Pineapple grenade

[ireload2]

Be careful with the display of these artifacts.In 1971 a US citizen was reported to have grenades to the ATF.
They raided his home and when he heard the break in he responded with a percussion pistol and he was shot in the head.
His name was Kenyon (Ken) Ballew. It just goes to show you that you can never predict how an informant and your government may behave.
The consequences for an innocent person can be severe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ballew_raid

I lucked out today when I was contacted by my local gun store.
He took in a "box" that had some odds and ends of some war stuff, two of which were demilled pineapple grenades. Is there some where I could find the "levers", spoons what ever they were called?

[RASelkirk]

Be careful with the display of these artifacts.In 1971 a US citizen was reported to have grenades to the ATF.
They raided his home and when he heard the break in he responded with a percussion pistol and he was shot in the head.
His name was Kenyon (Ken) Ballew. It just goes to show you that you can never predict how an informant and your government may behave.
The consequences for an innocent person can be severe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ballew_raid

Hmmm, smells like Ruby Ridge. Yet another reason to mistrust the feds...

Russ

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Maybe one of you grenade-savvy chaps could answer one for me.

Are the fuze threads on WW2-1980s Soviet grenades the same as on the US M1 etc?

The French went from Medieval-looking things with a fuze hanging out the top, through sundry "stick" grenades, to what we know as "modern" grenades in a couple of years. This seems to have influenced British and US grenade design to some extent.

I'm fairly sure the old M1 /2 "Pineapples" have the same thread as the later M-26 (and M-30 Practice) grenades.

The other question I just thought of is the official supply and use of other than "standard" fuzes.

The Soviets certainly used "instantaneous fuzes" for a couple of reasons.

1. They go "BANG" as soon as the "spoon" / handle flies off, making them ideal for booby-traps.
2. Also useful to leave a few to be captured by "unwary' opponents who may try to send them back to the original owners.

They are VERY useful when equipping "lone wolf" terrorist types that you do not want to debrief.

There is a book called "To Live in the Fire", which is sort of a photo essay about the gritty end of life in the IDF and issues for civilians in Israel. One of the more "interesting" pictures is of what's left of a "subject" who tried to grenade an Israeli cinema. There is not much left above the waistline. Best analysis is that the people who "equipped" the assailant did not want him to answer any embarrassing questions and so, fitted his (Russian designed) grenade with an instantaneous fuze. As soon as the lever departed: BOOM! Very nasty for the movie-goers, EXTREMELY nasty for the "wanna-be hero".

[earlwb]

I think that when the BATF agents did their incompetent and heavy handed raid on the poor guy with the dummy grenades that it caused a fallout with the NRA at the time. Before then the NRA and BATF were pretty much together on everything. The fellow had converted some dummy grenades to fire caps off when thrown, etc. He was thrilling kids on the 4th of July with it when someone complained. That caused the raid to happen later. They convicted the guy of having illegal explosive devices. The Federal judge said that he had made the devices where they "could" be loaded with explosives an used then. Thus that was when the NRA and the government parted ways.

I got this one example many years ago. Someone made a mold and was casting new iron bodies for the practice grenades. They would drill and tap it for the surplus grenade fuse ends and handles. I was going to make one of those joke "Please take a number"displays. But I took too long and now it would freak people out if they saw it.

[Flying10uk]

I read somewhere that the surface of the British Mills bomb grenade is not patterned with the raised segments to aid fragmentation but merely to aid grip when throwing. I guess that the U.S. pineapple grenade is fashioned this way for the same reason, to aid grip?

[browningautorifle]

No, it's for fragmentation. Now they serrate inside. And it's still for fragmentation.

[Flying10uk]

I remembered that I read about the serration lines on Wikipedia. Looking it up again, it does reference Mill's notes stating that the serrations were for grip not fragmentation and that in practice they didn't tend to fragment along the serration lines.

[Wineman]

When I was a youngster, my dad (a USMC reservist at the time and eventual USN Desert Storm attendee at 55) gave me a "practice" grenade. It was cast iron including the spoon. As I recall it was hollow with a hole in the base. I don't remember if there was a hole for a cotter pin and pull ring or not. Unfortunately it disappeared during the intervening 45 years. It would have been cool to have today.

Dave

[earlwb]

I also read that the bumps or pineapple shape along with the serrations was supposed to aid in fragmentation. But the grenades didn't follow the plan though. The modern USA grenade has a long coil of notched wire inside that is supposed to break up into small pieces and generate more shrapnel. But I don't think that it does it very well either. The old fashioned, load them up with little bits and pieces of metal, probably still works well.

[Flying10uk]

I don't think that we can simply ignore what is stated on Wikipedia concerning the raised sections/bumps of the Mills Bomb because it does credit the source/reference back to Mills himself, the man who designed it. Does anyone have any evidence that the raised sections are intended to fragment and if so could we see it, please? At Militaria sales and fairs etc here in the U.K. you do, sometimes, see bits of exploded Mills Bombs that have been dug up. The bits that I have seen, offered for sale in the past, have been fairly large parts of the casing and haven't appeared to have fragmented too well.