I just watched this, thanks for posting!. I served in the French Foreign Legion, 1977 -1982. We had initially the MAS 49/56 which had an updated version of the grenade launcher that you demonstrated. It used a dedicated firing round, this came packed in the spigot of the grenade itself, in a rubber bung that had to be removed to get the spigot over the barrel. The range was set by sliding a calibrated ring up or down the barrel, rather than the screw attachment that you demonstrated; I think this was part of the 1956 modification on that particular weapon. On the range, it was surprisingly accurate. In action, a degree of nervous tension set in and it was harder to hold the weapon exactly level to the levelling device. Also on the levelling device was a crimp, a sort of simple sight to give you the direction of fire. However, if you twisted the rifle on the ground to get the direction exactly right, this would tend to dip the barrel in the direction of twist, affecting the range; so in reality the grenades landed at a variety of ranges, which tended to limit the weapons effectiveness. It did keep heads down, though!
I also servered in the early eighties and we used the 49/56 for grenades as the FAMAS ones did not come out until 83 ish. This rifle was a real pig to fire if you were doing it anti-vehicle with the strap across the chest and I saw many a bruised or broken thumb from it not being held properly. The ring was called the 'bague coulissant' (sliding ring) and was elevated up the barel to decrease pressure and reduce the range. The sight I believe was 45 degrees to go out to 400 metres and 74 degrees to go to 200. Great little rifle. Later the FAMAS had grenades that were lighter and even had a 5 round magazine that held blank rounds to fire grenades. By the way the hat or kepi is not Legion from what I can see as it only has five flames and is standard infantry. As every one knows :) ours had five flames in the center and two arching over to left and right to indicate elite troops. LPN.
24:43 I know youre just launching tennis balls, but i love how you just spent the time to talk about the proper method of use, then did the exact thing you said the manual instructs you NOT to do...🤣 Love this content man, keep up the good work!
@@mikeskelly2356 oh I know, a tennis ball doesn't have enough weight to generate that kind of recoil. Just found it funny that he spent something around 3 or 4 minutes talking about what not to do, then did exactly that.
How does this channel only have 20k subscribers? This channel is the epitome well researched and presented educational content. Also, I don't know if we are lucky or unlucky that the original grenade didn't resemble a Grapefruit rather than a Pomegranate? Take Cover! Pamplemousse!
@@craigwall9536I guess everyone has their opinion. I find him much more enjoyable than the presenters overdoing it with energy but not having anything to talk about.
@@craigwall9536 also it may be a cultural thing. Being Canadian myself he just sounds normal. British announcers sound like they're narrating the Lord of the Rings and Americans sound like they're trying to fire up a stadium
The German stick grenade could also be used as a booby trap by taking out the delay portion of the fuse, which meant that anyone pulling the fuse cord to set the fuse burning got an instant detonation instead. It could also be used to booby trap doors or hatches. Allied troops were warned to ignore conveniently placed enemy grenades in case they had been tampered with.
This is true, but there were also factory-made friction igniters with little or no delay. They were used to detonate certain types of mines and for sapper work. They were marked with different colors. It may be added that in the middle of World War II, the Germans simplified their wooden-handled grenades. The friction igniter was located in the grenade itself, and the wooden handle was just plain wood that could be detached if you wanted a smaller grenade.
Found this today. Thanks. I try to learn something new every day. Before I retired in 2010, I ran M203 grenade ranges, and I was familiar with both the M72 LAW and M136 AT4. The M14's grenade launcher was the M76 and there was a small valve on the gas cylinder to turn off the gas--a cartridge rim was used. The M64 grenade launching blank came back to haunt a National Guard honor guard detachment because that detachment ordered grenade blanks instead of the M82 blank. I had entered active duty in 1975 and recognized that the M64 was the wrong blank--a member of the team remarked that the blank kicked hard. The M64 has a crimped mouth, the M82 is a double bottle necked case that mimics a bullet only has a hole where the bullet tip would be in order to facilitate automatic feeding. The 40mm cartridge grenade is significantly more accurate than the spigot finned rifle grenade and not as wind sensitive. I liked to find someone with archery experience as grenadiers because they understood trajectory better. The 40mm grenade proved more effective on small emplacements due to that accuracy. On the grenade range and using only the leaf sight (graduated to 250 meters) one young soldier managed to hit the M113 hulk used as a target every time at 400 meters. For anti-tank work the explosive charge on the M433 DP round is too small to do much to a tank. The M72 replaced the anti-tank rifle grenade and the M20 super bazooka, but that little M72 warhead didn't have the punch for dealing with modern tanks. Sweden produced the AT4, three times the weight of the M72, but with a larger warhead. At around 15 pounds, the M136 was heavy to carry--and expensive as a bunker buster--so Israeli rifle grenades were used to knock down doors on light shelters. Remember--US troops would launch a TOW or Hellfire missile to smash machine gun bunkers from a mile or more away. Every M16 and M4 rifle has an integral grenade launching spigot--the flash suppressor and barrel. The M195 grenade blank for the M16 I've only read about--the M200 blanks for the 5.56mm have purple or white paint on the tips for identification. The M195 has red lacquer tips--I would hate to have to clean up the mess from an M195 used with a blank firing attachment. Be careful to use the correct blanks.
Some really interesting knowledge, especially that tidbit about archery. Many archers shoot "instinctively"; when in training, did the grenadiers use the sights or did they also shoot instinctively?
@@Red-jl7jj The M203 training I conducted was all fired from the shoulder and generally the leaf sight was used to aid in more-precise pointing. The 40mm projectiles are visible in flight due to size and low velocity and the semi-trained grenadiers would simply adjust their aiming point to compensate--sometimes before the first grenade landed. That's a major advantage even single-shot 40mm grenade launchers such as the M79 and M203 and M230 have over rifle grenades--much higher rate of fire. My research told me that these 40mm grenades were also far more accurate. Compared to a rifle grenade, the 40mm grenade has light recoil--more of a shove than being hit with a sledgehammer. In conference with battalion staff I asked if they wanted to train the entire battalion and formally record scores or if they wanted to familiarize everyone in the battalion. The officers and senior NCOs wanted the latter and expressed satisfaction with the results. Throwing hand grenades was "instinctive" because there were no sights. I had three 40mm training cartridges per Guardsman thanks to the Global War on Terror, and even the misses at 200 meters were inside of 10 meters--"broad side of a barn" accuracy was adequate for an area weapon, just get the grenade near the target and let blast and fragments do the work. On the machine gun ranges, when the first burst was off-target, the trainees had been taught to shift their fire so that the next bursts were on-target. Grenade and machine gun "marksmanship" are a world apart from precision rifle marksmanship. So, yes, the soldiers I trained used the leaf sight but not the more elaborate and precise quadrant sight. Most of the quadrant sights had been unbolted and boxed up in the arms room because those plastic and light metal devices were easy to damage. Most of the time the leaf sight was adequate, and at ranges of 50 to 100 meters using the standard rifle sight to point the grenade launcher worked adequately. Those with an archery background--even a casual background--made superior grenadiers because they gained an appreciation for trajectory, for wind, and both arrows and 40mm projectiles could be seen on the way to the target. If I were training large numbers of grenadiers, I'd make up a gun that shot tennis balls. I'd also like a tennis ball launcher for mortar gunnery practice. There might be an issue with the trainees regarding the exercise as fun and not taking their training seriously, but tennis ball launchers would be economical and very safe. Either CO2 or nail gun blanks could be the power source for launching tennis balls. Training to dope the wind and training in adjusting trajectory with a cheap device that could be set up in a parking lot as a grenade range (the most expensive part is establishing a safe training range) would be both effective and economical. When using high explosives, having at least one EOD tech on the range is necessary. Before the First World War both hand and rifle grenades were specialized weapons handled by grenadiers in siege warfare. The hand grenades were three- or six-pound bombs with a fuse that had to be lit before throwing--didn't do much good to lob those big hollow iron spheres without lighting them first. Back then, a mortar was a stubby-barrel cannon that resembled a chemist's mortar, a sturdy shallow bowl used to pulverize solid chemicals. The modern hand grenade is a very convenient device, hip pocket artillery. Up to the 19th Century grenadiers were large, strong men chosen for their ability to lob hand grenades and they used a throwing technique similar to the shot put event in track and field. Modern grenades are less than a pound, immensely more lethal, and most (but not all) soldiers can be issued grenades. In Marine Corps boot camp I witnessed one trainee who exhibited perfect form--but his hand grenades landed just a meter or two away from him when he threw his hand grenade. Not all soldiers can be trusted with hand grenades. Not all soldiers could use rifle grenades or the replacement under barrel grenade launcher and disposable anti-tank rocket.
