FINNISH ARMY 1918 - 1945: HAND GRENADES AND RIFLE GRENADES PART 1 (original) (raw)

Foreword

This page is the first of new section on the website. As to be expected it is intended to shine light into a subject, which until now have been very poorly covered - hand grenades and rifle grenades used by Finnish military from 1918 to 1945. As such these pages have been created to provide information about military history and history of hand grenades as historical weapon, not intended to be used as technical manual. When I started gathering information for this page years ago, I was surprised to find how little has actually been published about hand grenades in general beyond military manuals and there was no real actual history written about them although it is rather obvious that development of many hand grenade designs loaned from earlier introduced grenade designs and in some cases countries even simply copied each other’s designs. While I am not arrogant enough even to try claiming that this webpage could fix the shortcoming or be anything resembling definitive works of hand grenades used in Finland, hopefully it will serve as starting point for those interested and spark their interest for further research.

General history

The first known incendiary hand grenades were introduced by Byzantine Roman Empire in 8th century and first hand grenades loaded with black powder seem to have appeared in China in 10th or 11th century. The classic basic form of cast ball-shaped iron hand grenade filled with black powder was apparently introduced in Europe in mid 15th century and de facto became the standard European hand design with wide-spread use for several centuries. One of the historical high points for early use of hand grenades was Battle of Vienna in year 1683 with about 800,000 grenades used. In 18th century saw even introduction of new type of infantry soldier who would use hand grenades as his primary weapon – grenadier. In early 19th century hand grenades were losing their previous significant role, with traditional role of grenadiers disappearing and by 1850’s hand grenades were rarely used anymore. Although hand grenades lost popularity at that point they still saw small scale use in US Civil War and since they were still useful in situations such as storming and defending fortifications, but no longer provided to soldiers, improvised hand grenades started to appear. It is quite likely that this appearance of improvised hand grenades happened also partly due to new explosives and more reliable fuses being available. During Russian – Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 improvised hand grenades were used in large numbers in siege of Port Arthur, which reinvigorated military interest and served as a starting point for many countries, who developed first modern hand grenades. Still when World War 1 started the countries that entered it were poorly equipped were poorly equipped for it. Typically, they either tended to consider hand grenade to be a rare weapon only needed for certain special circumstances or lacked a modern hand grenade altogether. Hence all major countries taking part in World War 1 found themselves rushed in developing and mass production of modern hand grenades, which became of standard weaponry issued to infantry soldiers and due that needed to be manufactured in massive numbers. Generally speaking the most successful World War 1 era hand grenade designs either still continued to serve in World War 2, got developed further into better versions or offered the starting point for further development of grenades, which served in it. While the development work has continued to this day, some of the World War 2 hand grenade designs still remain very much in use in various parts of the World.

The most notable differences in between old-fashioned hand grenades with cast iron ball body and black powder and modern hand grenades are fuse design, manufacturing materials and methods of manufacture. The fuse normally used with classic old-fashioned hand grenades was a simple cord design, which was placed in the hole in the cast steel body and set on fire before throwing the grenade. Although numerous impact-activated fuse designs have been used during their development history, they do not seem to have been that successful, hence simple yet effective time delay fuse ultimately became the standard.

It seems that from the start hand grenades were mainly intended to be used in sieges and either defending or storming fortifications – very much the same basic role that they are commonly still commonly used, although the type and scale of “fortifications” have since changed considerably. What was once intended to be thrown on and off from city walls, got modernized and placed into mass-production to deal with trench warfare and is now being often used to fight in buildings. With this change in typical use and rifle grenade launchers partly replacing hand grenade in its traditional role, throwing distance does not no longer seem as important as it once was. Yet hand grenades still remain in inventory of all forces around the globe.

The system in which the grenades are categorized in here is based on system used by Finnish military during the particular time period, which divides the grenades by shape into three categories:

• Stick hand grenade (varsikäsikranaatti)
• Egg hand grenade (munakäsikranaatti)
• Ball hand grenade (pallokäsikranaatti) (*)

And by function divides them into five categories:

• Blast-effect hand grenade (miinakäsikranaatti)
• Fragmentation hand grenade (sirpalekäsikranaatti)
• Incendiary hand grenades (palokäsikranaatti / sytytyskäsikranaatti)
• Smoke hand grenade (savukäsikranaatti)
• Practice hand grenade (harjoituskäsikranaatti)

(*) Listed as its own category in manuals of 1920’s, but later included into category of egg hand grenades.

