PBS VS BSC WAR: PBS VS BSC - 29/06/2025 20:30

[Trung Duc]

The very first grenade made by a VC named Ngo Gia Kham in 1944  killed 11 Japanese soldiers at the battle of Hoang Hoa Tham

7436-K3-1990

[FelixTheWhale]

Duc, how he killed enemies with this if grenade did not explode?

[DiAge87]

Nice that you asked this question, just sunk into Wikipedia and other sources, since i was also wondering.

So far there are two types of grenades:

1. Defensive Grenades are used from cover and thrown into an open area. At the explosion the grenade fragments into multiple pieces extending the lethal radius of the explosion. This is also why you should have cover, since the pieces can fly up to 200m and you could definitely wound or kill yourself in the process.
2. Offensive Grenades set aside the fragmentation. Therefore they used more explosive material and are heavier. The blast radius shrinks but this helps you in an open area to not get wounded yourself. The deadliness comes from a super-sonic explosion that causes concussion, lung damage (because of the fast extension and implosion of the air) and damaged ear drums (this perhaps does not kill you but losing balance and control over the your body on the battlefield is never good).

As an example an Defensive Grenade has a wounding radius of 15m while a Offensive Grenade has just a radius of 2m.
Since the offensive grenades do not fragment only the fuse and other parts at the opening are lost but the shell remains.
As far as i understand this article with the help of the google translator, they scavenged used shells of japanese grenades and refilled them to learn how to build such grenades. The first own build shell for grenades was then the shell you see on the picture. They used it against the 11 soldiers and then recollected the shell.

Fun Fact, the pineapple design is used on offensive and defensive grenades to give a better grip for the thrower and was not intended to support the fragmentation in the first place.

The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.

- D.L. Serventy, ornithologist on the Emu War from 11–12.1932 between Royal Australian Artillery and 20,000 emus

Emus outlasted!

[FelixTheWhale]

Thanks for detailed answer, Dennis,

but in fact this is replicated grenade (after the explosion), not the original one. This refers to paradox in philisophy called ship of Theseus.

Bests

[DiAge87]

Oh, ok.
Still learned something, so everything is fine. 🙂

The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.

- D.L. Serventy, ornithologist on the Emu War from 11–12.1932 between Royal Australian Artillery and 20,000 emus

Emus outlasted!

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