@@alancranford3398 That was a great read! Thank you! I'm unsure how much of a reader you are, or how much you care, but there's a 1952 paper titled "Use of Infantry Weapons and Equipment in Korea" by G.N. Donovan. One of the main reasons put forth by the soldiers (through Donovan) is that the rifle grenades of the M1 rifle were not used much because they were inaccurate. Whether this implication (emphasis, Donovan doesn't elaborate much at all) that they were so inaccurate as to be unreliable/unusable in combat was due to a lack of training, I cannot say, but it's interesting to see. My father entered boot camp some time in the mid-late 70s, and when I asked him about rifle grenades he said he only vaguely remembered training with one for the M14, so this was some really interesting knowledge.
@@Red-jl7jj The SLA Marshall edition of infantry weapon use in Korea didn't cover the rifle grenade. I have forgotten the source, but there were studies on the use of 60mm versus 81mm mortars, 57mm versus 75mm recoilless rifles, and 2.36-inch versus 3.5-inch rocket launchers (Bazooka and Super Bazooka) in Korea. After Korea the US Army dropped the smaller weapons from infantry battalions. I was in boot camp and part of my training at Camp Pendelton was a firepower display with 60mm and 81mm mortars, a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, the M72 LAAW (that's what the Corps called it), the 106mm recoilless rifle, and the 40mm grenade. This was in the summer of 1975 and I don't recall seeing the M14 rifle or rifle grenades being demonstrated. M60 and M2/HB caliber 50 machine guns--check. M16A1 rifle--yup. Even the M1911A1 pistol was demonstrated. Training in peacetime has different priorities than wartime training, and wartime censorship helps hide those deadly training casualties from the public. One peacetime priority is that the maximum number of people graduate and another is keeping the breakage low. If a recruit doesn't survive peacetime training, the recruit doesn't graduate and someone will have to explain why the recruit died. Rifle grenades are very dangerous to work with compared to 40mm grenade launchers. There's a high dud rate compounded with terrified recruits don't properly arm their rifle grenades--terrified of their drill sergeants and drill instructors, terrified of their rifle, terrified of the rifle grenade, it's hot, it's cold, their feet hurt, why is everyone watching me? Defective fuses may be worse than a dud--the grenade sometimes will explode upon launching or will brush against something close to the recruit and detonate. Soldiers have been injured by the recoil of rifle grenades. Imagine the results of accidentally firing a ball cartridge instead of a grenade launching blank--there's always that possibility and the range cadre's job is reducing that to zero. No peacetime rifle grenade training reduces that to zero. During the Korean conflict boot camp was shortened and infantry soldiers were either WW2 veterans with low points (little or no battle experience) sent home in 1946 or were green troops with less than six months total service time--sometimes as little as 90 days. They may have fired the M1 rifle with ball ammo for qualification and thrown a hand grenade before shipping to the war zone, but at the time the infantry tool box contained the M1 Rifle, M1 and M2 Carbine, M1918A2 Automatic Rifle, M3 and M3A1 submachine guns were special equipment, two models of bazookas, the M1919A4, M1919A6 and M1917A1 caliber .30 machine guns, plus rifle grenades and mortars and recoilless rifles. Unless assigned to a weapon crew, the green soldier fresh from boot camp was unlikely to know much about the rest of the weapons. Later, regulations mandating a minimum of 16 weeks "combat training" were put in place. During Marine Corps History and Traditions WW2 Marines were given little more than "discipline" in a few weeks (four to six weeks) before being shipped out during the early days of the Pacific campaign. The problems were severe and led to such things as my Nevada Army National Guard Operation Iraqi Freedom II unit, the 321st Signal Company out of Reno, receiving 90 days of mobilization training at Fort Lewis. The extra training weeded out the unfit (unfortunately there were some) and imparted skills that were supposed to already be present. It is entirely possible that lack of training was the culprit. One stunt that ego-driven shooters pull on new shooters is to load up a shotgun with heavy recoiling 3" magnum loads and laugh, laugh, laugh when their new shooter gets knocked to the ground. Or they'll load up a very hot .357 magnum load in a revolver and have the new shooter bonk themselves on the head with it. I noticed that in your video you fired with the buttstock on the ground and not in your shoulder. If your first experience with a rifle grenade was using your rifle range skills with your M1 rifle and aiming with the rifle sights (grenade sight? what's that?) what do you assess as your probable results? You actually have rifle grenade EXPERIENCE, I have "book learning" and experience with 40mm grenades. Or it could be that the rifle grenade has only casual accuracy. On the 40mm grenade range, getting the grenade within five meters of the target was a "kill" and 40mm grenades are lethal to 15 meters from detonation point. A bore safe device in the 40mm grenade keeps it from exploding until it is 14 to 27 meters from the muzzle. Just for your readers, when the intended target is 10 to 40 meters away, a hand grenade is probably the best option. I don't know how far away an impact-fused rifle grenade arms but that's an additional hazard--it may arm only a few meters away and during training 40mm grenades sometimes hit the ground close to the shooter because of flinching. During combat operations in the Middle East Mk19 40mm grenade machine guns were swapped out for M2 HB caliber 50 machine guns after the crew fired a grenade at a wall and the grenade bounced back, exploding on the other side of the launching vehicle. Thanks to vehicle armor, flak vest and helmet, the crew survived to learn from their mistakes.
I fired a rifle grenade once in the army, a WP smoke grenade. Very scary having a WP grenade teetering on the end of a rifle. Grenades generally always gave me the heebie-jeebies. Little deadly bombs jiggling around in your pouches.
I've launched something like a dozen smoke rifle grenades from a HK G3 variant... there really isn't any comfortable way to do it... And since my country also issues multiple per platoon of both m209 underbarrel launchers for frags and CG recoilless rifles for general support work, the smoke rifle grenades are beeing decomissioned.
15:17 That ladies and gentlemen, is a Serbian Zastava M70 assault rifle, with a gas cut-off block, that also serves as a rifle grenade targeting sights. The shooter would lift the targeting sights up thus blocking the gas going into the bolt carrier tube, so the rifle wouldn't cycle after discharging a blank cartridge. Shooter would load a blank cartridge into the rifle, set the buttstock of the rifle onto his thigh of into the ground and brush off the firing trigger with the tip of his finger in order to avoid unnecessary and potential injury because of the stronger than regular recoil when the rifle is set in this "launcher setup". This is why Zastava M70, also has a retaining pin for its top cover securing it tightly in place, so that when firing, the top cover doesn't fly off into the shooter's face. Way more sturdier design thanks to its 1.5mm bulged trunnion receiver, than the rest of its AKM brethren out there. Kind regards from Serbia, land of Zastava Firearms since 1853.
My lieutenant, well "my" lieutenant, when I did my short time as a conscript, told me, as we were practicing throwing the lumps, the solid metal practice "grenades", that the year before mine, one of the soldiers was a competative javelin thrower, national level. Now I did manage to throw these metal lumps around 20 meters (as mention), but that guy... after a day of practice, was able to throw it well beyond 60 meters. I suspect by using a "javelin run up".
the Lee Enfield has been bound with copper wire to help the wooden stock survive the shock of firing. My late Grandfather fired these and said that the firer had to operate from cover as the baseplate of the grenade often came whizzing back at high speed, towards the firer.
My Uncle, a WW1 vet, said they used Lacrosse sticks to lob Grenades. I have no citations, but I can’t see him making this up. He died in the late sixties, finally succumbing to a "touch of gas."
The rifle grenade reached the pinnacle of engineering circa 2020 when the Can Cannon was introduced to the glee of "weekend warriors". The new accessory allowed the launching of tennis balls, soda cans and unwanted Bud Light.
@@RickyHarline no idea, friends and former colleagues who tried regular budweiser on overseas trips to the US compared it to having intercourse in a canoe... eg. F*ing close to water... So I can't even imagine what a "light" version of that would be... Homeopathic beer?
Are you familiar with the swiss army model 57 rifle and the use of the soldiers pocket knife as a plumb bob, to use in aiming rifle -launched grenades at proper angle ? The knife had a hollow rivet to allow a small string to be inserted and there was some kind of fold out gage on the rifle with angle or distance markings.
Dale the stgw-57 guy has a three part extremely technical series over the those specific rifle Granada’s with period footage. Those Swiss rifle grenades were very complex.
