In attempting to fight through enemy trenches, or to defend against attack, all armies came to rely heavily on grenades. These simple, hand-thrown weapons had been invented hundreds of years before, but had not been widely used since the Napoleonic era. Reinvented by the requirements of trench warfare, the first grenades in were often hand-made, consisting of old cans filled with nails and bits of metal and packed with gunpowder. They often proved as dangerous to their makers as to their intended targets, due to the risk of premature explosion.
By the end of , all armies were being supplied with hand bombs. It is outrageous! Soon two types of grenades became standard for the Germans: stick with the explosive can attached to a wooden handle and egg because it resembled an egg.
Early in the war, the French were not prepared for the use and production of grenades. One report in January stated that while the soldiers were completely lacking in factory-produced grenades that they were not lacking in ingenuity in fabricating remarkable projectiles made from canned beef, sardines, tuna and foie gras cans.
After eating the delectables they took the cans, loaded them with stones collected from the trenches, shrapnel balls and explosive materials of all sorts, and inserted wick fuses that lasted less than 6 seconds. The early British front-made grenades were similar to the French, although few were as exotic as foie gras cans.
They were mostly jam pots. British development of rifle grenades early in the war was fragmentary. The rod was inserted down the barrel of the service rifle and launched with a special blank cartridge. Rifle grenades were designed to land head-first, but often failed to do so. They carried high explosives, smoke, signals and messages. Late in the war, anti-tank rifle grenades were developed. British brigade orders issued for the Somme attack on July 1, , stated that the grenade or bombing squads: each non-com would carry 6 mills bombs, 4 rifle grenades and 2 smoke; the 2 bayonet men would carry 12 mills bombs and 4 smoke; the 2 throwers carried 24 mills and 4 smoke; the 2 carriers reserve throwers carried 24 mills and 4 smoke and the 2 rifle grenadiers carried 8 mills and 20 rifle grenades for a total of 74 mills bombs, 24 rifle grenades and 14 smoke grenades.
The Russians utilized a small variety of grenade types. There is a Russian Model hand grenade, dated Hand grenades are widely manufactured and produced in vast quantities.
The map below shows the main countries which have produced grenades in red. In contrast, state actors have perpetrated 4.
For Grenades are also often used by criminal gangs, most notably in Sweden , Mexico and Guatemala. Modern militaries use grenades in close-combat operations, and they are also deployed by security forces during riot control operations. In August , two civilians were injured when security forces fired a flash grenade on protestors in the Belarusian election protests. During the same period 1, armed actors were casualties of grenades. The dominant injury mechanisms of grenades are shrapnel wounds caused by the high-velocity projection of fragments, particularly in the case of fragmentation grenades.
Depending on the design of the grenade and the materials used there can be hundreds or even thousands of fragments. The Bulgarian RGO , for instance, contains steel balls embedded in a plastic liner.
Fragments weighing at least 0. Grenades also cause flash burns, lacerations, dismemberment, internal injuries, damage to sensory organs, and injuries from fluctuations in pressure from the blast such as concussion and shock. This haemorrhaging was caused by the sudden increase of environmental air pressure from the grenade blast, known as primary blast injury. What patterns of harm do grenades cause to surrounding environments and infrastructure?
Grenades are anti-personnel weapons. Grenades still have the capacity to cause damage to properties and infrastructure. A grenade attack in in Ibb governorate, Yemen, destroyed market stalls and damaged several civilian buildings, as well as killing two people and injuring 18 others. The US army warns that fragmentation or concussion grenades should not be used in buildings that have walls of thin veneer material as they can weaken the structure of the building or cause portions of the building to collapse inward.
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