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Eihandgranate Model 39 | |
---|---|
Type | Hand grenade |
Place of origin | Nazi Germany |
Service history | |
In service | 1939-1945 |
Used by | Nazi Germany, Soviet Union [1] |
Wars | World War II |
Production history | |
Designed | 1939 |
Variants | Standard, fragmentation sleeve |
Specifications | |
Mass | 200 g (7.1 oz) |
Height | 76 mm (3.0 in) |
Diameter | 60 mm (2.4 in) |
Filling | Donarit - (relatively similar to amatol) |
Filling weight | 112 g (4.0 oz) |
Detonation mechanism | instant, 1, 4.5, 7.5 or 100 second delay |
The Model 39 "Eihandgranate", M39 or Eierhandgranate 39 ("egg hand grenade") was a German fragmentation hand grenade introduced in 1939 with 84.2 million produced until the end of World War II and thus in fact being more common than the iconic Stielhandgranate of which 75.5 million were produced. [2]
The Eihandgranate were issued to the Fallschirmjäger from early till the end of the war. The grenade used the same fuse assembly (the BZE 39) as the Model 43 Stielhandgranate ("Stick Grenade"), which was screwed into the top of the sheet-metal body.
To activate, the dome-shaped cap was unscrewed and pulled with a coiled pull-cord that is pulled before throwing. The color of the cap indicated the burning time of the type of fuze fitted. Typically, a delay of around four seconds was used. It could also be used in place of the bottom side screw cap on the "Stielhandgranate" stick grenades.
If it was to be used as a fixed booby-trap, then an instantaneous or one-second fuse would be fitted. Sometimes, this style of grenade was discarded in plain view for the enemy to use, particularly on the Eastern Front and in the Western Front. They were used in France as part of Erwin Rommel's asparagus. Obstacles, such as wooden poles, were used to hinder airborne landings, which could tear the wings of gliders and kill the soldiers inside, as these poles were connected with wires to either these grenades or S-mines (Bouncing Betty) against paratroopers.
Later in Italy they were used as booby traps to slow down Allied advances on the Italian peninsula, in ambushes or in street fighting and as traps for the Italian Partisans when they raided German supplies and weapon caches. Another type of trap was to wire a short-fuse grenade to a door-frame in an abandoned building with the pull-cord attached to the door. When the door was breached by opposing troops, the grenade would detonate right next to the enemy.
The offensive high explosive version of the grenade used a small Donarit filling, which was considered extremely ineffective in comparison to the standard stick grenade models: large amounts of these grenades would be thrown in a short amount of time or at once for the desired effect.
The defensive fragmentation version of the grenade had a fragmentation sleeve wrapped around the exterior of the grenade, which would turn into high speed shrapnel when the grenade exploded, giving it a longer range and greater damage ability to the enemy but also include the thrower in the danger zone.
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap may be set to act upon trespassers that enter restricted areas, and it can be triggered when the victim performs an action. It can also be triggered by vehicles driving along a road, as in the case of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
"Mills bomb" is the popular name for a series of British hand grenades which were designed by William Mills. They were the first modern fragmentation grenades used by the British Army and saw widespread use in the First and Second World Wars.
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An anti-handling device is an attachment to or an integral part of a landmine or other munition such as some fuze types found in general-purpose air-dropped bombs, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is designed to prevent tampering or disabling, or to target bomb disposal personnel. When the protected device is disturbed, it detonates, killing or injuring anyone within the blast area. There is a strong functional overlap of booby traps and anti-handling devices.
The granat obronny wz. 33 was a fragmentation grenade used by the Polish Army before and during World War II. The shell casing was molded from cast iron and formed into a pineapple-shaped oval, typical of World War I and II-era hand grenades.
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In military munitions, a fuze is the part of the device that initiates its function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze designs can be seen in cutaway diagrams.
A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand, but can also refer to a shell shot from the muzzle of a rifle or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, an arming safety secured by a transport safety. The user removes the transport safety before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the arming safety gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze, which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge.
The Type 98 hand grenade was a fragmentation hand grenade deployed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The explosive charge contained 3 oz (85 g) of picric acid.
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