Smoke (W.P.) M15; also Fuzes M6A3, M10A3, and M200A1

Over-all length, inches

5

Diameter, inches

Color

Filling

Fuze

Delay, seconds

4.5

Description: This grenade is of the bursting type and contains white phosphorus is a sealed cylindrical container. The body corners are rounded. It if fuzed with the Detona-ting Fuze M6A3, which has a delay varying between 4.3 and 4.8 seconds. The fuze con-sists of a threaded metal body which contains the primer, delay element, and detonator, and to which a spring-driven striker is attached. The striker is restrained by the safety lever, which hooks over the lip of the body and passes across the head of the body, over the striker, and down the side of the grenade. The lever is held in place during shipping and handling by a split safety pin which passes through the safety lever, through the fuze body, and over the striker, to protrude on the other side, where it is spread so that a pull of between 10 and 30 pounds is required to withdraw it. This fuze is distinguished from igniting fuzes by the red sealing compound, instead of green, used to aid in sealing the detonator into the fuze. It differs from the Detonating Fuze M10A3 in that the safety lever is straight, while that of the M10A3 is curved. It differs from the Detonating Fuze M200A1 in that the length of the body is approximately four inches for the M200A1. The detonator consists of a seven-grain primer charge and a 13.5-grain tetryl charge.

Operation: When the safety pin is removed preparatiry to throwing, the lever is held in place by the hand holding the grenade. When the grenade is thrown, the lever is re-leased. The striker, driven by its spring, throws off the lever and rotates about its pivot to strike the primer. The primer ignites the delay element, which takes about 4.5 seconds to burn through to the detonator.

When ignited by the delay element, the detonator bursts the case and scatters the phosphorus over an area about 25 yards in diameter. The phosphorus ignites sponatane-ously, and the scattered pieces will burn for about 30 seconds.