One must note some matter concerning the data and how reliable it is. Some of the info listed here, namely throwing distance and effective range are debatable. Average throwing distance would have varied depending physical shape and training level of soldier plus what kind of gear he was wearing at the time, hence the throwing distance values provided here are to best taken as rough indicators instead of exact info. One notable characteristic concerning throwing distance is that light weight grenades tend to be notably easier to throw further than those that are heavy - Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit manual notes that the typical maximum throwing distance was about 30 meters, but reaching such range was usually only possible with hand grenades, whose total weight did not exceed 0.7 kilograms. Exactly how effective each hand grenade design actually was is probably even larger extent subject to debate – even at best back in the day the level of research was apparently limited to gathering data from controlled explosion of grenade, recording what sort of damage it did around it and collecting the grenade fragments to see what kind of fragments it produced. Hence measuring the radius for which grenade's fragmentation was effective to come up with distance with-in which the grenade could be expected to produce casualties was somewhat subjective and not necessarily measured in similar manner. Hence the data provided by various sources is likely to vary. One thing to take into consideration is that fragmentation of defensive hand grenades of the period with cast iron or steel grenade bodies tended to be notably uneven even at best with small fragments not necessarily being lethal even from meters away, while individual large fragments could be in size of half a grenade body and with their mass could be deadly even up to 200 meters. Also, the exterior pattern in cast iron or steel grenade body generally does not seem to have much effected into fragmentation pattern or how effective it was. Interior segmentation might have been a different thing, but apparently it was not yet common with the grenade designs delved in detail on this page. Another factor in the matter is that there was a wide spectrum of explosives used in hand grenades with in some cases single hand grenade design being loaded with variety of explosives depending what was available for the purpose at the time. And how powerful a explosive was used effected how powerful the grenade’s blast effect was or what sort of fragments it produced.

HAND GRENADES OF FINNISH CIVIL WAR

When it comes to their origin hand grenades used in Finnish Civil War can be roughly divided into three four categories:

1. Russian hand grenades
2. German hand grenades
3. Hand grenades provided to Russia by its allies.
4. More or less improvised hand grenades built by “bomb factories” in Finland.

Russian hand grenades were supplied to Finnish Red Guards, saw use with Russian troops taking part in Civil War and captured grenades also got used by Finnish White Army. German hand grenades were supplied to Finnish White Army in large numbers and also obviously saw use with German troops taking part in the war. During World War 1 Britainand France delivered their hand grenades to Imperial Russia and it is known that unknown number of these grenades were captured and undoubtably put to use by Finnish White Army and Red Guards.

PICTURE: Pupils of Vöri Warfare School (Vörin sotakoulu) with German stick hand grenades. Most grenades appear to be m/1917, but at least one man in middle of the back row have, what is probably m/1916. Vöri Warfare School was established for training non-commissioned officers for Finnish White Army. All pupils seem to be wearing civilian clothing with stripes jacket's left cuff indicating squad leader status. Most rifles appear to be Japanese rifles with at least one rifle m/1891 among them. Leader on the left has Mauser M/1896 pistol and dragoon shashka m/1881. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (178 KB).

Besides foreign produced hand grenades, also some Finnish production capacity existed – although only in quite a limited scale. Starting of World War 1 resulted number of Finnish metal works receiving orders of military equipment for Russian military. During World War 1 iron works of Juantehtaat factory apparently manufactured copy of German kugelhandgranate ball hand grenade for Russian military and G.W. Sohlberg (GWS) factory produced hand grenade components (almost certainly grenade bodies for stick hand grenades m/1914 and/or m/1915) for the same client. In addition, there were less than official Finnish “bomb factories” of more clandestine and temporary nature, which built more or less improvised hand grenades for Finnish White Army, although it seems likely that the term got used also about locations in which previously factory manufactured hand grenades were prepared for use. Hence it is wise to approach the matter with some caution unless exact nature of “bomb factory” is more precisely known.

PICTURE: Combatants of Finnish Red Guards. The man in the middle has one Russian stick hand grenade m/1914 in his left hand and another placed horizontally under shoulder straps of his ammunition bandolier. Rifles are Winchester M/1895. Photo source Satakunta Museum (Satakunnan museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (79 KB).

With such a wide variety of hand grenades seeing use, the obvious question that raises is which of the grenades were most commonly used. The short answer would be Russian stick hand grenades m/1914 and m/1915 with Finnish Red Guards, while Finnish White Army commonly used German stick hand grenades m/1916 and m/1917 plus possibly German egg hand grenades m/1917. Russian stick hand grenades m/1914 and m/1915 are less than common in photographs taken during Finnish Civil War, but the later inventory lists indicate that they were available in massive numbers. At the same time German stick hand grenades m/1916 and m/1917 are very common in photos of Finnish White Army soldiers and appear in post-war inventory lists in decent numbers. German eierhandgranate m/1917 egg hand grenades appear in good numbers in post-war inventory lists, but do not appear in period photos – which is likely simply explained by the small egg hand grenade being carried in jacket and trouser pockets and therefore not visible.

