A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. A variety of hand grenades exist, the most common being explosive grenades designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time.
Grenadiers were originally soldiers who specialized in throwing grenades. The word "grenade" derives from the French word for a "small explosive shell". Its first usage in English dates from the 1590s. It is likely derived from Old Frenchpomegranate (influenced by Spanish granada), so called because the many-seeded fruit suggested the powder-filled, fragmenting bomb, or from similarity of shape.Rudimentary incendiary grenades appeared in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, not long after the reign of Leo III(717-741). Byzantine soldiers learned that Greek fire, a Byzantine invention of the previous century, could not only be thrown by flamethrowers at the enemy, but also in stone and ceramic jars. Later, glass containers were employed. The use of Greek fire, or rather variants thereof, spread to Muslim armies in the Near East, from where it reached Chinaby the 10th century.
Smoke
The reaction is exothermic and though they remain intact, smoke grenade casings will often remain scalding hot for some time even after the grenade is no longer emitting smoke. Although modern smoke grenades are designed not to directly emit fire or sparks, they remain a fire hazard and are capable of igniting dry vegetation or flammable substances if used injudiciously.
Another type of smoke grenade is the bursting variation.These are filled with white phosphorus (WP), a pyrophoric agent which is spread quickly into a cloud by an internal bursting charge.White phosphorus burns with a brilliant yellow flame, while producing copious amounts of white smoke.
Frag
A smoke grenade is a canister-type grenade used as a signaling device, target or landing zone marking device, or as ascreening device for unit movements.
Smoke grenades generally emit a far larger amount of smoke than smoke bombs, which are a type of fireworks typically started with an external fuse rather than a pin and are more complex. Smoke grenades often cost around US$40 compared to smoke bombs, which can often cost just a few cents.
Typical design consists of a sheet steel cylinder with four emission holes on top and one on the bottom to allow smoke release when the grenade is ignited. The filler consists of 250 to 350 grams of colored (red, green, orange, gray, yellow, blue, white, black, or violet) smoke composition (mostly potassium chlorate, lactose, and a dye).
This type of smoke grenade is favored for its ability to produce a very dense and nearly instantaneous cloud of white concealment smoke as compared to the more common solid-filler grenades which expel a slower stream of smoke over a period of roughly 1 minute. For this reason they are favored for use in onboard grenade launching attachments on armored vehicles, which require extremely fast concealment in the event they are targeted by laser guided anti-tank missiles and need to rapidly retreat. However, due to their explosive nature and extremely toxic and hazardous filler, this type of smoke grenade is never hand-thrown.
The user then pulls the grenade and pull ring assembly apart, removing the safety pin from the fuze assembly. At this time, the fuze remains unfired, as the throwing hand's thumb is holding the safety lever down.
A left-handed thrower should grasp the grenade with the fuze assembly on the bottom and the safety lever held down by the left thumb.
A fragmentation grenade (commonly known as frag or frag grenade) is an anti-personnel weapon that is designed to disperse small projectiles or fragments on detonation. The body may be made of hard plastic or steel. The outer casing and/or a fragmentation matrix consisting of notched wire and preformed fragments (spherical or otherwise) provide the projectiles. When the word grenade is used without specification, and context does not suggest otherwise, it is generally assumed to refer to a fragmentation grenade.
Grenades are normally either offensive or defensive. Offensive grenades have a smaller effective casualty radius, but also less risk of fragments hitting the thrower. Mills bombs and the Soviet F1 are examples of defensive grenades.
The Dutch V40, Swiss HG 85, and US M67 are offensive grenades as they have an effective wounding radius of around 15 m and can easily be thrown further. Fragments may travel more than 200 m.
Next, the grenade's pull ring is grasped with the non-throwing hand while maintaining a firm grasp on the body of the grenade and safety lever (also referred to as the "spoon") with the throwing hand. The pull ring and safety pin assembly are fitted so that a right-handed thrower can grasp the grenade with the fuze assembly on top and the safety lever held down by the right thumb.
Flash Bang
Unlike a fragmentation grenade, stun grenades are constructed with a casing made to remain intact during detonation, containing most of its explosive force and avoiding shrapnel injuries, while having large circular cutouts to allow the light and sound of the explosion through. The filler consists of a pyrotechnic metal-oxidant mix of magnesium or aluminium, and an oxidizer such as ammonium perchlorate or potassium perchlorate.
A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. It is designed to produce a blinding flash of light and intensely loud noise "bang" of greater than 170 decibels (dB) without causing permanent injury. It was first used by theBritish Army's SAS in the late 1970s.
The flash produced momentarily activates all photoreceptor cells in the eye, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds, until the eye restores itself to its normal, unstimulated state. The loud blast is meant to cause temporary loss of hearing, and also disturbs the fluid in the ear, causing loss of balance.
The concussive blast of the detonation can still injure, and the heat created can ignite flammable materials such as fuel. The fires that occurred during the Iranian Embassy siege in London were caused by stun grenades.