Instructors will impress on men the necessity for common sense, care, and kown-eldge of the nature of grenades, but will not lay too much stress on the question of danger, when would cause luck of confidence and nervousness in handling.

The grenade is useful for a variety of purpose:– clearing dug-outs of buildings, or killing crews of A.F.Vs. The grenade is fairly heavy, and can be thrown from 25 to 35 yards. It also useful for any form of close quarter fighting, i.e. wood or street fighting, ambushes, and neight fighting. For this kind of work one handicap is that the thrower must first en-sure that other men in the section or platoon are under cover or lying flat on the ground. The grenades weights 1½ lb.

Fig. 1

The grenade consists of a cast iron body filled with high explosive. Through the middle of the body is a centre piece containing a striker and spring. These are held in position by a lever inserted in a slot at the top of the striker. The lever is secured by a safety pin passing over it and through holes in two shoulders which project on the outside of the body. The grenade is painted black, with a red band or red crosses.

First safety precaution – Remove base plug and see that grenade is not primed. This precaution must always be taken before any attempt is made to handle grena-des.

Before the grenade is thrown it must be inspected to make sure that it is in working order. Faults may cause the grenade either to explode too soon or to fail to explode at all.

See that the lever is secure in the slot in the striker, and that it lies flush with the body of the grenade (if not, it can be bent to the correct shape when the grenade is stripped). Ensure that the shoulders are not cracked or broken and that the safety pin is sound.

Pull out the pin after closing the points, holding the lever firmly down with the fin-gers. Place the open end of the grenade against the body. Allow the lever to come up un-der control. Shake out striker and spring.

Clean off all wax from the body, central sleeve, striker and spring. See that the striker is straight and has two nipples with a vertical slot between them.

Apply the striker test as follow:–

Insert the striker and spring into the centre sleeve, in such a way that the slot at the top of the striker is towards the shoulders. Using a round, force the striker through the top of the grenade, insert the lever in the slot, and hold it down firmly. Place the base of the grenade against the body and release the lever. Thus action ensures that the striker moves freely, and that the spring is strong enough to force it down and set off the .22 cap. A weak spring, or one that is hable to jam to the sleeve, should be rejected.

5. Assembling

Explain and demonstrate, squad initianting:–

Insert the striker and spring in the sleeve as in paragraph 4, iii. With the lever inserted and secured with the fingers, hold the grenade in such a way that the filling screw is to-wards you. If the thrower is right-handed, replace pin form right to left, if left-handed from left to right. Replace the base plug.

6. Practice squad in stripping, testing and assembling grenade.

7. Igniter set (see Fig. 2)

Explain and demonstrate, squad initiating:–

The igniter set is used to explode the grenade. It must be handled carefully. Hold it only by the cap chamber of the fuze. It should never be attack or crsuhed. Keep it away from heat and never attempt to dismantle it. It consists a .22 cap in a cham-ber, a short length of safety fuze and a detonator.

Fig. 2

Before use examine it as follow:–

See that the hole in the centre of the .22 cap is covered and sealed. Ensure that the cap chamber is sound and that the cap chamber and detonator are firmly atta-ched to the fuze.

As there are two kinds of igniter sets make sure that the right type is being used. When the grenade is thrown a 4-second fuze is used. This is white and has a rub-ber band on it which should not be removed. When it is fired from a discharger a 7-second fuze is used. This coloured yellow and has no rubber band on it.

8. Priming

Explain and demonstrate, squad initiating:–

Remove the base plug, examine the detonator sleeve to ensure it is free from obstruction and rough edges, insert the detonator and cap chamber into their respective sleeves – push in as far as possible. Replace the base plug and tighten, using the base plug key.

Note. – Before priming it will usually be necessary to bend the fuze slightly to make for easy insertion. This can be done by holding the fuze and cap chamber between the thumb and forefinger, and pressing them gently together.

9. Practice squad.

10. Mechanism

Explain:–

The pin is withdrawn and when the grenade is thrown the spring forces down the striker, causing the lever to fly off. The .22 cap is struck and ignites the fuze. This action sets off the detonator which explodes the grenade.

11. Packing

Explain:–

Grenades are packed 12 in a wooden box, marked "Hand Grenades", "4 secs." In each box is a tin containg 12 ingniter sets. A base plug key is on the inside of the lid of each box.

Note. – Grenades for use with dischargers have "7 secs." marked on the box, and are provided with gas chechs and ballistite cartridges.