The grenade is a small explosive weapon designed to be thrown by hand or, later, launched from a firearm, consisting of a container holding an explosive charge and a fuse or other detonation mechanism, and organized military use of the hand grenade developed in European armies from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onward. Early grenades were typically iron or ceramic spheres filled with gunpowder and lit with a slow match before being thrown, and armies of the period formed specialist grenadier units, often chosen for their size and strength needed to throw the heavy early grenades an effective distance, whose name and distinctive tall headgear later survived in some armies as an elite infantry designation long after grenadiers stopped actually carrying grenades. The weapon fell out of common use during much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as reliable fuses became harder to produce affordably at scale, before returning to widespread use once modern impact and timed-fuse designs were developed for the trench warfare of the First World War.
Facts
Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category)Grenade / Explosive Device 1 Weapon Classsmall explosive projectile 1 Connections
Associated With
Thirty Years' War, Wars Early hand grenades, thrown by specialist grenadiers, appeared on the battlefields of the Thirty Years' War
Operated By
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Used In
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Source Wikipedia: Grenade
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Grenade
Lead section, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive projectile.
- Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
Used In: American Civil War, Wikipedia article text
used during the American Civil War During the Battle of Fort Sumter, grenades were kept at critical points of the fort such as the room over the gateway.
Used In: Crimean War, Wikipedia article text
In a letter to his sister, Colonel Hugh Robert Hibbert described an improvised grenade that was employed by British troops during the Crimean War (1854-1856): Hand grenades were used by French and Russian forces during the Siege of Sebastopol.
Used In: First Balkan War, Wikipedia article text
An improved version of Vasić's design was adopted by the Serbian Army in 1912; the grenade provide very useful during the First Balkan War, specially during the Siege of Adrianopole.
Used In: Paraguayan War, Wikipedia article text
In March 1868, during the Paraguayan War, the Paraguayan troops used hand grenades in their attempt to board Brazilian ironclad warships with canoes.
Used In: Russo-Japanese War, Wikipedia article text
During the Thousand Days War improvised grenades were thrown from slings, they only saw limited use because of the danger they posed to the user Improvised hand grenades were used to great effect by the Russian defenders of Port Arthur (now Lüshun Port) during the Russo-Japanese War.
Operated By: Union Army, Wikipedia article text
About 93,200 Ketchum grenades were procured by the Union Army throughout the American Civil war; those weapons were used in the sieges of Vicksburg, Port Hudson and Petersburg.
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