RUSSIAN HAND GRENADES

During siege of Port Arthur in Russian – Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 Russian Army experienced first hand, that it needed industrially manufactured modern hand grenade. The development process produced number of hand grenade designs, from which stick hand grenade m/1912 proved to be the most successful and most widely used by Russian Army during early phases of World War 1. As the war progressed it was gradually replaced in production by hand grenades m/1914 and m/1915. There were also numerous other hand grenade designs produced in Russia during World War 1, but this page concentrates on those that were most common and played most significant role.

As happened to all major powers that entered World War 1 also Imperial Russia soon learned that its existing stockpile and manufacturing capacity of hand grenades were inadequate to keep up with the massive demand. By January of 1915 some 400,000 hand grenades had been delivered to Russian military and by May of 1915 the number climbed to 500,000. Even with production capacity climbing rapidly during the war industry of Russian Empire was unable to provide its military nowhere as many hand grenades as there would have been need for. During time period of November 1915 – September of 1916 some 34.5 million hand grenades were delivered to Russian military – from those about 15.5 million were manufactured in Russia and some 19 million supplied by its allies. June of 1915 the demand as estimated as 1.8 million grenades per month, but only two months later the estimate was updated as 3.5 million per month.

Stick hand grenade m/1912

(Ruchnaya Granata 12, RG-12)

(Varsikäsikranaatti m/1912)

PICTURE: Russian RG-12 hand grenade. This grenade is missing retaining safety ring, which should be around wooden handle. (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (90 KB).

This Russian stick hand grenade referred as RG-12 in Russian nomenclature is also in English-language sources commonly referred as “Lantern-head type” grenade due to its cube-shaped square explosive warhead. The warhead containing explosive charge and internal pre-segmented fragmentation jacket is made from sheet metal and is attached to wooden handle. The wooden handle has a groove in which a spring-loaded firing level is located. The grenade has two safeties – one that blocks striker and another that is retaining (safety) ring that goes around handle locking firing lever and need to be removed when grenade is being thrown. When released the firing lever allows striker to hit primer, which will ignite tubular fuse made from aluminium, which provides 4 – 5 second delay before the grenade explodes. The fuse used in this grenade is tubular piece resembling capital letter "J" and was normally transported separate from the grenade and only installed into it when the grenade was readied for use. As part of process of readying the grenade for use also rope securing the safety ring in place needed to be removed. While the tubular fuse, which contains vein of gunpowder and detonator, looks quite similar to that used in stick hand grenade m/1914, it is slightly larger and the two fuses are not interchangeable.

PICTURE: Russian RG-12 stick hand grenade. (Structural drawing from Finnish Army manual Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit published in year 1926. Public domain). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (100 KB).

The grenade had delay fuse and carry hook on side of the warhead. It had total weight of about 500 grams and its warhead was loaded with ammonal (mix of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder), explosive which was sensitive to humidity. The grenade was developed by Vladimir Iosifovich Rdultovsky (1876 – 1939), who later developed also Russian stick hand grenade m/1914. Rdultovsky, Captain of Russian Army at the time, developed the grenade in year 1909 and it was officially approved in year 1910, but not placed in production until year 1912. In typical pre-World War 1 manner the early on Russian military seem to have envisioned hand grenades to be weapons, which only certain kind of units could need – and hence issued them to fortifications.

While maybe the best hand grenade when introduced and possibly so even when World War 1 started, its designs had several problems. Due to its design use of this grenade was quite complicated and slow. It seems to have had major issues with ammonal due to being hygroscopic, hence sensitive to humidity and vein of gunpower used as delay system in fuse did not like moisture either. Hence the grenades were stored greased in air-tight zinc boxes and the fuses had their holes sealed with pieces of cork and layer of lacquer. Manuals suggest that rusting was another major problem and it was recommended to check two or three times that the grenade had no rust and its mechanics worked properly a before readying it for use. Another explosive used in manufacturing of this grenade was Melinite (picric acid), which had its own long-term safety concerns if ammunition loaded with it had not been properly sealed from explosive by layer of tin or lacquer. The grenade is also being noted in Austrian manual World War 1 era manual as being dangerous up to distance of 200 meters, which if correct is really substantial range compared to other fragmentation hand grenades.

PICTURE: Another sample of Russian RG-12 stick hand grenade. Also this is missing retaining safety ring, but it also shows the grenade from another angle, showing additional detail such as circular metal tab, which is another safety for striker mechanism. Photo source Turun museokeskus, acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (30 KB).

Stick hand grenade m/1912 had not been designed with ease of mass-production in mind and its issues with moisture probably got much worse once instead of fortification artillery and sappers expected to perform stationary warfare it got issued in large numbers to infantry. Hence it got gradually replaced in production by m/1914 and m/1915 stick hand grenades, but still got manufactured in Okhta until August of 1915 and in Samara even until year 1916.

