Early Inland, SN 96XXX?

Japanese WWII Hand Rifle Grenades - Inert-Ord.Net

I had a Type 91 grenade, also, but it was something I picked up at a flea market almost 40 years ago. Traded it off, since it wasn't one of my dad's bring backs. The MK II frag was his. He turned it into a cigarette lighter, but the guts to the lighter got lost (probably when I was using it in the 50s playing s"Sands of Iwo Jima" in the back yard). I later found an original fuse assembly and spoon.

That link you posted helped me figure out that my "grenade" is a practice M21 from the 50's. My brother gave it to me when he was in the NG in the late 50's - so that matches. It's got a "6" or "9" on it, so the date must be 1956 or 1959. A neighbor kid ruined the spoon by bending it all the way up - thought he was "fixing it" for me. Of course when I tried bending in back, it snapped off. I found a replacement at a gun show about 5 years ago, but it's the later short one - not right, but close. Other than that, it's just like the one shown on that site - even has some of the green streaks on it, which I always wondered about. Thanks! - Bob

I have # 96117. The guts are all original but the stock was not. What type of stock do you have on the Carbine?

Whats your Ser. number?

I'm still looking for an "I" cut Hi wood Inland stock........

Thanks for the pics Ric. Here's the closest I have. I wonder if they were made the same day ? Cheers. Mike.

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Originally Posted by imarangemaster

Japanese Type 97 Hand grenade. A sapper threw it in my dad's tent on Iwo Jima one night. It was a dud, probably because of Chinese slave labor. The sapper got away, but it scared the cr@p out of my dad and his tent mates! My dad had an "ordy" render it safe.

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Did your dad bring the grenade home with him, once it was made harmless? That would make a heck of souvenir and story. Iwo was bad enough without having grenades added to your tent in the dark.
JB/

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Originally Posted by byf45

Did your dad bring the grenade home with him, once it was made harmless? That would make a heck of souvenir and story. Iwo was bad enough without having grenades added to your tent in the dark.
JB/

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Yep, the Type 91 grenade in the picture is the actual one the sapper threw into my dad's tent in the middle of the night. He thought he was danged lucky that the "one with his name on it" was a dud, probably because of poor QC and/or slave labor in China. He related waking up to the sound of a bayonet ripping through the back of the tent, and followed by the thud of the grenade hitting the dirt floor of the tent! He rolled out of his cot onto the floor and waited to die for what seemed a very, very long time.... One of the demolition guys took the picric acid explosive filler out of it and gave it back to him. He brought it home in his duffel bag as the one that was supposed to get him. It is a teasured family hierloom now, along with the rest of his stuff from Iwo Jima.