The world's first projectile weapon was a rock. Add explosives to that and you have a hand grenade. Simple, eh? Well, sort of. First mankind had to develop something that would explode and that was gunpowder. Then there needed to be something to place it inside and we can thank the developers of gunpowder, the Chinese for discovering the use of a cast iron sphere. Then there needed to be a way to get the stuff inside to ignite and 'Spy vs Spy' type fuses were the answer. All of this technology oozed its way to Europe so that by the 16th century, it was something many armies used. Actually, before all of this the Byzantines had developed 'Greek Fire' to use as a hand thrown incendiary device in the 8th Century, but that wasn't quite the same thing.

The development of the hand grenade has depended on improvements in three major areas. One is in the material inside it as today's combination of chemicals is much more 'effective' and safe when compared to what was essentially black powder many hundreds of years ago.

Then there had to be a proper container for it. As the hand grenade is designed to explode into a lot of small pieces so that the shrapnel can cause the usual death and maiming of the other guys, much thought went into this. Some grenades were made of many small balls attached to a very thin casing so that there would be a lot of projectiles. Current thinking is having a casing that will break into a lot of jagged pieces.

Finally, there needs to be a way to get the stuff to blow up without endangering the thrower. This started with different length fuses, but the problem with some of these is that you really did not want the other guy to pick it up and throw it back. Various chemical combinations were then explored to find one that would cause ignition at a specific time from when the fuse was first engaged. All of this required some sort of mechanical mechanism so that the the grenade could be rather safely carried until just before use. Some mechanisms were so complex that the usual soldier took too long or had to stop and think about what he was doing. The type with a safety pin of sorts is the standard issue today. Interestingly, the 'pineapple' type of US hand grenade of WWII and shown on the cover, was not segmented to provide shrapnel, but a surface that was easy to grip with muddy or wet hands.

There are, of course, other types of grenades now used that do not cause death and maiming. These include smoke grenades, gas grenades, flash grenades and other types not normally associated with the word 'hand grenade'.

All of this development, experimentation and production of various types is covered in the book. One would think it would be difficult to write 80 pages about something so simple, but the author manages to fill a lot of space on the subject. This even includes information on the proper way to throw it and other non-standard uses and types of grenade. In all, it does make for interesting reading and the sort of book that a military history fan will want on his or her book shelf.

April 2015

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