19:48 what you want is not a under barrel spigot grenade that relies on the bullet cartriage but instead an under barrel spigot mortar where the propellant charge is in side the mortar tube itself
25:00 -- the problem isn't the lack of a crimp, the problem is that you're using standard propellant. Grenade blanks use different stuff. 35:00 -- kinda. The bullet would get the grenade started. The gas would then give the rest of the boost, but since it didn't have to start the grenade from a dead stop, it would come off the device sooner, thus without subjecting the bore to excessive pressure. This is how your crank-sight works, too. With the grenade moved toward the muzzle, less of the gas is used. A superior system is used on the FN49 and FN-FAL. These are gas-operated rifles, and feature a plug that rotates 180 degrees to cut off the gas system. A stamped steel sight is attached to many of these plugs -- the sight folds down on top of the forearm when using the rifle normally, then the sight is lifted and the plug rotated. There are several notches stamped into the sight, which are used to choose the appropriate launch angle for the desired range. The user simply lines up the notch for the right range with the body of the grenade and the target. This is so quick and easy that it can be done from a vehicle, horseback, or by making a brief stop while running forward.
Durring WW2, the Germans also had "egg" grenades (if I remember correctly that was their nickname) and the Fuse/Arming part that screwed into the grenade was color coded for the time delay... including a 0 second time delay for booby-traps are for Resistance or other people looting the bodies for weapons!
"Eihandgranate" (egg hand grenade) was actually their official name. Under the hood, they used the same sort of pull-cord ignition as the stick grenades, just in a slightly different form factor; instead of unscrewing the cap to expose the ball on the end of the cord, the cord was attached directly to the cap. (They actually made more of the egg grenades than the stick grenades over the course of the war; they're just not as cool, and therefore not as famous.)
I think the 2 key points to understand are: 1. Grenades were developed to give the average infantryman an explosive weapon. You mentioned this ‘en passant’ but it’s the entire ‘entire raison d’etre’ of the entire ammunition group. 2. As you say, rifle grenades were developed to increase range compared with hand grenades. But this is just a step on the evolutionary path of grenades. As you said, something that uses the rifle barrel is a faff. So we get the development of ‘projected’ grenades from a specialised ‘grenade launcher’. There’s a split in the evolutionary tree at this point. Most western (NATO or NATO influenced armies went down the ‘spin stabilised’ projected grenade path - see the 40mm M79 as an example, which looks remarkably similar to your 18th century grenade launchers! The Soviets however followed the work done by the Germans with the Panzerfaust by developing a spin stabilised projected grenade - the PG2. In a further quest for greater range we then see the Soviets develop the spin stabilised ‘propelled grenade’ - the PG7. At first glance it looks similar to the PG2 but it has a second ‘sustain’ motor to extend the range of the launch cartridge. The US however chose a different evolutionary path again, with the M72 LAW, which is a true rocket rather than a propelled grenade.
The problem with rifle grenades compared to the underbarrel 40 mm grenade launcher is that you practically cannot shoot rifle grenades on a flat trajectory, e.g. through a building window. Even though there was a version of the AK-47 adapted for rifle grenades and the instructions said that you could lie on the ground on your rifle, press down on it with your body weight and fire the rifle grenades flat, all soldiers who tried it had bad memories of it. As far I know, there are some modern rifle grenades whose recoil force is small, because the rifle bullet serves mainly to initiate the rocket engine in the grenade itself. The RPG-76 Komar is a derivative of work on such a rifle grenade, but in this case the project turned into a separate weapon.
regarding the French rifle grenades, you have a bit of a missing hole in the French part, as during WWII, the French continued to use the Lebel as a grenade rifle with the VB grenade, but also the MAS 36 was created specifically to be suited for the launching of grenades, hence it had a split stock with the chunky rifle receiver in the middle giving lots of strength (this is also why the Lebel was exclusively used for launching rifle grenades, as the Berthier stock was too fragile to endure the recoil) and to this use developed 2 grenade launching accessories: -the first was a simple cup of the VB system, made for the specific dimensions of the MAS 36 so they could use the existing stocks -the second was a removeable spigot, with a diameter of 22mm, it would slide on the muddle of the rile and be held on by a tension screw, which was to be used with either a 50mm grenade, adapted from the 50mm light infantry mortar, or a 50mm hollow charge anti tank grenade invented by the Edgar Brandt company very few of the spigot launchers and their related ammunition were produced before the fall of France, but during the occupation the Vichy authorities launched the fabrication of the anti armour rifle grenade, disguised as a riot control device and in such a way that a military charge could be easily swapped inside the french development has an interesting connection as in their effort to increase the war material production and in cooperation with allied nations, many French plans were disseminated with either the British or Americans, and the Brandt rifle grenade was part of the technical exchange with the USA, which is said to have been the basis for the US M9 anti tank rifle grenades also the grenade sight on the MAS 36/51 and the MAS 49/56 has two aiming angles, the 45° you demonstrated and 78°, this gave two different sets of ranges you could launch the grenades at, with the grenades flying further at 45°, the 78° sight angle was also using for the firing of AT grenades. the system on the LG48 and MAS 49 only had the 45° notch and didn't have capability for launching AT grenades
When I was young, I worked on a design that would launch golf balls. The object was to launch the golf ball at Tee off area and have the ball land near and/or in the cup for a "hole in one."
When my father served in the British Home Guard during WW2 he was issued during the early years with the P14 or P17 rifle which he brought home an kept in a cupboard with a bandolier of rifle rounds together with a cup discharger for the firing of the No. 36 Mills grenade. I beleive he said the grenade had to be fitted at the base plug with a steel disc of diameter as the internal diameter of the cup discharger. Later in WW2 his unit about 1944 was converted to man anti aircraft multiple rocket launchers on Blackheath for the defence of London UK against the German V1 doodlebugs. All along time ago now!
10:00 Another reason to discount these earlier weapons is they are essentially small mortars with a shoulder stock. After all, the contemporaneous mortars also often used a lit-fuse bomb as their ammo. A rifle grenade reflects the term "rifle" in the title, i.e. the weapon firing it is also used as a rifle (for the most part). For the same reason an M79 bloop gun with shoulder stock and its cousins are known as grenade launchers, not something that fires rifle grenades.
There were in fact Grenade cups that attached to modified Brown Bess muskets in the 18th & early 19th century. The cup could be detached and the musket used normally. They were used by the Royal Navy for boarding engagements.
Wow, so much information on grenades I never knew of, thanks! If they gave out awards to military history shows I think your channel deserves many! BTW, my favorite grenade launcher in a film, is the one Christopher Walken uses in The Dogs Of War, a 26.5mm Manville Machine-Projector. Yes I know it's explosive effect in the film is made more dramatic but its still awesome to watch!
The Australians at Gallipoli made their own grenades from jam tins with explosives and rocks in them and a fuse through the lid. SMLEs used for grenade launching had copper wire wrapped around the woodwork along the barrel.
Oh wow, I always thought those serrations were for fragmentation. Also didn’t know about the “fragmentation matrix”. I thought modern grenades had the serrations on the inside. Great video!
During my military service I fired a grenade launcher rifle with the mas 49 56 at 400 m it is extraordinarily addurate my entire platoon managed to put their grenade less than 3 m from the target after the 3rd shot hitting a target with the rifle at this distance is much more difficult that is a true light mortar
I fired the inerga in 1960's with the Irish Local Defence Forces. The rifle was the LeeEnfield and was fired in a standing position. The shoulder strap was extended fully, your right arm was extended fully gripping the rifle 2/3 up the muzzle. The strap was placed over your right arm and then across your chest. The sight, (part of the launch tube) folded upward and you aimed from there to the tip of the anti-tank grenade and then on to th target. The sight had a range adjustment feature. Most importantly when pulling the trigger, you could not grip the stock with your left hand as the recoil was so severe that it could amputate your fingers.. you had to place your thumb in the palm of your hand, extend your index finger and wrap the other fingers around your thumb. The tip of the extended index finger was then placed near the trigger but not inside the trigger guard, and with a very fast continuous backwards sweep you flicked the trigger and pulled your hand out of the way of the recoiling trigger guard. (I still have all 10 fingers 😂
#1. I like this channel and its general content. #2. The content could also serve from the "real world" experience of people who have used these devices. Notation: Just know that the German rifle grenade was essentially fool proof in its design and application. The US version, not so much. On paper it looks good, however in actual application there were things that could go wrong. Just the idea of mounting a pineapple in that open cage then pulling the pin gave me the willies. Our rifle grenade was not "impact activated" but operated on a fuse the same as throwing it by hand. At least "by hand" I had control and there was no opportunity for mechanical failure.
fired the FN C1 version with what i think was a C33 round, silver casing with a black cap (no crimping I can remember). We had to take the gas piston out and reverse the gas plug (for range practice). It has been a while (mid 80s) but from what I remember it was loud, we had ear plugs puls ear defenders on, and our ears were ringing.
... Great vid, love from a Englander!. I even learnt a few things i did not know. The Germans used egg grenades alot in WW2, actually more than there stick grenades. I think the likes of holiwood etc , distort this fact.
