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Science & Technology
The Myth Behind the Classic Pineapple Grenade
2015-09-11


The pineapple grenade is a classic of modern weaponry. Baseball-size with squarish lumps, the hand-thrown bomb looks a lot like, well, a pineapple.

If you're like me, you probably assumed the square sections were like pre-made fragments that would break apart when the grenade exploded, showering your enemy with lethal -- and neatly uniform -- hunks of metal.

But that's not true, according to weapons expert Kevin Dockery, a former Army marksman, Gulf War veteran and prolific author also runs a firearms show called The Armory that is a fixture at the annual Dragon Con comics convention.

Dockery says the pineapple grenade's inventor, William Mills from the United Kingdom, picked the fruit shape for ease of gripping. "His intention for those serrations was so that it wouldn't slip out your hand in a muddy trench."

The Mills-Bomb No. 5 became Great Britain's standard hand grenade in 1915. The French, Russians and Americans soon made their own versions. The U.S. Mk. II remained in service into the 1970s before today's smooth, baseball-style grenades superseded it.

As it happens, Dockery has a pineapple-grenade fragment in his collection, and it looks a lot like a piece of fruit -- but not a pineapple. Having shattered lengthwise across the square segments, the grenade's killing fragment is like "a sliver out of an apple," Dockery says.

And that's a good thing for the thrower, the author adds. "It makes a heavier projectile." And a heavier projectile travels farther than a lighter one -- meaning the grenade is more dangerous.
Posted by:Blossom Unains5562

#16  Thank you for the input JFM. We only had three kinds, an M-26, cofram and WP. All assault I would classify them as. That is from memory, which is now somewhat faulty -except for the WP. Oh, and a black one that was basically all TNT (?), for building assaults. Bad to use, no frags just blast.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2015-09-11 23:35  

#15  OS I've got lots of Altoid Tins but none of them have that doo-flicker on the side.

That looks sort of like an air valve, wassupwiddat?
Posted by: AlanC   2015-09-11 14:09  

#14  Recreational reading.
Posted by: OldSpook   2015-09-11 12:52  

#13  P. Sabin, eh?
Posted by: Skidmark   2015-09-11 12:48  

#12  
Posted by: OldSpook   2015-09-11 11:43  

#11  According to a popular legend either British or French exercise grenades were the color of the other country real grenades. (Another versions says in fact it was both countries that used the color for the other's real grenades). Made for many soiled pants the first time both Armies went into joint maneuvers.
Posted by: JFM   2015-09-11 10:55  

#10  Probably the scariest job in basic training for instructors is the grenade range when females go thru.

Doesn't have to be females. I know of a case when the boot thrown away the safety and stood there smiling proudly with the armed grenade in his hand.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2015-09-11 10:29  

#9  Probably the scariest job in basic training for instructors is the grenade range when females go thru. I have heard some stories from friends who were in that position. Most of them could throw like a guy or at least well enough, but there seemed to always be one that does the "sissy" elbow flapping throw despite being instructed multiple days and multiple ways of doing it right. Makes for an interesting day.
Posted by: OldSpook   2015-09-11 10:14  

#8  Whiskeymike. That is why there are defensive grenade intended for use by people under cover and who are in foxholes whose blast radius can be greater than the distance at which they can be thrown and offensive grenades for people who are not under cover and whose blast radius is lesser than the distance at which they can be thrown to avoid endangering its user.
Posted by: JFM   2015-09-11 10:14  

#7  Was it true that the 'baseball' grenade was designed to be the size and weight of a baseball for ease in throwing?
Posted by: rjschwarz   2015-09-11 09:06  

#6  Just remember why they had you throw it from a pit or protected emplacement. The blast/fragmentation radius as about as far as most trainees could toss it. Being an AI in the pit has got to be right up there as the trainers for Balearic slingers in the really really old days. [Don't PO the first shirt or you get interesting duties for the day]
Posted by: Procopius2k   2015-09-11 08:50  

#5  Thanks for the tech update WP.

WP ????
Posted by: Besoeker   2015-09-11 08:43  

#4  "And a heavier projectile travels farther than a lighter one -- meaning the grenade is more dangerous." Yah, and maybe as dangerous to the sender as the sendee. I, for one, want the mayhem to be constrained to a small volume around the burst point, not to be coming back AT me.
Posted by: Whiskeymike   2015-09-11 08:41  

#3  The more modern Grenade, The ( baseball ) sort you remember from Vietnam...was a much more nasty Grenade. It contains a steel "Slinky" toy inside the casing. You recall the Slinky that you had as a child? Several yards of high tension coiled steel? It could walk down a flight of stairs on its own tipping/flipping momentum? Yeah. One of those.

When the interior explosive inside the grenade detonates that "slinky" becomes 360* of twisting springs and needles moving at faster than the speed of sound . Ever tried to debride a wound with a LOT of needles and twisty micro wire hamburgered all through it ?

The M79 round was a variation of the same theme. I knew a man who could pop one of those in a bucket at a hundred yards ( much farther than you can throw a grenade ). We nicknamed him "Thumper".
Posted by: Winky Pelosi2748   2015-09-11 08:27  

#2  I knew that 18 years ago. I did a 3d computer model of the Army'S then newest prototype. Made of titanium with gobs of 1/8 flat-topped pyramids.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2015-09-11 08:18  

#1  Fascinating. One more entry in the big book of "Everything You Know is Wrong".
Posted by: SteveS   2015-09-11 04:02  

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