Russian stick hand grenade m/1912 apparently had rather short career in Finnish use. They were common enough in year 1918, that they presumably saw use in some extent in Civil War, but probably no longer any real use after it. As noted, the design had tended to have short service life once the hermetically sealed storage box had been opened. For example, according January 1924 inventory list of Finnish Army Weapons and Ammunition Depot 3 (Ase ja ampumatarvikevarikko 3) in Kuopio of 1.375 grenades of this model stored there, about 76% were listed as “unfit for use”. Still, Finnish Army continued to issue live Russian stick hand grenades m/1912 for training use at least until year 1930. These grenades also saw some training use with Finnish Civil Guard in 1920’s, with at least one batch of 1,000 grenades being transferred to them in June of 1920.

Stick hand grenade m/1914

(Ruchnaya Granata 14, RG-14)

(Varsikäsikranaatti m/1914)

(Varsik�sikranaatti m/14 miinavaikuttinen

PICTURE: Russian RG-12 hand grenade. (Photo taken in small Russian museum in Carelian Isthmus). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (82 KB).

(*) Difference explained by various explosives being used.

This defensive stick hand grenade was also brain-child of Vladimir I. Rdultovsky, who had developed it had just before World War 1. It is bottle-shaped stick grenade, which has all metal grenade body soldered together from sheet metal components. Inside the grenade is pre-patterned chessboard-like fragmentation jacket. The design of this grenade seems to have been somewhat easier to manufacture than his earlier stick hand grenade m/1912. This grenade has tubular fuse design, which is functionality-wise similar to that used in m/1912, but smaller in size. The tubular fuse design is built with aluminium tubing, similar in function to that of grenade m/1912 and therefore quite complicated to use. The grenade was considered to be dangerous up to distance of 50 meters.

Three explosive options were used in manufacturing of this grenade – ammonal, melinite and Favier composition. These were no exactly trouble-free. Ammonal was hygroscopic, which could make it unreliable if exposed to humidity, while melinite (picric acid) when in touch with metal can produce salt crystals that are easily detonated by impact. Favier composition was ammonium nitrate based less powerful and also less problematic explosive. Later on the Soviets further developed this grenade design as stick hand grenade m/1914-30, which was loaded with TNT. Although replaced in production by m/1914-30 and RDG-33, stick hand grenade m/1914 remained in Soviet use at least until 1930’s and m/1914-30 saw use with Red Army through World War 2.

PICTURE: Drawing of Russian RG-14 stick hand grenade. (Structural drawing from Finnish Army manual Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit published in year 1926. Public domain). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (87 KB).

Russian Army adopted year 1917 chemical warfare version of this hand grenade – model 1917 chemical hand grenade. Otherwise similar to standard stick hand grenade, except fuse being outside the grenade body, m/1914 it was equipped with triangular plaque with skull and bones insignia indicating its status and filled with poison gas (chloropicrin also known as PS or U.S.H). It is not known how long the poison gas hand grenade remained in Soviet use, but there was a manual made for it in year 1927. The grenade entered in production in year 1917 and what is known maybe about 10,000 were produced. In addition to standard fragmentation grenade and chemical warfare grenade of the grenade Russian inventory included also incendiary version loaded with thermite and wooden throwing practice version.

During Finnish Civil War in year 1918 Finnish Army captured Russian stick hand grenades in large numbers, the total number of captured m/1914 seems to have been in tens of thousands. As with other captured grenades, deterioration of their condition was a problem, but apparently stick hand grenade m/1914 proved the best lasting of the Russian hand grenades captured in 1918, although grenades loaded with ammonal no longer appear in Finnish inventory in 1930’s. This grenade was issued for training use to Finnish Army units, whom for example year 1930 had almost 20,700 grenades total in their inventories even after they had spent about 2,100 grenades for training that year. Over two thirds of the grenades in their inventory that year were with Favier composition and the remaining third with Melinite. In addition of readily assembled Russian stick hand grenades Finnish military at the time also had very large inventory of its components, which in early years could have been used to assemble more of these grenades. May of 1933 Finnish gun depots still had about 330,000 grenade bodies for this hand grenade, but at that time much of them already in rather poor shape due to rust damage and fuses reserved for them had already been destroyed due to deteriorating so much that they were no longer reliable. Still this hand grenade remained in training use with Finnish Army until year 1937. List of materials that Finnish Army was intending to sell drawn up just before Winter War still lists 10,000 Russian stick hand grenades, which were presumably of this grenade model and apparently they had not yet been sold before Winter War started in November of 1939. It is not known if any of the grenades still got issued by Finnish military for Winter War, it seems unlikely, but they still appear in Finnish Army infantry ammunition (Jalkaväen Ampumatarvikkeet II) manual published in year 1941 as varsikäsikranaatti m/14 miinavaikutteinen (stick hand grenade m/14 blast effect). Still including this old grenade into ammunition manuals was not purely theoretical either, since there was small number these grenades still stored in Finnish Army depots at that time.

