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Austro-Hungarian Grenades of the Great War Part 1
Achtung Spitfire! posted a topic in De-activated and Antique Guns, Munitions and Fuzes
So I'll start this off with Schwere Hand Grenades. Heavy iron often roughly cast grenades produced in many different sizes & styles. Most of these grenades have been salvaged from the Alps I'm lead to believe. My knowledge on them is very limited so feel free to firm up the detail or correct any errors. I just find their 'ugliness' appealing. Starting off with what I think is the oldest in my collection a 'medium' Schwere'. It weighs 10 ounces & would have contained gun powder. It has a delay friction fuse & a fuse protector. Note the uneven body casting & heavy fragmentation. Here we have a 'small' Schwere with a strike on a hard surface percussion fuse. The fuse body itself has a left hand thread & so screws into the grenade body anticlockwise. The safety cap has a right hand thread so you couldn't unscrew the fuse in error given this thread combination. This is my favourite Schwere as it has an improvised belt hook which made it a nice find. Another heavy Schwere here. A big heavy beast of a grenade. Again with the same left hand right hand thread combination. It has a percussion fuse. Finally we have what is the most common Schwere on the market. The fuse is incomplete, complete fuses are hard to find.This was a late war grenade and is much more uniform in appearance with a more 'modern' appearance. The fragmentation is noticeably smaller and has the look of a Mills Bomb it could be said.Gone are the rough uneven heavy iron edges. All 4 seen here together with a Number 36 Mills to give them scale. In part 2 I'll be covering Universal Grenades that could either be thrown or launched from a rifle.