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British No 27 and No 28 questions

MINENAZ16

MINENAZ16

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
Hello,

-I read that WP grenade N27 was filled with toxic agent (with a grey body).
Does anyone have information about the gas used ?

-I recently saw an english diagram with a grenade N28 filled with white phophorus instead of lacry. agent.
Does anyone know if this grenade was actually filled with WP ?

Regards.
 
Minenaz16,

The Shrivenham Text Book on British grenades shows the No. 27 only filled White Phosphorus. The entry for the No. 28 makes no mention of a White Phosphorus filling. It would appear Delhomme's entry for the No. 28 was greatly influenced by the Shrivenham publication.

Norman should be along later and he'll be able to confirm, or otherwise the fillings.

TimG
 
Thank you Joery, I have this french document that's why I wrote this thread ! (to have a confirmation).

Thank you TimG.

From lexpev (28 WP) ??

no28mk2draw.jpg
 
TimG said:
Minenaz16,

The Shrivenham Text Book on British grenades shows the No. 27 only filled White Phosphorus. The entry for the No. 28 makes no mention of a White Phosphorus filling. It would appear Delhomme's entry for the No. 28 was greatly influenced by the Shrivenham publication.

Norman should be along later and he'll be able to confirm, or otherwise the fillings.

TimG
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to say that I don't know the answer to this. There was a great deal of experimental work on chemical grenades at Porton and Wembley so conceivably these fillings and body combinations could have been tried. Charging a No 27 with a lachrymator may make sense in its hand role for dug-out clearing but I doubt the use of it in the rifle role with a liquid filling (tactically and mechanically).

White phosphorus in a No 28 seems viable but the container is a hefty piece of cast-iron and, in the absence of a filling hole, charging it might be challenging. Even in the early days of the No 28 (Type Q) there was a WP grenade called the Type K for launching from a Spring Gun so there was not a gap in the designs available to deploy WP.

There was a chemical charging used experimentally in the No 28 Mk II known as White Star; I wonder if this has got confused with WP.
 
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