A brief timeline of the production and use of grenades during World War I


and some bits on either end

1913 – Kugelhandgranate

Developed in 1913 by germany, the Kugelhandgranate mod. 1913 was a spherical shaped and segmented design, intended to produce between 70 and 80 fragments. A…

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1914 – Beginning of the war

The French while lacking in production and use of hand grenades, were not lacking in the point of creativity. They used an assortment of different…

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1915 – F-1(fusante No. 1)

The F-1 grenade was first put into mass production by the French State in 1915. In May 1915 the first of the F1 grenades (fusante…

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1915 – Kugelhandgranate

As resources for Germany stretched thin later in the war, an easier to produce: Kugelhandgranate mod. 1915 was introduced and used from then onwards.

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1915 – Mills Bomb

The first truly safe (for the person throwing it) British hand grenade was the Mills bomb, invented by English William Mills in 1915. This was…

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1916 – Viven-Bessières grenade

Also known as the “VB grenade”, this was an infantry weapon in use with the French Army from 1916 onwards. This type of grenade was…

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1917 – MK IA1

Mk. IA1 was a variant of the MK. I  and was briefly produced during World War I mainly for the purpose of training soldiers how…

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1917- MK 1

During the war, America lacked a fragmentation grenade of their own production. So in 1917, they came up with the MK 1. This was a…

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1918 – MK 2

The Mk 2 grenade (initially known as the Mk II) is a fragmentation type hand grenade introduced by the US in 1918. It was the…

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1918 – MK 3

In March, 1918, The US released the first version of the MK3 hand grenade. This grenade is a cylindrical concussion(HE) grenade designed to deal damage…

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