I just want to comment on the range of the grenade I was in the service in 1969 when the standard rifle in the french army was the MAS 49/56 ; I had lot of training with live grenade at that time !! I can tell the anti personal grenade fired with the rifle hold at 45 d. the range was 200 yards . as far the antitank grenade with hollow charge , it was fired standing up the belt accross your chest to absorbe ( some what ) the recoil . instruction were not to fire over 70 yards against an armored vehicle .
Is it fair to say that those grooves were "originally" and always intended to be for gripping purpose considering a) the no1 grenade you showcased earlier in the video had the same grooves on its fragmentation sleeve nowhere near where it was meant to be gripped and b) French designs started using grooves internally on things like the Modele 1914 and I think the P1 ?
I was referring only to the design of the Mills Bomb. According to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition by Ian V. Hogg: "One point about the Mills should be made; it is always supposed that the serrations in the cast iron body were to assist fragmentation, but in fact the grenade never shattered along those lines. According to Mills' documentation, the idea was actually to allow a better grip with muddy hands."
Had a lot of fun firing tennis balls from my Cup Discharger. They last 3 shots, as even a blank puts 2 holes in them, entry and exit. Turn 90 degrees horizontally for 2nd shot, 90 degrees vertically for the 3rd. Once all 3 axis are holed, the tennis ball pretty much disintegrates. For extra range, make a Gas Check from a baked bean can lid or similar. Doesn’t puncture the tennis ball but goes so far you won’t find it! Be careful with blank ammunition though. A veteran told me that if you used a regular blank with a real grenade, rather than the proper Walsrode or Ballistite round, it could blow up the gun, as the powder burned too fast. Pattern 37 web gear Basic Pouches have cartridge pockets in the lid, especially for these rounds. As a measure of the power of blank rounds, a friend made a golf ball launcher from a Martini Henry action. It used a 9mm DAG blank, the same as we use in Sten guns, MP40s etc for reenactment. The golf ball would make a clean hole through 12mm plywood at 25m and then still bounce off the end of the range at 100m… Great video!
The M1 Garand had a system similar to the first one which could propel either a standard M2 "pineapple" grenade or a purpose built shape charge anti-armor grenade. My M4 was equipped with an M203 and with gold tips it was an extremely effective round out to past 300m
Good luck finding those. I've lunched about 75 tennis balls around my house, from my .303 SMLE, never to be seen again. We did find 1, only because it ended up bouncing into my neighbors chicken coup. As for the blanks, on the .303, they were actually extra charged, not standard. Also, PPU makes them, not expensive. I paid $22.50 for 15 rds.
My Grandfather said that after shouted conversations they agreed grenades were really annoying and in his area they stopped throwing them at each other! Live and let live.
I used to build and shoot potato and tennis ball cannons, and had a lot of fun with those. I suppose the rifle grenades would be as fun as well with the dummy grenades!
Yugoslav style rifle grenades used a special blank round with extra gunpowder and it was stored inside the rifle grenade, just take it out of there and put into the rifle. A kind of safety mechanism to make sure it is not live round into the barrel. The sight was built into the rifles (SKS and AK made in Yugoslavia) and was at the same time gas cut-off; once you lift rifle grenade sight, you had a bolt-action rifle basically. Sight on the rifle was actually rear sight; front sight was the tip of the grenade. Relatively accurate. I didn't fire any rifle grenades when in the army cos I wasn't in infantry. However, the guys that did claim it kicks you back like nothing! Some of them fell to their asses or back when firing it standing. And there were particular injuries from firing it while kneeling; the rifle grenade sight would often hit the unfortunate soldier into the forehead...
The Splitterring concept never dissappeared again in Germany. The DM51 still is a thin sheet-steel blast-effect grenade which is supplied with the shrapnel sleeve.
the pinnacle of rifle grenades probably was the swiss anti tank granade for the stgw57. the same warhead as the anti tank roket launcher of the swiss at the time, capable of punching through 400mm of steel. electric fuse with a clockwork delay so it couldn't detonate within a couple meters of the shooter. and rocket assistance after firing, giving a range of 400m. alternatively it could instead have the warhead of a 60mm mortar or a smoke granade capable of producing smoke continuously for a full minute.
In WW1 Italians also fielded a cup fired bullet-through grenade which unlike the French counterpart was cylinder-ogival in shape; the hot gases that came behind the bullet ignited a pyrotechnic time fuse and propelled the grenade to quite a long distance.
37:41 bneed to get some of those little smoke bombs you get in fire works packs so it let's some smoke out for you to find it lol or maybe a streamer or hell maybe just a small ir transceiver like when they tag wild animals then walk around with a hand held tv antenna to find them later lol
Cup discargers have seen a resurrection in guerrilla warfare. Especially in south America. Usually a 12 ga single shot break action with a cup welded on usually firing impeovised explosives that usually have a hand ignited fuse.
I learnt about the British hand grenade with the stick and that it was quickly replaced by the Mills Bomb many years ago from a book about the history of the Btitish Army, but the book never went into much detail about why.
At the 17 minute mark .. it never occurred to me that Grenadier was anything other than the name of a pond in Swansea. Indeed as a child, in hindsight, I think I thought it was a duck. Now I want to look up it's history. I've been through ten or so of your videos so far, and with each, there has been some thought provoking item sending me on a hunt which makes me just a wee bit smarter than yesterday. Where the hell were people like you when I was in the "education" system?
My German teacher told me about a student that during a presentation said "Ich scheisse zweimal in der woche" 😂 A lot can go wrong when you use scheisse instead of schiesse 😅
Just one observation. You mentioned the M7 launcher for the M1 Garand rendering the rifle a manually operated straight pull weapon. The post war M7A1 incorporated a spring-loaded piston designed to keep the gas cylinder closed when loaded until the grenade was fired, but then opened to allow normal semi-automatic function. The spring-loaded launcher also recoiled when fired, preventing damage to the rifle. The Wiki page on the M7 series is really good and discusses this and the later A2 and A3 variants. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M7_grenade_launcher
It does amuse me how the presenter goes into great detail teaching us how to fire the rifle grenade properly (rifle inverted) followed immediately by the presenter firing it in the way he said should not be done.
It used a system completely different to all three of the launchers in this video, in that it used a standard rifle cartridge that passed through the actual grenade, and the expanding gasses blew it out of the launcher cup.
This is the Best ever history of rifle grenades.
I just watched this, thanks for posting!. I served in the French Foreign Legion, 1977 -1982. We had initially the MAS 49/56 which had an updated version of the grenade launcher that you demonstrated. It used a dedicated firing round, this came packed in the spigot of the grenade itself, in a rubber bung that had to be removed to get the spigot over the barrel. The range was set by sliding a calibrated ring up or down the barrel, rather than the screw attachment that you demonstrated; I think this was part of the 1956 modification on that particular weapon. On the range, it was surprisingly accurate. In action, a degree of nervous tension set in and it was harder to hold the weapon exactly level to the levelling device. Also on the levelling device was a crimp, a sort of simple sight to give you the direction of fire. However, if you twisted the rifle on the ground to get the direction exactly right, this would tend to dip the barrel in the direction of twist, affecting the range; so in reality the grenades landed at a variety of ranges, which tended to limit the weapons effectiveness. It did keep heads down, though!
Very cool info. Thanks...
Legio Patria Nostra!
Bonjour l'ancien.
Merci pour ton service, Légionnaire !
I also servered in the early eighties and we used the 49/56 for grenades as the FAMAS ones did not come out until 83 ish. This rifle was a real pig to fire if you were doing it anti-vehicle with the strap across the chest and I saw many a bruised or broken thumb from it not being held properly. The ring was called the 'bague coulissant' (sliding ring) and was elevated up the barel to decrease pressure and reduce the range. The sight I believe was 45 degrees to go out to 400 metres and 74 degrees to go to 200. Great little rifle. Later the FAMAS had grenades that were lighter and even had a 5 round magazine that held blank rounds to fire grenades. By the way the hat or kepi is not Legion from what I can see as it only has five flames and is standard infantry. As every one knows :) ours had five flames in the center and two arching over to left and right to indicate elite troops. LPN.
The french follow no one, and no one follows the french.
24:43 I know youre just launching tennis balls, but i love how you just spent the time to talk about the proper method of use, then did the exact thing you said the manual instructs you NOT to do...🤣 Love this content man, keep up the good work!
exactly what i was thinking lol
I thought the same, but realized the 'dummy' rounds were so much lighter that there would be far less recoil and stress on the stock...
@@mikeskelly2356 oh I know, a tennis ball doesn't have enough weight to generate that kind of recoil. Just found it funny that he spent something around 3 or 4 minutes talking about what not to do, then did exactly that.