Stick hand grenade m/1915

(Ruchnaya Granata 15, RG-15)

(Varsikäsikranaatti m/1915)

PICTURE: Russian RG-15 stick hand grenade. (Structural drawing from Finnish Army manual Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit published in year 1926. Public domain.). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (74 KB).

This defensive stick hand grenade was developed by Colonel Vladimir Filippovich Stender (1871 – 1938) of Russian Army. Stender had earlier developed larger stick hand grenade with hexagonal warhead and two versions (large and small) had been accepted in production in year 1914, but it did not see large-scale production. Year 1915 Stender got this new fragmentation stick hand grenade design of his approved and it entered mass-production in year 1916. Like Rdultovsky’s m/1914 it is bottle-shaped stick grenade, which has all metal grenade body and has internal chessboard pattern pre-pattered fragmentation sleeve, but also has much simpler friction-ignited delay fuse. In addition bottom cap of the grenade has a metal wire frame with carry hook attached to it. When readied for use metal wire frame and bottom cap were removed and friction activated delay fuse was placed inside a hollow metal handle, then closed with a metal cap. The fuse was contained into waxed cardboard tube and is being activated by pulling from a small stick tied in end of wire.

PICTURE: Soldier of Finnish White Army with Russian stick hand grenade m/1915 hanging from his belt. Finnish Civil War era (year 1918) photograph. The soldier appears to have served in Karjalan Ryhmä (Carelian Group) of Finnish White Army. The rifle is Japanese M/05 (Type 38) infantry rifle. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (115 KB).

Year 1918 Finnish White Army captured both Russian m/1915 stick hand grenades and their components in very large numbers. Just Viipuri Weapons Depot (Viipurin Asevarikko) alone had over 40,000 in its inventory circa 1919 - 1920, but the numbers started dropping very rapidly only few years later, which may suggest that the grenade or more likely its fuse design did not age well. Report of Weapons Depot 4 (Asevarikko 4) from October of 1923 indicates that inspection of 17,300 grenades that were in its inventory at the time revealed that friction fuses used in the grenades were falling apart instead of functioning and that the grenades suffered from major rust problem. Hence the grenade model was apparently on its way out already by mid-1920’s. Year 1926 inventory lists seem to place most of remaining hand grenades of this model in category of “scrap”, while the total number of fuses remaining in inventory looks suspiciously small and by year 1930 the hand grenade model appears to have vanished from Finnish inventory.

GERMAN HAND GRENADES

There was also a very large variety of hand grenade designs in German inventory during World War 1, with both hand grenades with impact-activated fuses and time delay fuses being used and designs with impact ignited fuses falling out of favour – development shared by many countries – admitted diskushandgranate remained in production surprisingly long. Germany had apparently been one of the countries to take note about use of hand grenades in Russian – Japanese War and due to this introduced its own industrially produced hand grenade just before World War 1. That hand grenade was kugelhandgranate m/1913 – a ball-shaped fragmentation hand grenade made from cast iron with segmented exterior pattern. Later during the war kugelhandgranate ball hand grenade was replaced with eierhandgranate egg hand grenade. Like many countries due to shortage of factory-produced hand grenades early on German infantry used also improvised “hair-brush grenades”, which inspired development of stick hand grenade (stielhandgranate). In total Germany apparently produced about 300 million hand grenades during World War 1.

Ball hand grenades m/1913 and m/1915

(Kugelhandgranate)

(Pallokäsikranaatti m/1913 & m/1915)

PICTURE: German ball hand grenade m/1915 equipped with friction igniter m/1915. This was the version of kugelhandgranate, which was mass-produced in largest numbers. Notice external segmented pattern of grenade body and that the wire loop of the igniter is fairly large - large enough to be pulled with a finger. Friction igniter m/1915 was made from zinc alloy with two production versions existing - one with 5 second delay and another with 7 second delay. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (68 KB).

(*) Early on these grenades were filled with mix of black powder, barium nitrate and potassium perchlorate. Starting year 1916 also other explosives less sensitive to moisture were used for the purpose.

When World War 1 started in July of 1914 Germany had the advantage of having existing hand grenade, which was already available in decent numbers, but the advantage may have not been quite as significant as some may think, since its design was far from ideal. Design of kugelhandgranate appears to be again basically a refined version of the old “cannon ball filled with black powder and fuse that be lighted with a cigar” concept, with more powerful explosive and friction activated delay igniter. It had originally been intended to be issued only for sappers, not in massive scale to infantry and hence not really designed for mass-production in mind. In addition the grenade design was poorly suited for offensive use. Due to its shape, large size and considerable weight kugelhandgranate was difficult to grip and throw, which reduced throwing distance possible to most soldiers to mere 15 meters, which was less than the effective range of fragments created by its explosion. At the same time even carrying it was difficult and carrying device experimented with it proved too complicated for mass-production. To make things worse the grenade was known to produce large fragments, which were lethal even from range of 100 – 150 meters. The original version of this grenade was kugelhandgranate m/13, which was replaced in production by kugelhandgranate m/1915, which was easier to mass-produce casting-process-wise. Numerous variations of m/1913 and m/1915 Kugelhandgranate were produced and production variations with visible differences in exterior pattern and also some equipped with wooden handle, which turned into in to stick hand grenade. German Army had also a practice version of the grenade, which was painted in red. Starting year 1916 copies of kugelhandgranate were manufactured in Russia as m/1916, Russian version can be identified from having its own specific segmented exterior pattern.

