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The War Department used five basic classifications of hand grenades, as follows:

1) Fragmentation: These contain an explosive charge within a metal body and are designed to break up into fragments intended to inflict casualties upon the action of the bursting charge. They have a killing range of 5 to 10 yards and stray fragments are dangerous up to 50 or more yards.

2) Offensive: These contain an explosive charge in a paper body and are designed for demolition effect and to stun the enemy in enclosed places, so that the thrower can charge while the enemy is in a dazed condition.

3) Chemical: These contain a chemical agent designed to produce a toxic or irritating effect, a casualty effect, a screening or signal smoke, an incendiary action or combinations of these.

4) Practice: These contain a reduced charge for safe use in training.

5) Training: These contain no explosive charge or chemical and are made for use in throwing practice.

Each type of grenade was designed for a specific purpose and therefore differed somewhat in configuration and appearance. The chief parts of the hand grenade are the fuse, the filler and the body. The most critical component of the grenade was the fuse. Most U.S. grenade fuses of WWII were of the automatic/timed type. This meant that the grenade was exploded after a specific lapse of time, not on impact, and that the fuse begin its timing process automatically as the grenade left the thrower’s hand.

American hand grenades had a safety lever that was secured by a safety pin. Once the pin was removed, the lever was held in place with the hand and when thrown, the lever was released. This caused an internal striker to set off the primer, which in turn, ignited the time fuse. After a pre-set period of time, the grenade exploded. The typical time delay used was from four to five seconds from the time the safety lever was released, although some specialized grenades used a much shorter time fuse.

There were two basic types of time fuses used in World War II hand grenades: the detonating fuse (which contained a small amount of explosive material that would set off the bursting charge) and the igniting fuse (which contained a burning compound that worked by igniting the buster charge).

Grenade, Hand, Fragmentation Mark II
The most widely used fragmentation grenade was the Mark II, an improved version of the Great War Mark I.

The Mark II weighed about 21 ounces and used a TNT filler. Since TNT was in short supply in the early days of the war, an explosive filler compound consisting of 25% nitrostarch, 34% ammonium nitrate and 40% sodium nitrate was used. As TNT production caught up with demand, this was substituted for the nitrostarch compound.

The standard fuse used was the M64A. This fuse was generally reliable, when used, it produced a flash, a report and some smoke and sparks, which allowed an alert enemy to spot the location of the thrower. The improved M204 fuse eliminated this problem and came into service in 1944, both types of fuse were used until the end of the war.

The body of the Mark II was made of cast iron with serrations designed to produce more lethal fragments upon detonation. The Mark II, due to its explosive filler was initially painted bright yellow (indicating a HE filler) which led to its nickname of “lemon”. Needless to say, it was soon realized that yellow could be far more easily spotted in combat and the change was made to a OD green with two narrow yellow bands (and the new nickname of “pineapple“). The range of the Mark II was dependent upon its thrower, but 35 to 40 yards was considered the maximum range. As the fragments could be dangerous out to 50 yards, the GI was trained to keep down until after their grenade had exploded. The time delay was from 4.0 to 4.8 seconds, but experienced GIs were soon cutting fuses down to 3.0 seconds.

While the Mark II outwardly resembled the Mark I, its performance was markedly increased due to the use of high explosive fillers. A typical Mark I would produce about 50 fragments, while the Mark II would produce about 1,000 fragments.

A later variant of the Mark II was the mark IIA1. This was similar to the Mark II, but used the improved M204 fuse. It differed from the Mark II in that it had one yellow band rather than two, in all other functions, it was identical to the Mark II.

Grenade, Hand, Offensive, Mark III
Designed to produce a concussive effect in enclosed spaces, the offensive grenade did not produce the cloud of fragments that the Mark II did.

The Mark III and Mark IIIA1 weighed about 14 ounces and was constructed of a pressed fiber body with sheet metal ends and was filled with TNT. It used the same types of fuses as did the Mark II/MkIIA1. The body was painted yellow with the type, model and lot numbers stenciled on the side in black ink.

Offensive grenades saw little use during WWII.

Grenade, Hand, Fragmentation, T-13
A little-known and seldom used grenade was the T-13 “Beano”. This baseball-shaped grenade was designed for use by the OSS. It was fitted with an in-flight arming fuse that was designed to arm itself after the grenade had traveled at least 25 feet; then grenade would then explode on impact. The sole producer of the Beano was the Eastman-Kodak Company. Performance of this grenade was very erratic and, like all impact grenades, was inherently dangerous to the user. It was reported (but not confirmed) that some T13 grenades were issued during the Normandy campaign.

Grenade, Hand, Incendiary, Frangible, M1
Another type of grenade that saw little use during WWII was the M-1 Frangible Grenade. This was essentially nothing more than a self-igniting version of the Molotov Cocktail. A glass bottle was filled with a mixture of gasoline and alcohol and a glass tube filled with chromic anhydride was attached to the outside of the bottle. When the bottle was thrown against an object, the bottle and tube would break and the gasoline would be ignited by the chemical reaction between the alcohol and the chromic anhydride. A latter version was the M-3 frangible grenade, which was improvised from any type of bottle. The problem with these grenades were that they were dangerous to produce, ship and store. They were discarded in 1943.

