Viet Cong IED

[Fragman]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of info on this jungle workshop grenade. It looks similar to one of the 19 grenades recovered from dead Viet Cong soldiers following the attack on the Tuy Hoa Air Base in July 1968 (see black and white photo). Do you have one similar or do you have any providence on this type of grenade? Cheers

 

[US-Subs]

Have you checked any of the DTIC/Frag ID guides? There were plenty of variations to the 10-12 main patterns, but the guides touched on many of them.

 

[US-Subs]

I looked at some of my books, nothing much in the military guides. The Vietnam stuff was just too much like the grenades in Bosnia, some general patterns, but way too many variations. There are some good books that cover Vietnamese grenades, but the period books have pretty poor photos. Here are a couple of the better later ones, by Rideout and Emering. Emering has the best photos and more variations. With a quick look through them I still did not see a match though.

 

[Fragman]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I've search my way through a mountain of info, but found very little on that design so far. I have seen photos of similar ones in private collections, so I'm hoping some still have provenance. Cheers