PICTURE: German ball hand grenade m/1913 Aa equipped with friction igniter m/1913. Notice external segmented pattern design of grenade body and friction igniter design with its small wire loop. Friction igniter m/1913 was made from bronze. Copyrights Seanymill, acquired from Wikipedia Commons and usew with CC BY-SA 4.0 license . CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (69 KB).

Kugelhandgranate produced in Germany can be divided to three main versions:

• Kugelhandgranate model 1913 Aa (Altere Art - Old Model). Can be most easily identified by having large segments in its exterior pattern. Early production version.
• Kugelhandgranate model 1913 Na (Neues Art - New Model). Similar pattern as in Aa-version, but with smaller segments. Apparently only limited production.
• Kugelhandgranate model 1915. Mass-produced simplified version.

There were numerous fuses issued for kugelhandgranate and they were compatible with later eierhandgranate m/1917 egg hand grenade as well. Due to type of explosive used the fuse did not need to have a detonator, since only a spark was needed to lit up black powder mix mostly used in these grenades. The fuses for these grenades were all friction igniters and included:

• Friction igniter m/1913: Made from bronze, two versions existed – one with 7 second delay and another one with 5 second delay (marked with red paint).
• Friction igniter m/1915: Made from zinc alloy, again two versions exist – one with 7 second delay and another one with 5 second delay.
• Friction igniter m/1917: Made from steel with safety cap and seems to have been more commonly used with eierhandgranate. Has 5 second delay.
• Zinc alloy percussion igniter m/16: Made from zinc alloy, had 5 second delay and probably not that commonly issued.

Friction igniter m/1913 was originally intended to be activated by pulling loop of its twisted metal wire with hook attached to leather wrist lanyard, which was issued for grenadiers. Hence the loop in end of its twisted metal wire is too small for finger tip. Friction igniter m/15 has larger loop in end of twisted metal wire, which can be pulled with finger tip, although due to sparks produced by igniter it was smart to use suitable tool, such piece of wood with hook in it or tip of rifle’s cleaning rod, for the purpose. For the transport and storage the grenades were equipped with transport plugs, which were replaced with actual fuses only when the grenades were readied for use.

There were maybe about 2,000 kugelhandgranate type ball hand grenades in Finnish inventory circa 1920, but about three quarters of them were grenades manufactured by iron works of Juantehtaat factory in Juankoski for Russian Army. Year 1918 those grenades made by _Juantehtaat_ended up to inventory of nearby Kuopio Weapons Depot (Kuopion Asevarikko) along 48 sets of casting models for making the grenade bodies. There is no evidence that the casting models would have seen any use after that. The whole grenade type seems to have disappeared from Finnish inventory lists already in 1920’s, not really ever being used by Finnish military in manner of any significance.

Egg hand grenade m/1917

(Eierhandgranate m/1917 )

(Munakäsikranaatti m/1917)

PICTURE: German egg hand grenade m/1917 equipped with friction igniter m/1915. This small egg hand grenade is only slightly larger than a golf ball. Notice raised center band going around the grenade, early production lacked that. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (67 KB).

(*) Depending version raised belt adds about 5 mm in diameter.

As noted German kugelhandgranate type ball hand grenades proved too large and heavy, which was probably what inspired development of this small defensive egg hand grenade, which apparently proved quite successful. There were two production versions of the grenade. Early production version introduced early 1917 had smooth exterior, which could be slippery, while late production variant has raised ring going around the grenade for better grip. After World War 1 the grenade was produced by some countries, which included Poland and Yugoslavia.

The explosive usually used in manufacturing of this hand grenade was mix of black powder, baryte nitrate or potassium nitrate and aluminium powder. The idea behind the mix appears to have been to accelerate burning rate of black powder and create cheap and easy to produce explosive, which did not require detonator. The fuses used with this grenade were the same as with earlier kugelhandgranate ball hand grenades, but friction igniter M/1917 was apparently the de facto standard fuse model used it and was also the only fuse design included in Finnish hand grenade manuals with this grenade.

PICTURE: Structural drawing showing German egg hand grenade m/1917 equipped with friction igniter m/1917. This was the combination, which was still included to Finnish manuals during World War 2, even if by that point the friction igniters were long gone. (Structural drawing from Finnish Army manual Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit published in year 1926. Public domain). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (87 KB).

