoke and chemical grenades in use by the japanese armed forces. Yours tom!
my dad was an insrutor for the live grenade course at ft benning ga in the 50s...he said it was the most nerve wraking and dangerous job he ever had...recruits would often pull the pin ...the freeze up in mortal terroror get butter fingers when its time to throw..
Re: grenades Well bear with me inasmuch as this is from memory...30+ years ago.These kinds of modifications were usually done by explosives trained people but were fairly simple and were often done in the field The frag grenade as I recal had one type of fuse M204 seems to ring a bell. The time delay was determined by the powder in the fuse. You unscrew the fuse and remove it from the body then there was several ways to decrease the delay. Either swap out another fuse (M201?) that has a shorter delay 1-2 seconds as opposed to 4-6 secs and was normally used on smoke grenades or for a near instantaneous fuze just remove most of the powder and replace it with det cord IIRC. Explosives people also had different types of powder fuses that burned at different rates and could be substituted as well. Hope that helps you..are you planning on setting any booby traps or just trying to determine if I know of what I speak?
grenades As I haven't handled a 36 grenade for over 60 years I may have forgotten something but you didn't mess about with a 36 grenade fuse!Not if you want to keep all of your fingers! No, I wasn't planning to set up booby traps, left all that behind 60 years ago. But if you've actually done it I'll listen to you, have you?
Re: grenades Only in training. I was not a grunt (infantry specialty). My mos (military occupational specialty) was 6112, a helicopter crewchief/gunner. However all Marines are considered a grunt first and formost so we received training in all aspects of infantry combat including explosives and booby traps. As to the actual implimentation of this procedure in combat all my sources are secondary and I never claimed otherwise. Were you under the impression that you are the only veteran on these forums Merlin? As far as American grenade fuzes go they weren't particularly dangerous to handle. They were threaded and could be easily removed from the body of the grenade. I've never heard of one being detonated by rough handling. I was more aprehensive about using the crimping pliers to crimp blasting caps on the end of det cord or fuses since a very small percentage of them will detonate when you crimp the end or the electrically initiated blasting caps which could be set off by static electricity while you rigged the set up. We were taught to hold the cap/fuse in one hand, the pliers in the other, then to look down (with steel pot on head) raise both hands above the level of the bended head and then crimp the cap. Again though I was warned and had heard of caps being set off this way I have no first hand direct knowledge of anyone being injured.
Tom! - another great post. I was very interested in the last grenade, the armour-piercing one. I knew that the Germans had a very similar one (same principal, different in details) but had no idea that the Japanese had this. Was it copied from the German design, or a true Japanese design? Here is an article about the German Panzerwurfmine http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/panz ... index.html
If you go to this site http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/Wea ... enades.htm and scroll half-way down the page you see a 'before & after' picture of a Mills bomb. Kinda scary.
Hi. I´m not totally sure but to me the type 3 armour piercing grenade is a japanese design without more than minimum german influence. 1. The stabilization is different from the one of the Panzerwurfmine. Same priciple but very different solution. 2. From 1940 the japanese army developed HEAT warheads for the 75 mm artillery guns. An australian test showed that the HEAT-grenade for the old type 41 75 mm pack howitzer was able to penetrate the frontal armour of a Mathilda 2 on all ranges. So the warhead existed in 1940. 3. There were suicide at-weapons with a HEAT-warhead placed on sticks before the type 3 grenade was introduced. Maybe the final idea to develop this type of grenade came from the german model. Yours tom!
