Let’s learn about hand grenades, an indispensable equipment on the modern battlefield.
For hundreds of years, hand grenades have been widely used on the battlefield. This is a lethal weapon designed and used to obliterate enemy fortifications, structures, and trenches. It can bring terrible effects when used in tight spaces, against unprotected enemies. Since World War I and the era of trench warfare, grenades have been used in most of the world’s major conflicts today.
Grenades come in many different variations, including high-explosive, multi-fragment grenades, smokescreen grenades, stun grenades, infrared marker grenades, and many more.
Sometimes, grenades can cause adverse situations for the user, catastrophic accidents that are caused by grenades can, and indeed have happened many times. It is often said: ” Once the pin is drawn, the grenade is no longer your friend “. In many cases, weak soldiers, or new recruits to the army, “accidentally” unbolted and dropped grenades at their feet. In addition, it is not uncommon for an enemy soldier to quickly throw a grenade back at the user before it explodes.
To ensure maximum destruction, the ammunition is designed to explode in all directions to increase the damage radius. Indeed, with the ability to shoot out nearly 2,000 pieces of metal at hundreds of feet per second, the grenade is clearly a deadly weapon, leaving anyone in its way disabled or worse, dead. .
Those grenade fragments are often referred to by the thrower by the fancy name: “military confetti”.
For hundreds of years, hand grenades have been widely used on the battlefield.
Grenade in English is “Grenade” , which is believed to be derived from the French word for pomegranate (Pomegranate), because the grenades used in the 16th century looked like grenades. They also contain large particles of gunpowder, like plant seeds!
France was the first country to create a Grenadier regiment – soldiers specially trained to throw grenades to fly the longest distances possible. They were selected based on their height, strength, and of course their ability to throw grenades.
The British Grenadier Guards claimed the honorary title after defeating the French Grenadiers in the War of Waterloo in 1815.
Historically, grenade throwers were all part of infantry regiments in the British army, often the tallest men in their regiments and responsible for… throwing grenades. To this day, Queen’s Grenade Guards still employ male soldiers over 6 feet tall. The Guards currently serve only in ceremonies, and in wartime, when the law is relaxed, soldiers less than 1.8 meters tall are still allowed to participate.
Without armor or protective measures, a grenade can kill a person from up to 10 meters away and can deal severe damage from up to 20 meters away.
Grenade fragments can be fired up to more than 200 meters from the detonation site. However, the further away they go, the less damage they do.
Machine-engraved grooves on the grenades give them the appearance of a pineapple, and the grenade is designed so that soldiers with mud-covered hands (common on the battlefield) can still can hold firmly when throwing grenades . Many people believe that the pineapple-shaped design helps grenades increase damage when exploding, but that is wrong.
The grenade body consists of a metal outer shell, the inside is filled with RDX/TNT explosives, along with: lever, metal spring, pyrotechnics, safety pin, speculum to hold the flaming pin, fire particles to ignite slow-burning drugs, slow-burning drugs, fuses.
The first “safe to use” grenade was designed by British engineer William Mills in 1915, and he named it “Mills Bomb”.
Before that time, most grenades were very unpredictable and could sometimes damage, or even kill, those who were about to use them.
The lethality of hand grenades varies between variants, but typically, the explosion radius of a grenade is 20 meters – anyone standing within this range can be injured or killed.
Then the army will use grenade launchers. This gun has a 40mm barrel diameter, with the ability to fire grenades up to 2,200m.
The grenade is attached to the belt on the gun. Each belt consists of 32 fruits. They are designed to explode on impact, rather than waiting for a while like hand grenades do.
From the moment the pin is pulled and thrown, it usually takes about 2 to 6 seconds before the explosion occurs.