These German egg hand grenades m/1917 seem to have ended up to Finland with Finnish Civil War in year 1918. They do not appear in period photos, but considering they size they were likely to be carried in clothing pockets and hence were unlikely to be visible anyway. They do appear in inventory lists of Finnish Army depoes, but only in quite small numbers - in total about 1,000 grenades or so. Yet Finnish Army lists of old military equipment intended to be sold off just before Winter War included 9,000 hand grenades of this model, which makes it uncertain if they all originate from year 1918 or more of these grenades had been acquired sometime after it. They apparently saw some training use with Finnish Army and Civil Guard very early, with 500 grenades being transferred to Civil Guard for the purpose in February 1920, but there are no documents suggesting their training use after early 1920’s. There were 9,000 total of these hand grenades listed among materials intended to be sold and exported right before Winter War , but apparently it failed to happen in time and once war started they got stuck in Finnish inventory. Hence in January of 1941 there were still 9.259 included to inventory list of Weapons Depot 1 (Asevarikko 1 in Helsinki) - with markings indicating 2nd rate condition and apparently lacking fuses. Another supposedly Armed Forces wide inventory list from 1st of April 1941 lists only 5,511 remaining at that time. Already the pre Winter War list of materials intended for sale and export had noted that there were no fuses for the grenades, so the original fuses must have been declared obsolete already earlier. Yet this grenade model was still included to Finnish infantry ammunition manual (Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II) in January of 1942 with its original m/1917 fuse as “fragmentation egg hand grenade m/15 with Bz. 17 - 12/17 fuse” (munakäsikranaatti 15 sirpalevaikutus sytyttimellä Bz 17 - 12/17).

Stick hand grenades m/1916 and m/1917

(Stielhandgranate)

PICTURE: German stick hand grenade m/1917. Notice star shaped end cap, carry hook and partially visible VOR GEBRAUCH SPRENGKAPSEL EINSETZEN text. (Photo provided by friendly collector). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (47 KB).

(*) Stielhandgranate m/1915: 200 grams of perdite, m/1916: either 200 grams of Perdite or 125 grams of TNT and m/1917: 125 grams of TNT.

As mentioned, the inspiration for German stick hand grenade seems to have been “hair brush grenades” - field expedient hand grenades built from attaching explosives (sometimes placed inside a metal container) to wooden stick. The development process proved by very long with fuse system in particular going through many development versions. In total there were maybe 20 variations of German stick hand grenade manufactured during World War 1. The basic design that became the standard was head (cylindrical metal container made from thin sheet metal) filled with explosives in end of a wooden handle (stick) and fuse placed in the wooden handle. While versions with percussion-activated fuses were also produced, they proved unsuccessful and the basic fuse design that ultimately prevailed was friction activated delay fuse. The most common variations of World War 1 era German stick hand grenade are:

• Stielhandgranate m/1915: Large head made from several components and exposed twined metal wire for activating the fuse in end of the stick. Even if its end was taped on the stick, the exposed metal wire proved to be a serious security risk, since it could accidentally get entangled to just about anything and trigger the grenade. At the same time the opening for the metal wire could allow moisture to seep in and compromise the fuse.
• Stielhandgranate m/1916: Large head crimped from both ends. Porcelain ring/ball in end of the wire for activating the fuse. Early on the porcelain ring/ball was apparently simply placed partially inside the end of the stick, but during production metal end cap was introduced to protect it. The metal end cap is star-shaped is rotated in end of the stick.
• Stielhandgranate m/1917: Stamped smaller head crimped from one end only with porcelain ring/ball protected by metal lid in end of the stick.

PICTURE: German stick hand grenade m/1916. Notice size of grenade head compared to that of m/1917. Behind the grenade is No. 5 Mk I MIlls hand grenade. Photo crop. Original photo photographed by Christoph Braun, acquired from Wikipedia, declared by photographer as public domain. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (53 KB).

Stielhandgranate m/1915 and m/1916 were loaded with 200 grams of Perdite (*), which proved highly sensitive to moisture. At least partly due to this (additional weight and bulk may have been a factor as well) late production stielgranate m/1916 and all stielhandgranate m/1917 were loaded with 125 grams of TNT. Stielhandgranate m/1916 loaded with TNT apparently had normally wooden spacer placed inside the grenade’s head to take out vacant place left behind reduced explosive charge.

(*) Perdite was German World War 1 era wartime substitute explosive - a mix of ammonium perchrorate, potassium perchrolorate and dinitrotoluene soaked in sawdust.