How does this channel only have 20k subscribers? This channel is the epitome well researched and presented educational content.
Also, I don't know if we are lucky or unlucky that the original grenade didn't resemble a Grapefruit rather than a Pomegranate?
Take Cover! Pamplemousse!
Lack of up votes makes it less likely to be promoted by UA-cam.
his delivery is annoying@@jgrenwod
@@craigwall9536I guess everyone has their opinion. I find him much more enjoyable than the presenters overdoing it with energy but not having anything to talk about.
this is the kind of channel if bought p to ian of forgotten weapons should be on his app tbh
@@craigwall9536 also it may be a cultural thing. Being Canadian myself he just sounds normal. British announcers sound like they're narrating the Lord of the Rings and Americans sound like they're trying to fire up a stadium
this channel is an absolute gem.
Wow! You deserve more views, man!
Those shorts don't
@@jesuschrist2284 😂😂
I found this channel like a week ago and subbed
The German stick grenade could also be used as a booby trap by taking out the delay portion of the fuse, which meant that anyone pulling the fuse cord to set the fuse burning got an instant detonation instead. It could also be used to booby trap doors or hatches. Allied troops were warned to ignore conveniently placed enemy grenades in case they had been tampered with.
This is true, but there were also factory-made friction igniters with little or no delay. They were used to detonate certain types of mines and for sapper work. They were marked with different colors. It may be added that in the middle of World War II, the Germans simplified their wooden-handled grenades. The friction igniter was located in the grenade itself, and the wooden handle was just plain wood that could be detached if you wanted a smaller grenade.
These were features, not bugs.
Found this today. Thanks. I try to learn something new every day.
Before I retired in 2010, I ran M203 grenade ranges, and I was familiar with both the M72 LAW and M136 AT4. The M14's grenade launcher was the M76 and there was a small valve on the gas cylinder to turn off the gas--a cartridge rim was used. The M64 grenade launching blank came back to haunt a National Guard honor guard detachment because that detachment ordered grenade blanks instead of the M82 blank. I had entered active duty in 1975 and recognized that the M64 was the wrong blank--a member of the team remarked that the blank kicked hard. The M64 has a crimped mouth, the M82 is a double bottle necked case that mimics a bullet only has a hole where the bullet tip would be in order to facilitate automatic feeding. The 40mm cartridge grenade is significantly more accurate than the spigot finned rifle grenade and not as wind sensitive. I liked to find someone with archery experience as grenadiers because they understood trajectory better. The 40mm grenade proved more effective on small emplacements due to that accuracy. On the grenade range and using only the leaf sight (graduated to 250 meters) one young soldier managed to hit the M113 hulk used as a target every time at 400 meters. For anti-tank work the explosive charge on the M433 DP round is too small to do much to a tank. The M72 replaced the anti-tank rifle grenade and the M20 super bazooka, but that little M72 warhead didn't have the punch for dealing with modern tanks. Sweden produced the AT4, three times the weight of the M72, but with a larger warhead. At around 15 pounds, the M136 was heavy to carry--and expensive as a bunker buster--so Israeli rifle grenades were used to knock down doors on light shelters. Remember--US troops would launch a TOW or Hellfire missile to smash machine gun bunkers from a mile or more away.
Every M16 and M4 rifle has an integral grenade launching spigot--the flash suppressor and barrel. The M195 grenade blank for the M16 I've only read about--the M200 blanks for the 5.56mm have purple or white paint on the tips for identification. The M195 has red lacquer tips--I would hate to have to clean up the mess from an M195 used with a blank firing attachment. Be careful to use the correct blanks.
Some really interesting knowledge, especially that tidbit about archery. Many archers shoot "instinctively"; when in training, did the grenadiers use the sights or did they also shoot instinctively?
@@Red-jl7jj The M203 training I conducted was all fired from the shoulder and generally the leaf sight was used to aid in more-precise pointing. The 40mm projectiles are visible in flight due to size and low velocity and the semi-trained grenadiers would simply adjust their aiming point to compensate--sometimes before the first grenade landed. That's a major advantage even single-shot 40mm grenade launchers such as the M79 and M203 and M230 have over rifle grenades--much higher rate of fire. My research told me that these 40mm grenades were also far more accurate. Compared to a rifle grenade, the 40mm grenade has light recoil--more of a shove than being hit with a sledgehammer.
In conference with battalion staff I asked if they wanted to train the entire battalion and formally record scores or if they wanted to familiarize everyone in the battalion. The officers and senior NCOs wanted the latter and expressed satisfaction with the results. Throwing hand grenades was "instinctive" because there were no sights. I had three 40mm training cartridges per Guardsman thanks to the Global War on Terror, and even the misses at 200 meters were inside of 10 meters--"broad side of a barn" accuracy was adequate for an area weapon, just get the grenade near the target and let blast and fragments do the work. On the machine gun ranges, when the first burst was off-target, the trainees had been taught to shift their fire so that the next bursts were on-target. Grenade and machine gun "marksmanship" are a world apart from precision rifle marksmanship.
So, yes, the soldiers I trained used the leaf sight but not the more elaborate and precise quadrant sight. Most of the quadrant sights had been unbolted and boxed up in the arms room because those plastic and light metal devices were easy to damage. Most of the time the leaf sight was adequate, and at ranges of 50 to 100 meters using the standard rifle sight to point the grenade launcher worked adequately.
Those with an archery background--even a casual background--made superior grenadiers because they gained an appreciation for trajectory, for wind, and both arrows and 40mm projectiles could be seen on the way to the target. If I were training large numbers of grenadiers, I'd make up a gun that shot tennis balls. I'd also like a tennis ball launcher for mortar gunnery practice. There might be an issue with the trainees regarding the exercise as fun and not taking their training seriously, but tennis ball launchers would be economical and very safe. Either CO2 or nail gun blanks could be the power source for launching tennis balls. Training to dope the wind and training in adjusting trajectory with a cheap device that could be set up in a parking lot as a grenade range (the most expensive part is establishing a safe training range) would be both effective and economical. When using high explosives, having at least one EOD tech on the range is necessary.
Before the First World War both hand and rifle grenades were specialized weapons handled by grenadiers in siege warfare. The hand grenades were three- or six-pound bombs with a fuse that had to be lit before throwing--didn't do much good to lob those big hollow iron spheres without lighting them first. Back then, a mortar was a stubby-barrel cannon that resembled a chemist's mortar, a sturdy shallow bowl used to pulverize solid chemicals. The modern hand grenade is a very convenient device, hip pocket artillery. Up to the 19th Century grenadiers were large, strong men chosen for their ability to lob hand grenades and they used a throwing technique similar to the shot put event in track and field. Modern grenades are less than a pound, immensely more lethal, and most (but not all) soldiers can be issued grenades. In Marine Corps boot camp I witnessed one trainee who exhibited perfect form--but his hand grenades landed just a meter or two away from him when he threw his hand grenade. Not all soldiers can be trusted with hand grenades. Not all soldiers could use rifle grenades or the replacement under barrel grenade launcher and disposable anti-tank rocket.
@@alancranford3398 That was a great read! Thank you!
I'm unsure how much of a reader you are, or how much you care, but there's a 1952 paper titled "Use of Infantry Weapons and Equipment in Korea" by G.N. Donovan.
One of the main reasons put forth by the soldiers (through Donovan) is that the rifle grenades of the M1 rifle were not used much because they were inaccurate. Whether this implication (emphasis, Donovan doesn't elaborate much at all) that they were so inaccurate as to be unreliable/unusable in combat was due to a lack of training, I cannot say, but it's interesting to see.
My father entered boot camp some time in the mid-late 70s, and when I asked him about rifle grenades he said he only vaguely remembered training with one for the M14, so this was some really interesting knowledge.
@@Red-jl7jj The SLA Marshall edition of infantry weapon use in Korea didn't cover the rifle grenade.
I have forgotten the source, but there were studies on the use of 60mm versus 81mm mortars, 57mm versus 75mm recoilless rifles, and 2.36-inch versus 3.5-inch rocket launchers (Bazooka and Super Bazooka) in Korea. After Korea the US Army dropped the smaller weapons from infantry battalions. I was in boot camp and part of my training at Camp Pendelton was a firepower display with 60mm and 81mm mortars, a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, the M72 LAAW (that's what the Corps called it), the 106mm recoilless rifle, and the 40mm grenade. This was in the summer of 1975 and I don't recall seeing the M14 rifle or rifle grenades being demonstrated. M60 and M2/HB caliber 50 machine guns--check. M16A1 rifle--yup. Even the M1911A1 pistol was demonstrated.
