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Asian m15 wp grenade

MINENAZ16

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
Hello,
I think we talked about this grenade on Bocn (quite sure these 4 pictures come from this forum).
I remember this M15 with asian markings was not clearly identified (japanese post war ?).
Something new ?

DSC_0001.jpgDSC_0003.jpgDSC_0004.jpgDSC_0005.jpg
 
The J was used for a while for US ordnance items adopted by Japan. Picatinny Museum used to have a number of J-marked items. Korea also did it quite often in the 60s-70s, using a K. I inerted a number of KM-43 81mm mortars for training use while stationed at Uijongbu (8th EOD) back in the 80s. Wish I'd brought a few home -
During some periods for ordnance items Japan used a number of Chinese characters, sometimes mixed in with Japanese markings. Used to be a real pain when I was working at the UN, running up and down the hall trying to get someone to translate markings on a recovered Japanese piece of ordnance, nothing was ever simple.
 
The manufacturing coding on these is not something I have listed. J-NT, J, or NT.
I was hoping that the NT was a US company and that the J in front was a designation for it being for export to Japan.
So even on the South Korean KM ordnance that I have seen, they have "US" designations, with the K in front as Jeff stated. Example: M15 to KM15
However, they still use their factory codes since they are manufactured under license in South Korea.
So, by that example if these are Japanese and made under license, I would guess that the codes would be Japanese.
Again, I could be wrong, and I don't have a list of all the codes out there, even US ones.

Joe
 
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