No 76 S.I.P. Grenade

[paul the grenade]

Hi all, Heres my latest aquisition, A very nice No76 Grenade also known as the S.I.P. Grenade (self igniting phosphorus). It was filled with a mixture of yellow phosphorus, water and benzene. With a strip of rubber added which would slowly dissolve over time and make the whole mix a bit tacky. It would have a coloured beer bottle top which denoted it's use. Red for hand throwing and green for launching from the northover projector. (a crude smooth bore cannon used by the home guard.) There were practice versions made of wood and rubber. Paul.

 

[butterfly]

very nice addition to the collection Paul, cant be many of those around.

kind regards Kev

 

[ammocat]

Very interesting. Were these grenades carried in a protective container. I think I would be a little nervous putting one in a pack or web gear. Other than identifying it by dimensions are there any markings in the base to ID it? I wonder how many of these ended up in recycling?

 

[Big Dave]

These came in a wooden crate, and have been known to set fire to the odd council refuse wagon !

 

[ammocat]

Had to do some reading. There are stories of these being stored in streams and cases floating away. Some differences between sources of information but anywhere from 6,000,000 to 7,250,000 were manufactured.

 

[AMMOTECHXT]

Every now and again a digger driver on a construction site wonders why the hole he has just dug starts smoking and burning, and these are often the reason why, when the bucket breaks some of them.

 

[paul the grenade]

heres a pic of the crate with contents

 

[pointblank0]

Do these just ignite then once smashed or is a fuse added first?

 

[paul the grenade]

just throw and smash! heres a close up of the label in the crate.

 

[peteblight]

Here's a few more examples.

 

[Millsman]

I've always thought of the AW grenade as a Home Guard Grenade.

However I've got a box with me at the moment that has a great inscription on the inside of the lid. It says that the box was found washed up on the beach at St Margaret's Bay (near Dover) and that it came from a ship sunk by German 16 inch Cross Channel guns whilst the ship was heading for D Day. I had no idea they were issued to regular troops or went to the invasion of Normandy.

John

 

[paul the grenade]

Hi all, Ive decided to inert fill my No 76 S.I.P Grenade.
i started by casting up a rubber strip using builders white latex sealent, when it had set solid i cut it to 6 inches in length and squeezed it into the bottle, next i added water with a tiny bit of white paint added to make it slightly off colour. Next i added some old dirty oil and finished it of by crimping on a new green bottle cap as its the thicker bottle that was used in the Northover projector. Lucky for me i make home made beer so i had the crimping tool, i only needed the green caps which i got from ebay. Hope you all like it. Im certaily pleaed with the end result.:tinysmile_fatgrin_t

 

[sgtlynn]

That looks great Paul, nice job.

 

[AE501]

It is not only that the bottles were thicker.
The first bottles used between August and October 1940 were all sorts of sizes and were given red crown corks, so we at least had something to use.
Once the Northover Projector was produced, a bottle with a guaranteed standard 2.5" diameter was necessary to fit it, so these were differentiated by a green crown cork.

 

[Millsman]

Don't forget to mark it Inert Paul. Otherwise it may cause problems in the future!

John

 

[Millsman]

Here's a pic of the top of the crate with stencilling. Often ignored as people like the enamel plaque more.

John

 

[paul the grenade]

thanks john. i did write on the rubber strip "INERT FILLED" before i sealed it up just in case for the future.
I was wondering if the grens would have any markings somewhere like a date or lot number. Maybe on the top of the cap? anyone know??

 

[AE501]

Markings are linked to the packages.
Red capped grenades if undated were filled between August and October 1940.
Green capped grenades if undated were filled between November 1940 and May 1941.
All grenades filled after 1st June 1941 (all would be green caps) were packed in boxes marked with the month and year of filling.
Nothing was ever marked on the grenades.

What you are using in your bottle is Silicone rubber invented by Dow Corning in quite recent times. Your mixture is unlikely to dissolve the rubber.
Crude rubber is a dirty brown colour and would have made the liquid so as it steadily dissolved over time. You could use dark brown silicone rubber for more realism.

 

[paul the grenade]

thanks AE501 i'll have a look at sourcing some crude rubber to replace it. paul.

 

[Bonnex]

Viewers may be interested to know that in July 1940 SOE Station XII obtained 5000 SIP Grenades directly from Albright & Wilson. 4000 were distributed to the Auxiliary Units. Investigations by SOE technical staff determined that the grenade could be used with a delay fuze providing the detonator was in close contact with the glass bottle, and was suitable as a smoke generator and scatter incendiary in buildings.

The SIP Grenade was adopted as an SOE/ISRB Store but owng to the hazards associated with transporting the grenade by air the value was limited and in 1942 was removed from the Catalogue of Supplies.

The contents of SIP grenades were used to fill army water-bottles in September 1942 to meet a requirement of SOEs Norwegian Section.