Training in peacetime has different priorities than wartime training, and wartime censorship helps hide those deadly training casualties from the public. One peacetime priority is that the maximum number of people graduate and another is keeping the breakage low. If a recruit doesn't survive peacetime training, the recruit doesn't graduate and someone will have to explain why the recruit died. Rifle grenades are very dangerous to work with compared to 40mm grenade launchers. There's a high dud rate compounded with terrified recruits don't properly arm their rifle grenades--terrified of their drill sergeants and drill instructors, terrified of their rifle, terrified of the rifle grenade, it's hot, it's cold, their feet hurt, why is everyone watching me? Defective fuses may be worse than a dud--the grenade sometimes will explode upon launching or will brush against something close to the recruit and detonate. Soldiers have been injured by the recoil of rifle grenades. Imagine the results of accidentally firing a ball cartridge instead of a grenade launching blank--there's always that possibility and the range cadre's job is reducing that to zero. No peacetime rifle grenade training reduces that to zero. During the Korean conflict boot camp was shortened and infantry soldiers were either WW2 veterans with low points (little or no battle experience) sent home in 1946 or were green troops with less than six months total service time--sometimes as little as 90 days. They may have fired the M1 rifle with ball ammo for qualification and thrown a hand grenade before shipping to the war zone, but at the time the infantry tool box contained the M1 Rifle, M1 and M2 Carbine, M1918A2 Automatic Rifle, M3 and M3A1 submachine guns were special equipment, two models of bazookas, the M1919A4, M1919A6 and M1917A1 caliber .30 machine guns, plus rifle grenades and mortars and recoilless rifles. Unless assigned to a weapon crew, the green soldier fresh from boot camp was unlikely to know much about the rest of the weapons. Later, regulations mandating a minimum of 16 weeks "combat training" were put in place. During Marine Corps History and Traditions WW2 Marines were given little more than "discipline" in a few weeks (four to six weeks) before being shipped out during the early days of the Pacific campaign. The problems were severe and led to such things as my Nevada Army National Guard Operation Iraqi Freedom II unit, the 321st Signal Company out of Reno, receiving 90 days of mobilization training at Fort Lewis. The extra training weeded out the unfit (unfortunately there were some) and imparted skills that were supposed to already be present. It is entirely possible that lack of training was the culprit.
One stunt that ego-driven shooters pull on new shooters is to load up a shotgun with heavy recoiling 3" magnum loads and laugh, laugh, laugh when their new shooter gets knocked to the ground. Or they'll load up a very hot .357 magnum load in a revolver and have the new shooter bonk themselves on the head with it. I noticed that in your video you fired with the buttstock on the ground and not in your shoulder. If your first experience with a rifle grenade was using your rifle range skills with your M1 rifle and aiming with the rifle sights (grenade sight? what's that?) what do you assess as your probable results? You actually have rifle grenade EXPERIENCE, I have "book learning" and experience with 40mm grenades.
Or it could be that the rifle grenade has only casual accuracy. On the 40mm grenade range, getting the grenade within five meters of the target was a "kill" and 40mm grenades are lethal to 15 meters from detonation point. A bore safe device in the 40mm grenade keeps it from exploding until it is 14 to 27 meters from the muzzle. Just for your readers, when the intended target is 10 to 40 meters away, a hand grenade is probably the best option. I don't know how far away an impact-fused rifle grenade arms but that's an additional hazard--it may arm only a few meters away and during training 40mm grenades sometimes hit the ground close to the shooter because of flinching. During combat operations in the Middle East Mk19 40mm grenade machine guns were swapped out for M2 HB caliber 50 machine guns after the crew fired a grenade at a wall and the grenade bounced back, exploding on the other side of the launching vehicle. Thanks to vehicle armor, flak vest and helmet, the crew survived to learn from their mistakes.
@@Red-jl7jj Is this the same paper?
u5o4e4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Use-of-Infantry-Weapons-and-Equipment-in-Korea-1952.pdf
I fired a rifle grenade once in the army, a WP smoke grenade. Very scary having a WP grenade teetering on the end of a rifle. Grenades generally always gave me the heebie-jeebies. Little deadly bombs jiggling around in your pouches.
Cool story man should write a book about that.
...............About this book..............
I'd be a little apprehensive, too. Mr. William Peter doesn't discriminate between friend and foe. Wouldn't want to meet him up close and in person.
................ introduction .................
This one time in the Army
I've launched something like a dozen smoke rifle grenades from a HK G3 variant... there really isn't any comfortable way to do it...
And since my country also issues multiple per platoon of both m209 underbarrel launchers for frags and CG recoilless rifles for general support work, the smoke rifle grenades are beeing decomissioned.
**********Chapter one *************
OK, we need a collab with Slow Mo Guys and Kentucky Ballistics.
Maybe Ordnance Lab could even recreate some of the grenades in an actual boomy form.
custom countdowns and headgear were wunderbar
15:17 That ladies and gentlemen, is a Serbian Zastava M70 assault rifle, with a gas cut-off block, that also serves as a rifle grenade targeting sights. The shooter would lift the targeting sights up thus blocking the gas going into the bolt carrier tube, so the rifle wouldn't cycle after discharging a blank cartridge. Shooter would load a blank cartridge into the rifle, set the buttstock of the rifle onto his thigh of into the ground and brush off the firing trigger with the tip of his finger in order to avoid unnecessary and potential injury because of the stronger than regular recoil when the rifle is set in this "launcher setup". This is why Zastava M70, also has a retaining pin for its top cover securing it tightly in place, so that when firing, the top cover doesn't fly off into the shooter's face. Way more sturdier design thanks to its 1.5mm bulged trunnion receiver, than the rest of its AKM brethren out there. Kind regards from Serbia, land of Zastava Firearms since 1853.
seeing you fire that for the first time was extremely satisfying. i was actually very surprised you got it going, i did not expect it!
great video!
Thank god the algorithm is showing you to more people. Great work
My lieutenant, well "my" lieutenant, when I did my short time as a conscript, told me, as we were practicing throwing the lumps,
the solid metal practice "grenades", that the year before mine, one of the soldiers was a competative javelin thrower, national level.
Now I did manage to throw these metal lumps around 20 meters (as mention), but that guy... after a day of practice, was able to
throw it well beyond 60 meters. I suspect by using a "javelin run up".
the Lee Enfield has been bound with copper wire to help the wooden stock survive the shock of firing. My late Grandfather fired these and said that the firer had to operate from cover as the baseplate of the grenade often came whizzing back at high speed, towards the firer.
My Uncle, a WW1 vet, said they used Lacrosse sticks to lob Grenades. I have no citations, but I can’t see him making this up. He died in the late sixties, finally succumbing to a "touch of gas."
They'd use anything they could and there where not many trees left in France
The rifle grenade reached the pinnacle of engineering circa 2020 when the Can Cannon was introduced to the glee of "weekend warriors". The new accessory allowed the launching of tennis balls, soda cans and unwanted Bud Light.
When IS Bud Light wanted??
@@RickyHarline no idea, friends and former colleagues who tried regular budweiser on overseas trips to the US compared it to having intercourse in a canoe... eg. F*ing close to water...
So I can't even imagine what a "light" version of that would be...
Homeopathic beer?
High density of use in Kentucky of the Can Cannon.
All bud light is unwanted, unwarranted, unnecessary, etc...
Are you familiar with the swiss army model 57 rifle and the
use of the soldiers pocket knife as a plumb bob, to use in aiming
rifle -launched grenades at proper angle ? The knife had a hollow
rivet to allow a small string to be inserted and there was some kind
of fold out gage on the rifle with angle or distance markings.
No, I had not! That's really interesting - and in typical Swiss fashion, overly elaborate :P
Dale the stgw-57 guy has a three part extremely technical series over the those specific rifle Granada’s with period footage. Those Swiss rifle grenades were very complex.
19:48 what you want is not a under barrel spigot grenade that relies on the bullet cartriage but instead an under barrel spigot mortar where the propellant charge is in side the mortar tube itself
25:00 -- the problem isn't the lack of a crimp, the problem is that you're using standard propellant. Grenade blanks use different stuff.
35:00 -- kinda. The bullet would get the grenade started. The gas would then give the rest of the boost, but since it didn't have to start the grenade from a dead stop, it would come off the device sooner, thus without subjecting the bore to excessive pressure. This is how your crank-sight works, too. With the grenade moved toward the muzzle, less of the gas is used.
A superior system is used on the FN49 and FN-FAL. These are gas-operated rifles, and feature a plug that rotates 180 degrees to cut off the gas system. A stamped steel sight is attached to many of these plugs -- the sight folds down on top of the forearm when using the rifle normally, then the sight is lifted and the plug rotated. There are several notches stamped into the sight, which are used to choose the appropriate launch angle for the desired range. The user simply lines up the notch for the right range with the body of the grenade and the target. This is so quick and easy that it can be done from a vehicle, horseback, or by making a brief stop while running forward.
yes it was fun ,thank you for making this film
The smiles were worth watching for. Let alone the info. Good on Ya. 👊💛👍
Fluent, articulate and informative. Subscribed.
