Grenades in Japan

[peteblight]

Out in Japan at the moment and managed to take a few shots of some grenades this morning.
Not sure of the designations as everything was in Japanese.

Pete

 

[JCB99]

Pete.
Hello, I wish I could browse military museums in Japan! I am envious! I collect Japanese ordnance, I'm not an EOD man or historian but I have some general knowledge. The first one is most probably a Japanese Frangible Hydrocyanic acid grenade (pictured above) or simply put, a Poison Gas grenade. These are extremely rare here in the U.S. I have two links below on this grenade:

http://www.inert-ord.net/jap02h/grenades/tbgas/index.html
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=78750





I numbered the grenades in the picture you provided to identify them. I do not know the model or type designation or nomenclature for some of these.
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1) Japanese Type 89 50mm "Knee Mortar" shell. This appears to be a fired and recovered round judging from the rifling on the drive band the the squashed nose from ground impact.

2) Either a Japanese Navy Model 2 Spigot rifle grenade minus the tail fins or a Japanese Type 98 Stick grenade. It is hard to see what this is from the photograph.

3) Japanese unknown late war Model ceramic serrated hand grenade. I have never been able to Identify the Model/Type for this grenade. Produced very late.

4) U.S. M67 or a practice M69 grenade (Link for this grenade: http://www.inert-ord.net/usa03a/usa3/m67/index.html

5) U.S. Mk II grenade, I am not sure if the fuze is WWII era or 1950's vintage. (Good link for US grenades: http://www.inert-ord.net/usa03a/index.html)

6) Japanese unknown type training grenade. From the picture it's hard to see if this is ceramic, cast iron or hard rubber.

7) Japanese unknown type training grenade. These are fairly common and are usually made from cast iron and sometimes painted in white or silver. There is a black rubber version of this training grenade as well.

8) Japanese Type 4 (1944) ceramic hand grenade- brown glaze

9) Japanese Type 4 ceramic hand grenade-white glaze

10, 11) Japanese unknown type training grenade. I've been told these were used in civilian home guard training. Solid ceramic material with a dull gray glazing with a metal pullpin. It resembles the Type 99 "Kiska" grenade.

12, 14) Hard to judge, both are probably U.S. (M49 A2?) 60mm relic mortar rounds. They seem to be too small to be Japanese Type 98/100 81mm rounds. (US mortar rounds: http://www.inert-ord.net/usa03a/usa5/6081/60mm.html )

13) Japanese Type 97 relic hand grenade minus the fuze.



Pete, do you have any more pictures of this exhibit? Any close up pics of the #2 or #6 grenade?


There's little reference on the different types of Japanese training grenades. If anybody has something to add, that would be great.



Jim
JapaneseOrdnance(at)yahoo.com



Here's a few different types of Japanese training grenade. L to R: cast iron, black rubber, cast cement, large ceramic



Here's a few more Ceramic types: L to R: Ceramic civilian trainer, Unusual Late war unknown type hand grenade, two late war unknown type serrated hand grenades.

This is a great website for Japanese Ordnance: http://www.inert-ord.net/jap02h/index.html
Lex's excellent site: http://www.lexpev.nl/grenades/middleeastasia/japan/index.html


My Japanese Ordnance Page: http://www.castle-thunder.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=976

 

[peteblight]

Thanks for the ID's. Unfortuantly i don't have any other pictures of these, they were behind glass and that was the best picture i could get.

I may have some more to post later today, depending on what we see.

Pete

 

[peteblight]

I tell a lie, here's a cropped close up and a couple more pictures i took.


Pete

 

[peteblight]

Visited another couple of museums today, not too much ordnance on display, but here's another couple of grenade pictures.

Pete

 

[JCB99]

!

Pete,
Thanks again for the Pictures. I enjoy trying to ID this kind of stuff. The first photo shows two WWI era grenades, The first on the left is a German M1913 "Kugel"(Ball) Grenade and the other is a British WWI No 15 grenade.



The #1 marked grenade in the Photo is probably the so called Manchukuo (Manchuria) grenade. As of now I'm unaware of any reference on this grenade but these are currently being recovered in Northern China and available to collectors. It's believed they were made for Japanese troops serving in China/Manchukuo. The only place you can find these is the battlefields of China, they were not used in the Pacific. #2 is a Type 89 Knee mortar shell. The Cast iron grenades marked #3 & #4 are a mystery. This is the first time I've seen this kind of grenade. My guess is they are Japanese captured Chinese grenades. A very interesting lot of grenades, The Manchukuo grenade is quite rare. Nice picture.


The third photo is of one of those Late produced serrated ceramic grenades, Model or Type unknown.


The 4th photo is of two Type 4 grenades and the 5th photo is again of those late produced serrated grenade types. Wish we could read the Japanese text below.



Great pics, GREAT stuff! Thanks for posting them. Enjoy your museum hopping!

Jim
JapaneseOrdnance(at)Yahoo.com

 

[JCB99]

Hey Pete, In your first posted Photo, The grenade I marked #2, did it look similar to this?
.





Navy Model 3 Mod 1 Spigot Grenade




Can you tell if the base of the grenade is metallic or wood?

Jim

 

[peteblight]

Jim,

The grenade looked very similar to this, not sure about the construction though.
I've posted a couple more pictures of Japanese ordnance to other parts of the forum (projectiles, bombs, mortars)

Cheers


Pete

 

[JCB99]

Pete, Thanks for sharing and thanks for posting the photos. Great stuff.

Jim