Grenade, Hand, Incendiary, AN-M14
Production of this grenade started in 1942 and sufficient supplies were on hand by 1943 to discontinue their production since relatively few of these were issued. Better known as the “Thermite Grenade” it was most often used for destroying enemy artillery pieces by igniting a grenade in the breech mechanism, which would fuse the breech block closed and render the piece inoperable.

The AN-M14 had a smooth sheet metal body and was painted blue-gray and had “TH INCENDIARY”, the lot number and one band stenciled in purple ink. The grenade weighed 32 ounces and was equipped with either the M200A1 or M200A2 igniting fuse with a 2.0 second time delay.

Grenade, Hand, White Phosphorus, M-15
While the chief purpose of the WP grenade was as a smoke producing agent, it also was used to inflict casualties on enemy soldiers. Burning phosphorus could only be extinguished by cutting off all oxygen to the pellets, producing severe burns.

The M15 was made of a smooth sheet metal body, with a filler of white phosphorus, in appearance it was very close to the AN-M14 grenade. The M15 weighed 31 ounces and used the M-6A3 detonating fuse with a 4.0-4.8 second delay. The grenade was painted blue-gray with “WP SMOKE”, and a single band in yellow on the body. Its burst radius was approximately 25 yards and it burned for 50-60 seconds.

Grenade, Hand, Colored Smoke, M-16
Grenade, Hand, Colored Smoke, M-18
The most widely issued type of signal munitions of World War II were the smoke hand grenades. Development of these munitions began in September of 1942 upon the request of Army Ground Forces as a means to identify troop positions. Chemical Warfare Service Engineers developed the prototypes from the M-7 chemical warfare grenade. It has been reported that CWS representatives contacted Hollywood special effects people to assist in this project due to their experience with the use of colored smoke in movies.

The first type was standardized in April of 1943 as the M16. This grenade was made in six colors: red, orange, violet, black, yellow and green. When ignited, it produced a cloud of smoke for about two minutes. While this grenade worked well, a thicker cloud of smoke was desired and an improved version was developed and adopted as the M-18. The M-18 gave off a more dense volume of smoke than did the M16, although its durations was only for about one minute. Eight colors were originally developed, but this was later changed to only four: red, green, yellow and violet. Both grenades had a smooth sheet metal cylindrical body with wither an M200A1 or M200A2 igniting fuse. They weighed about 17 ounces. The body was painted blue-gray and had the lot number, model and one band painted in yellow. The top of the grenade was painted to indicate the color of the smoke.

Grenade, Hand, Red Smoke, AN-M2
Grenade, Hand HC Smoke, AN-M8
This grenade was intended primarily for screening troops. It produced a large cloud of red smoke for about two and a half minutes. It was similar in appearance and function to the M-18, including the same type of body and igniting fuse. The AN-M2 was stenciled in yellow on the body “SMOKE RED”, the date of filling and one band.

Another type, which was used to produce a thick cloud of white smoke was the AN-M8. Externally similar to the AN-M2, it differed by the markings on the body “HC SMOKE” and lot number and one band stenciled in yellow.

Grenade, Hand, Gas, Irritant, CN-DM, M-6
Grenade, Hand, Gas Irritant, CS , M-7
One little known and seldom used grenade as the Gas, Irritant. This type is more commonly known as a tear gas grenade and its official function is simply listed as “harassment”. It is intended to incapacitate the enemy by strong irritating fumes. Two basic types were fielded in World War II. The first was the M-6, which had a smooth cylindrical sheet metal body and an M200A1 or M200A2 igniting fuse. It was filled with the chemical CN-DM which emitted noxious fumes for up to 60 seconds. It was painted blue-gray and had “CN-DM GAS” and a single band painted in red on the body.

The second grenade was the M-7 which was virtually identical to the M-6 except the filler was pure CS gas. It was marked on the body in red with “CS GAS: and a single red band.

Both grenades saw very limited service during the war in persuading reluctant enemy soldiers trapped in bunkers, caves or buildings to surrender. Most often, however, the enemy refused requests to surrender and fragmentation and white phosphorus grenades were used with much more permanent results.

Training and Practice Grenades
Since hand grenades are quite dangerous weapons to untrained users, much emphasis was placed on safe training techniques. Since the thought of a bunch of raw recruits on the range with live grenades was enough to turn even veteran drill instructors pale…training grenades were developed. These grenades were of the same configuration, size and weight as the service grenades, but replaced the high explosive fillers with a reduced charge of black powder and the iron filling plug was replaced by a cork plug that was easy to blow out. The resulting cloud of black powder allowed the thrower to simulate a grenade explosion at little risk to themselves. These grenades were painted blue to help distinguish them from service weapons.

Practice grenades were even simpler, being solid cast iron copies with, at most, a removable pin. Their solid construction allowed the training of green recruits with no fear of injury.