No. 5 Grenade
 

Some interesting 'alternate facts' are contained in this display.

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Ed


Please tell us that this was from an April Fools display. That looks an awful lot like a no36 or a 36m to me (large filler plug, detonator striker design, the flat style spoon, possibly the baseplug....). Also, didn't they have a 7 second fuze? I thought the fuze time was reduced in WW2 to 4 seconds, again on the no36m. But the time count didn't start until you let the spoon go.....a soldier had as much time as a soldier needed.

Joke
 

Rob, sadly it is part of a much larger technically flawed display. I think the text for the grenade caption was based on information provided by Wild E Coyote.

Seconds
 

Seven seconds on the 36 rifle grenade fuze. Four on the regular

fuze. I always wondered about standing in the throwing bay

watching the grenade sail through the air so I could see

where it landed. Most people don't know you.ve got to clean them

before you throw them. The heavy wax will actually stop the

striker from moving. Oh and there is no giant blast of flame like in the movies.

I think it's the suggestion that the fuse starts as soon as the pin is pulled, rather than as the lever flies off that is particularly misleading.

Grenade, Hand, No. 5, Mark I
 

I did a quick search through some primary source material I own and found this published in; Bomber’s Training and Application of Same in Trench Warfare, Lieut. J.R. Ferris, 63rd Battalion, 1916.

The action of the grenade is that, after the safety pin is withdrawn, on throwing the grenade the lever swings outward under the pull of the striker pin spring thus releasing the a striker which fires the cap. The safely fuse burns less than five seconds and then fires the detonator.

Considering the money and resources dedicated to these major 'art gallery' style exhibits, it is appalling to see that the facts relating to the basics of how a grenade functions could be so misconstrued. Add to this that the grenade being displayed doesn't even match the text and you have to wonder what else is incorrect.

CWM captions
 

Unfortunately, it is one of a series of captions of about the same quality in the CWM, and they don't seem to want to know, either.

Wrote to the Director several years ago about a few of their display captions, suggesting further investigation with a view to correction if they agreed with my comments and evidence provided.

No reply. Not a squeek. As far as I know, no caption change either. Every museum makes caption errors: the real test is in correcting them. :bang:

Check out their 18 pdr shrapnel shell caption. It's a real beauty!

As for the No.5 Grenade, which is similar to the No.36 or 36M, one of the tell-tale difference in the body casting is the flair in the bottom below the segmentation, which is correct for the No.36 or 36M, but not for the No.5, which is segmented all the way to the bottom and does not have the flair. The top casting surrounding the striker is also different on the No.5 compared to the No.36: the No.36 has a smaller casting that does not extend past the striker pin.

So I think this is a No.36 or 36M, not a No.5. And as Ed has said, the No.5 had a 5 second fuse ('detonation within 5 seconds of the release of the lever' the spec reads), not a 4 second fuse on pulling the pin!

Mike

Four seconds can be an eternity, for close in fighting in the urban landscape (like at Ortona) allowing the grenade to "cook off" for two plus seconds is the ticket so it cannot be "returned to sender".