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No 75 Hawkins Grenade-Mine

roller63

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hi Guys,
Here a few pictures of the British WW2 No 75 grenade or Hawkins grenade from my collection. As an anti-tank weapon, it is unusual in the fact that it officially listed as a grenade in the British numbered series, but is also listed as a mine in mine warfare manuals. I am not going into too much detail here as this item is well documented in various books, manuals and websites, I just thought that some of you may be interested to see some in the flesh.
Left to right in the first picture, Mk 1, Mk 2 and Mk 3. The Mk?s 1 and 2 are drill stores, painted in red oxide and marked with white bands, as you can see, one of them is marked HES, which of course stands for high explosive substitute in these cases, an oily sand and sawdust mixture. The second set of pictures shows the rear of the grenades, showing the different methods of manufacture.
The Mk 3 version is interesting in several ways. Firstly it has no filler cap, and is a little bit shorter than the other two. This particular one is made in Belgium and dated 1951. As you can see it has been sectioned and filled with cement.
The last picture in the set is of two inert detonators, both drill and filled with wood, Mk 1 left and Mk 2 right.
Any comments or further pics welcome, Tony.
MVC_415S.JPG
 
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