I am not experienced at all with grenade launching but one would think the person firing the weapon would ensure they had a blank or propelling cartridge in the chamber and not ball.
What type of grenade do they launch from the Garand is it a spigot type or did they ever have the cup arrangement like the M36 cup for the MkIII Lee I think allot of pics I have seen on the grenades on the Garand appear to be the spigoted type.
Is the blank put in first (safety on) can the Garand single load without the enbloc in place then the grenade attached (inserted) with the rifle at a high angle just asking as I would like to understand more about this subject TIA.
R.I.P for those 3 poor chaps in the incident.....
they must have been practicing using a live rifle grenade
I can sort of see it, as a training NCO...the Sgt supervising and two men. One with rifle in hand and the other assisting to place the grenade, pull pin... The ball round? It happens. Yes, it's fatal. As for a statement like obviously they weren't using a training grenade, shows lack of experience because we used lots of live ammo, live ordnance and had live fire snapping around us and overhead. This isn't unusual except there should have been a sharper NCO there.
I always hated to hear about the troops getting hurt. When it happened my first question was..."Who was the NCO that was also hurt or killed?" All to often there was no name accompanying. At least this time one went with his men. He was there for experience and supervision... Now I climb off my soapbox.
I just wanted to show you guys a properly destroyed rifle...that was also investigated...
One quick question.........and an observation........Why is the one pictured (I assume) victum wesring civilian clothes, shoes and white socks??? And a nicely cuffed pants leg at that. Even IF National Guard, I cannot see them letting anyone on a live fire range in that type of clothing.
Why is the one pictured (I assume) victim wearing civilian clothes
The pic is well after the fact. Not a victim or involved in the actual accident...read the whole attachment... To quote the text "The web site photo is a staged U.S. Army photo. "