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T16 Hand/Rifle Grenade?

Magii

Member
Was reading a Ordinance Department document from 1945 and noticed a T16 grenade. The T16 is a hand or rifle grenade with a shaped charge.

131BlAzh.jpg



Anybody heard of it before or have more info?
 
It's one I've always been interested in but info is scarce. I think it came along too late for use in WWII and wasn't enough of an improvement over the M9A1 to be used in Korea. Even though the explosive filling was greater than the M9A1 carried and penetration was certainly greater, the U.S. Army opted to buy the 75mm Energa grenade from Mecar when a more potent grenade was needed.

I'm working to restore one with the ogive missing that has been in the collection for many years. The fuze housing, tail boom, and fins are all aluminum alloy. The warhead and shape charge cone were made of drawn steel. Not sure how handy it would have been as a hand grenade but the airburst feature when employed as a rifle grenade would have been useful. An interesting design that didn't last long in the flow of rifle grenade development and quite scarce today.T16 Greande.jpg
 
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