Durring WW2, the Germans also had "egg" grenades (if I remember correctly that was their nickname) and the Fuse/Arming part that screwed into the grenade was color coded for the time delay... including a 0 second time delay for booby-traps are for Resistance or other people looting the bodies for weapons!
"Eihandgranate" (egg hand grenade) was actually their official name. Under the hood, they used the same sort of pull-cord ignition as the stick grenades, just in a slightly different form factor; instead of unscrewing the cap to expose the ball on the end of the cord, the cord was attached directly to the cap. (They actually made more of the egg grenades than the stick grenades over the course of the war; they're just not as cool, and therefore not as famous.)
i found one them mills years back. It was a cut away training one. The store had it marked as an ashtray.
I think the 2 key points to understand are:
1. Grenades were developed to give the average infantryman an explosive weapon. You mentioned this ‘en passant’ but it’s the entire ‘entire raison d’etre’ of the entire ammunition group.
2. As you say, rifle grenades were developed to increase range compared with hand grenades. But this is just a step on the evolutionary path of grenades. As you said, something that uses the rifle barrel is a faff. So we get the development of ‘projected’ grenades from a specialised ‘grenade launcher’.
There’s a split in the evolutionary tree at this point. Most western (NATO or NATO influenced armies went down the ‘spin stabilised’ projected grenade path - see the 40mm M79 as an example, which looks remarkably similar to your 18th century grenade launchers!
The Soviets however followed the work done by the Germans with the Panzerfaust by developing a spin stabilised projected grenade - the PG2.
In a further quest for greater range we then see the Soviets develop the spin stabilised ‘propelled grenade’ - the PG7. At first glance it looks similar to the PG2 but it has a second ‘sustain’ motor to extend the range of the launch cartridge.
The US however chose a different evolutionary path again, with the M72 LAW, which is a true rocket rather than a propelled grenade.
The problem with rifle grenades compared to the underbarrel 40 mm grenade launcher is that you practically cannot shoot rifle grenades on a flat trajectory, e.g. through a building window. Even though there was a version of the AK-47 adapted for rifle grenades and the instructions said that you could lie on the ground on your rifle, press down on it with your body weight and fire the rifle grenades flat, all soldiers who tried it had bad memories of it. As far I know, there are some modern rifle grenades whose recoil force is small, because the rifle bullet serves mainly to initiate the rocket engine in the grenade itself. The RPG-76 Komar is a derivative of work on such a rifle grenade, but in this case the project turned into a separate weapon.
Nicely done! Looks like Forgotten Weapons has some competition!
Sharp uniform, Sir! And kudos for wearing matching pants! It was interesting to learn the etymology of "grenade". (And I assume "grenadine". ;-) )
This WAS a FUN video! And informative. I also love ANY video with an SMLE!
regarding the French rifle grenades, you have a bit of a missing hole in the French part, as during WWII, the French continued to use the Lebel as a grenade rifle with the VB grenade, but also the MAS 36 was created specifically to be suited for the launching of grenades, hence it had a split stock with the chunky rifle receiver in the middle giving lots of strength (this is also why the Lebel was exclusively used for launching rifle grenades, as the Berthier stock was too fragile to endure the recoil) and to this use developed 2 grenade launching accessories:
-the first was a simple cup of the VB system, made for the specific dimensions of the MAS 36 so they could use the existing stocks
-the second was a removeable spigot, with a diameter of 22mm, it would slide on the muddle of the rile and be held on by a tension screw, which was to be used with either a 50mm grenade, adapted from the 50mm light infantry mortar, or a 50mm hollow charge anti tank grenade invented by the Edgar Brandt company
very few of the spigot launchers and their related ammunition were produced before the fall of France, but during the occupation the Vichy authorities launched the fabrication of the anti armour rifle grenade, disguised as a riot control device and in such a way that a military charge could be easily swapped inside
the french development has an interesting connection as in their effort to increase the war material production and in cooperation with allied nations, many French plans were disseminated with either the British or Americans, and the Brandt rifle grenade was part of the technical exchange with the USA, which is said to have been the basis for the US M9 anti tank rifle grenades
also the grenade sight on the MAS 36/51 and the MAS 49/56 has two aiming angles, the 45° you demonstrated and 78°, this gave two different sets of ranges you could launch the grenades at, with the grenades flying further at 45°, the 78° sight angle was also using for the firing of AT grenades. the system on the LG48 and MAS 49 only had the 45° notch and didn't have capability for launching AT grenades
When I was young, I worked on a design that would launch golf balls. The object was to launch the golf ball at Tee off area and have the ball land near and/or in the cup for a "hole in one."
When my father served in the British Home Guard during WW2 he was issued during the early years with the P14 or P17 rifle which he brought home an kept in a cupboard with a bandolier of rifle rounds together with a cup discharger for the firing of the No. 36 Mills grenade. I beleive he said the grenade had to be fitted at the base plug with a steel disc of diameter as the internal diameter of the cup discharger. Later in WW2 his unit about 1944 was converted to man anti aircraft multiple rocket launchers on Blackheath for the defence of London UK against the German V1 doodlebugs. All along time ago now!
Super kool,,now I got educated,,I just new some used live ammo,,and some used blanks,,
Thanks for sharing,,
👽 Well compiled & well delivered... intense amount of information...Oh, and nice threads man.
10:00 Another reason to discount these earlier weapons is they are essentially small mortars with a shoulder stock. After all, the contemporaneous mortars also often used a lit-fuse bomb as their ammo. A rifle grenade reflects the term "rifle" in the title, i.e. the weapon firing it is also used as a rifle (for the most part). For the same reason an M79 bloop gun with shoulder stock and its cousins are known as grenade launchers, not something that fires rifle grenades.
There were in fact Grenade cups that attached to modified Brown Bess muskets in the 18th & early 19th century. The cup could be detached and the musket used normally. They were used by the Royal Navy for boarding engagements.
Great video as usual!
Nice demonstrations. Very informative. Hope you find them lost parts again.
Wow, so much information on grenades I never knew of, thanks! If they gave out awards to military history shows I think your channel deserves many! BTW, my favorite grenade launcher in a film, is the one Christopher Walken uses in The Dogs Of War, a 26.5mm Manville Machine-Projector. Yes I know it's explosive effect in the film is made more dramatic but its still awesome to watch!
I like the contrast between the elegant little table and the video's subject.
Your best episode yet!
The Australians at Gallipoli made their own grenades from jam tins with explosives and rocks in them and a fuse through the lid. SMLEs used for grenade launching had copper wire wrapped around the woodwork along the barrel.
Wonderful, this and Forgotten Weapons are masterpieces of infotainment (dreadful word but the right one!)
excellent presentations!
Oh this is very informative.
Bravo!
One throw strike out.
Excellent information and history here. Extremley accurate, praiseworthy video.
Oh wow, I always thought those serrations were for fragmentation. Also didn’t know about the “fragmentation matrix”. I thought modern grenades had the serrations on the inside. Great video!
Excellent work putting this video together. Lots of great information, and entertaining to watch. Really good video!
Fantastic presentation
During my military service I fired a grenade launcher rifle with the mas 49 56 at 400 m it is extraordinarily addurate my entire platoon managed to put their grenade less than 3 m from the target after the 3rd shot hitting a target with the rifle at this distance is much more difficult that is a true light mortar
Right my man did everything short of knocking out a pill box. Deserves more subs or else O.o
This video brought back fond memories of the M1 Garand in Return To Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer. Was sooo fun using grenade launcher with engineer.
I fired the inerga in 1960's with the Irish Local Defence Forces. The rifle was the LeeEnfield and was fired in a standing position. The shoulder strap was extended fully, your right arm was extended fully gripping the rifle 2/3 up the muzzle. The strap was placed over your right arm and then across your chest. The sight, (part of the launch tube) folded upward and you aimed from there to the tip of the anti-tank grenade and then on to th target. The sight had a range adjustment feature. Most importantly when pulling the trigger, you could not grip the stock with your left hand as the recoil was so severe that it could amputate your fingers.. you had to place your thumb in the palm of your hand, extend your index finger and wrap the other fingers around your thumb. The tip of the extended index finger was then placed near the trigger but not inside the trigger guard, and with a very fast continuous backwards sweep you flicked the trigger and pulled your hand out of the way of the recoiling trigger guard. (I still have all 10 fingers 😂
Wauw. Sounds scary to operate this weapon. Thx 4 sharing.
