I haven't posted in a while but thought you guys would enjoy seeing the newest grenade in the collection. It's an American Babbitt sling grenade from the 1911-1917 period.
In the pre-WWI era when sling type hand grenades were fairly popular around the world, this was the type adopted by the U.S. Ordnance Department and manufactured at Frankford Arsenal. I believe its design was credited to Col. E.B. Babbitt, who also developed the companion rifle grenade of that period. Col. Babbitt eventually retired as a Major General after commanding a brigade in WWI and died in 1939. I don't think his grenade designs were the high water mark of his military career.
By the time the Americans entered the war, the troops in the trenches had already discovered the problems with sling grenades and stick types with excessively long handles that detonated when they hit the back side of the trench. And with fine designs like the Mills No.5 and French F1 already in service, the sling grenade was obsolete before it ever got there. I don't think any of the Babbitt hand grenades were ever used in combat though there is some indication a few of the rodded rifle types might have.
The grenade was a simple cylinder filled with TNT with a percussion fuze fitted in the closing plug. Similar to the British No. 1, the grenade had a firing pin mounted in the outer cap which, upon landing, overcame the small safety studs on the grenade body to fire the fuze. Unfortunately, my example is missing the outer cap, but I plan to fabricate one from the manual drawing to complete it.
The type illustrated in the manual was the last version with a simple knot in the rope, which was apparently frayed to produce the streamer function. The earliest type had the wooden ball and cloth streamer as shown in the photos but had a teardrop shaped body much more similar to the Japanese grenade it was apparently patterned after. Between those two types was the style show here, the middle pattern of 3 styles used in its short 7 year service life.
I first saw this one about 20 years ago when it was brought to a local militaria show for me to identify. I tried unsuccessfully to buy it then and it was later traded to a collector in California. I continued to contact the owner over the years but could never come to terms. I hadn't seen him in about 4 years but ran into him at a gun show in Reno two weeks ago. He was in a better mood for trading and the grenade finally came home with me, after a very long 20 year wait. Sometimes it pays to be persistant.
I only know of one other survivor of this type in the U.S. but would love to hear about others. Any chance samples went to England for testing and survive there? Norman?
In the pre-WWI era when sling type hand grenades were fairly popular around the world, this was the type adopted by the U.S. Ordnance Department and manufactured at Frankford Arsenal. I believe its design was credited to Col. E.B. Babbitt, who also developed the companion rifle grenade of that period. Col. Babbitt eventually retired as a Major General after commanding a brigade in WWI and died in 1939. I don't think his grenade designs were the high water mark of his military career.
By the time the Americans entered the war, the troops in the trenches had already discovered the problems with sling grenades and stick types with excessively long handles that detonated when they hit the back side of the trench. And with fine designs like the Mills No.5 and French F1 already in service, the sling grenade was obsolete before it ever got there. I don't think any of the Babbitt hand grenades were ever used in combat though there is some indication a few of the rodded rifle types might have.
The grenade was a simple cylinder filled with TNT with a percussion fuze fitted in the closing plug. Similar to the British No. 1, the grenade had a firing pin mounted in the outer cap which, upon landing, overcame the small safety studs on the grenade body to fire the fuze. Unfortunately, my example is missing the outer cap, but I plan to fabricate one from the manual drawing to complete it.
The type illustrated in the manual was the last version with a simple knot in the rope, which was apparently frayed to produce the streamer function. The earliest type had the wooden ball and cloth streamer as shown in the photos but had a teardrop shaped body much more similar to the Japanese grenade it was apparently patterned after. Between those two types was the style show here, the middle pattern of 3 styles used in its short 7 year service life.
I first saw this one about 20 years ago when it was brought to a local militaria show for me to identify. I tried unsuccessfully to buy it then and it was later traded to a collector in California. I continued to contact the owner over the years but could never come to terms. I hadn't seen him in about 4 years but ran into him at a gun show in Reno two weeks ago. He was in a better mood for trading and the grenade finally came home with me, after a very long 20 year wait. Sometimes it pays to be persistant.
I only know of one other survivor of this type in the U.S. but would love to hear about others. Any chance samples went to England for testing and survive there? Norman?