#1. I like this channel and its general content. #2. The content could also serve from the "real world" experience of people who have used these devices. Notation: Just know that the German rifle grenade was essentially fool proof in its design and application. The US version, not so much. On paper it looks good, however in actual application there were things that could go wrong. Just the idea of mounting a pineapple in that open cage then pulling the pin gave me the willies. Our rifle grenade was not "impact activated" but operated on a fuse the same as throwing it by hand. At least "by hand" I had control and there was no opportunity for mechanical failure.
Nicely done, excellent historical review, too. Thank you
fired the FN C1 version with what i think was a C33 round, silver casing with a black cap (no crimping I can remember). We had to take the gas piston out and reverse the gas plug (for range practice).
It has been a while (mid 80s) but from what I remember it was loud, we had ear plugs puls ear defenders on, and our ears were ringing.
... Great vid, love from a Englander!. I even learnt a few things i did not know. The Germans used egg grenades alot in WW2, actually more than there stick grenades. I think the likes of holiwood etc , distort this fact.
Nothing is cooler than carrying grenades in your jackboot.
Always a great show.
I just want to comment on the range of the grenade I was in the service in 1969 when the standard rifle in the french army was the MAS 49/56 ; I had lot of training with live grenade at that time !! I can tell the anti personal grenade fired with the rifle hold at 45 d. the range was 200 yards . as far the antitank grenade with hollow charge , it was fired standing up the belt accross your chest to absorbe ( some what ) the recoil . instruction were not to fire over 70 yards against an armored vehicle .
This was a really great video.
Great info! Thanks.
Is it fair to say that those grooves were "originally" and always intended to be for gripping purpose considering a) the no1 grenade you showcased earlier in the video had the same grooves on its fragmentation sleeve nowhere near where it was meant to be gripped and b) French designs started using grooves internally on things like the Modele 1914 and I think the P1 ?
I was referring only to the design of the Mills Bomb. According to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition by Ian V. Hogg: "One point about the Mills should be made; it is always supposed that the serrations in the cast iron body were to assist fragmentation, but in fact the grenade never shattered along those lines. According to Mills' documentation, the idea was actually to allow a better grip with muddy hands."
Just discovered the channel. Really am enjoying this video and only around 10min in.
subscribed
Brilliant demos.
Excellent video - Thanks!
Absolutely excellent! Thank you!
Had a lot of fun firing tennis balls from my Cup Discharger. They last 3 shots, as even a blank puts 2 holes in them, entry and exit. Turn 90 degrees horizontally for 2nd shot, 90 degrees vertically for the 3rd. Once all 3 axis are holed, the tennis ball pretty much disintegrates. For extra range, make a Gas Check from a baked bean can lid or similar. Doesn’t puncture the tennis ball but goes so far you won’t find it! Be careful with blank ammunition though. A veteran told me that if you used a regular blank with a real grenade, rather than the proper Walsrode or Ballistite round, it could blow up the gun, as the powder burned too fast. Pattern 37 web gear Basic Pouches have cartridge pockets in the lid, especially for these rounds.
As a measure of the power of blank rounds, a friend made a golf ball launcher from a Martini Henry action. It used a 9mm DAG blank, the same as we use in Sten guns, MP40s etc for reenactment. The golf ball would make a clean hole through 12mm plywood at 25m and then still bounce off the end of the range at 100m…
Great video!
The M1 Garand had a system similar to the first one which could propel either a standard M2 "pineapple" grenade or a purpose built shape charge anti-armor grenade. My M4 was equipped with an M203 and with gold tips it was an extremely effective round out to past 300m
Good luck finding those. I've lunched about 75 tennis balls around my house, from my .303 SMLE, never to be seen again. We did find 1, only because it ended up bouncing into my neighbors chicken coup. As for the blanks, on the .303, they were actually extra charged, not standard. Also, PPU makes them, not expensive. I paid $22.50 for 15 rds.
Great oration; amazing work.
My Grandfather said that after shouted conversations they agreed grenades were really annoying and in his area they stopped throwing them at each other! Live and let live.
I used to build and shoot potato and tennis ball cannons, and had a lot of fun with those.
I suppose the rifle grenades would be as fun as well with the dummy grenades!
Excellent. Very informative!
Yugoslav style rifle grenades used a special blank round with extra gunpowder and it was stored inside the rifle grenade, just take it out of there and put into the rifle. A kind of safety mechanism to make sure it is not live round into the barrel.
The sight was built into the rifles (SKS and AK made in Yugoslavia) and was at the same time gas cut-off; once you lift rifle grenade sight, you had a bolt-action rifle basically. Sight on the rifle was actually rear sight; front sight was the tip of the grenade. Relatively accurate. I didn't fire any rifle grenades when in the army cos I wasn't in infantry. However, the guys that did claim it kicks you back like nothing! Some of them fell to their asses or back when firing it standing. And there were particular injuries from firing it while kneeling; the rifle grenade sight would often hit the unfortunate soldier into the forehead...
Absolutely a great video, thank you.
The Splitterring concept never dissappeared again in Germany. The DM51 still is a thin sheet-steel blast-effect grenade which is supplied with the shrapnel sleeve.
the pinnacle of rifle grenades probably was the swiss anti tank granade for the stgw57. the same warhead as the anti tank roket launcher of the swiss at the time, capable of punching through 400mm of steel. electric fuse with a clockwork delay so it couldn't detonate within a couple meters of the shooter. and rocket assistance after firing, giving a range of 400m. alternatively it could instead have the warhead of a 60mm mortar or a smoke granade capable of producing smoke continuously for a full minute.
In WW1 Italians also fielded a cup fired bullet-through grenade which unlike the French counterpart was cylinder-ogival in shape; the hot gases that came behind the bullet ignited a pyrotechnic time fuse and propelled the grenade to quite a long distance.
This is a 10/10 video
My laugh over that German cup joke could probably send a grenade flying by itself.
37:41 bneed to get some of those little smoke bombs you get in fire works packs so it let's some smoke out for you to find it lol or maybe a streamer or hell maybe just a small ir transceiver like when they tag wild animals then walk around with a hand held tv antenna to find them later lol
Seeing you write for factboi, definitely gonna subscribe!
Cup discargers have seen a resurrection in guerrilla warfare. Especially in south America. Usually a 12 ga single shot break action with a cup welded on usually firing impeovised explosives that usually have a hand ignited fuse.
I learnt about the British hand grenade with the stick and that it was quickly replaced by the Mills Bomb many years ago from a book about the history of the Btitish Army, but the book never went into much detail about why.
Excellent content ! Thank you for sharing !
At the 17 minute mark .. it never occurred to me that Grenadier was anything other than the name of a pond in Swansea. Indeed as a child, in hindsight, I think I thought it was a duck. Now I want to look up it's history. I've been through ten or so of your videos so far, and with each, there has been some thought provoking item sending me on a hunt which makes me just a wee bit smarter than yesterday. Where the hell were people like you when I was in the "education" system?
Awesome video! I love your smooth-ness! What's the song in the beginning called??
What about the German 1908 alpine grenade?
Shows photographs from Manuel on use of smle grenade launcher and fires the demonstration with the rifle right side up instead of inverted.
*Gilles: **_"...but, because I have friends in very interesting places..."_*
🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
{Great video...👍}
My German teacher told me about a student that during a presentation said "Ich scheisse zweimal in der woche" 😂 A lot can go wrong when you use scheisse instead of schiesse 😅
Just one observation. You mentioned the M7 launcher for the M1 Garand rendering the rifle a manually operated straight pull weapon. The post war M7A1 incorporated a spring-loaded piston designed to keep the gas cylinder closed when loaded until the grenade was fired, but then opened to allow normal semi-automatic function. The spring-loaded launcher also recoiled when fired, preventing damage to the rifle. The Wiki page on the M7 series is really good and discusses this and the later A2 and A3 variants. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M7_grenade_launcher
Great job! Thanks for your work. :)
Thank u i needed this info to help me with an invention im making
It does amuse me how the presenter goes into great detail teaching us how to fire the rifle grenade properly (rifle inverted) followed immediately by the presenter firing it in the way he said should not be done.
I had a friend that claimed he had a grenade from the civil war. It looked like the second one you showed. With the big flechettes 👍🤙
Great work, very interesting stuff. At the start of WWII, France had the VB Tromblon launchers from WWI, a very useful piece of kit!
It used a system completely different to all three of the launchers in this video, in that it used a standard rifle cartridge that passed through the actual grenade, and the expanding gasses blew it out of the launcher cup.
The projectile arming the grenade as it passed on through.
Heh, guess who went straight to the 20 min mark... =)
Can you do the Che Guevera shotgun launcher?
Thank You so Much !
EXCELLENT 😎👍