The cylindrical metal head of the grenade was stamped from thin sheet of iron and had tubular detonator placed in middle of it. The grenade’s head is closed with end that has folded rim and attachment piece with thread for the handle (stick). Placed in between inside walls of the sheet metal head and explosive is sheet of oiled paper or cardboard. Grenades had friction activated delay fuses installed inside during production, but they were stored and transported without detonators (detonator number 8), with detonators only being installed to grenades when they were readied for use. Hence the grenades usually had text Vor Gebrauch Sprengkapsel einsetzen (Before use insert detonator) marked in them. The German term for this sort of fuse was brennzünder (Bz). There were two models of fuses used in the three main models of stielhandgranate listed above:

• Brennzünder 15 (Bz. 15) fuse
• Brennzünder 16 (Bz. 16) fuse

The main difference between the two fuses include that Bz. 15 used fuse cord inside a cardboard tube for providing delay, while Bz. 16 had metal tube with slow burning gunpowder for the same purpose and as a whole Bz. 16 had improved protection against moisture. As mentioned Bz. 15 had twined metal wire from which to pull, while Bz. 16 had a pull lanyard with porcelain ball/ring. According Finnish manuals grenades equipped with Bz. 16 fuse were marked with green or red stripe of paint going around the stick.

PICTURE: German stick hand grenade m/1917 lacking its end cap. Notice markings. (Photograph copyrights Jaeger Platoon Website). (Photographed in Museum of Reserve Officer School / Reserviupseerikoulun museo in Hamina). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (67 KB).

The flat carry hook on side of grenade’s head proved problematic due to being able to turn into large fragments, which were lethal far beyond the other fragments produced by the grenade. Hence late production grenades had been manufactured with carry hook made from steel wire. Stielhandgranate was one of the most recognizable parts of German equipment kit already during World War 1 and was manufactured in truly massive numbers during the war. Stielhandgranate m/1917, the final version World War 1 era version of its lineage, in particular proved highly successful. Hence it remained in use of Reichswehr of Weimar Germany apparently until year 1927 and saw use also with number of other European countries after the war, with copies and further developments based on it being introduced in numerous countries in 1920’s and 1930’s. Reichswehr introduced to its use improved version known as Stielhandgranate 24, which has new fuse system (Bz. 24) and became one of the two standard German hand grenade designs for World War 2. Bundling grenade heads from multiple grenades around one grenade was common technique for creating geballte ladung, sort of a satchel charge used as demolition charge and towards end of World War 1 also as antitank-weapon or several grenades tied along a wooden plank could be used as a demolition charge to clear route through barbwire obstacle.

PICTURE: White Army soldiers from Pohjanmaa / Botnia region with German stick hand grenades photographed during Civil War. Rifles appear to be Mosin-Nagants - the two on the left probably dragoon rifles M/91 and two on the right longer infantry rifles M/91. The rifle one on the right is equipped with adapter for German ersatz bayonet, while soldier on the left has m/1891 socket bayonet in German tin scabbard. Hats appear to be official White Army winter hat. While all four men have similar overcoats, at the time there was yet no standard overcoat or greatcoat design. Photographer John Englund. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto). acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (159 KB).

During Finnish Civil War Germany supplied Finnish Army with stielhandgranate m/1916 and m/1917, which often appear in period photos of White Army soldiers. There was a good number of these grenades in Finnish inventory right after the Civil War, but their numbers started declining in post-war era. September of 1919 Finnish Army transferred 25,000 German stick hand grenades to Civil Guards and another 1,000 in November of 1920. What is known suggests that these grenades saw use with Finnish Civil Guard along smaller number of Russian stick hand grenades at least until late 1920’s. With Finnish Army their large-scale training use seem to have probably ended by mid 1920’s, with captured Russian stick grenades being far more commonly used for that purpose after that. Considering that they disappear from Finnish military manuals by World War 2 and are rarely listed in inventories even in early 1930’s anymore, at least at the moment it seems bit of mystery what happened to them. According Armed Forces wide inventory list dated 1st there were still 1,165 German stick hand grenades "m/15" in inventory at that time, but there is nothing suggesting that they would have still been issued for World War 2. Finland was one of the countries, which later introduced its own stick hand grenade design, which was heavily based on German World War 1 era stick hand grenades - stick hand grenade m/32(varsikäsikranaatti m/32).

Hand Grenades from Other Countries

FRENCH HAND GRENADES

In beginning of World War 1 France had no modern hand grenade design in its inventory. Hence the hand grenades that they had available early in the war were either improvised or misleadingly old fashioned - such as _pétard raquette_and ball hand grenade mle 1882, whose Mle 1914 variant hides behind age-old first impression integral segmentation of grenade body and simple but functional friction fuse. France was the first to intentionally divide its hand grenades into two now commonly used categories - offensive (blast effect) and defensive (fragmentation effect). There was a large variety of French hand grenades developed, but already year 1915 all that development work produced two highly capable egg hand grenade designs - OF for offensive use and F1 for defensive use. OF is blast effect hand grenade with grenade body made from thin tin plate and filled with high explosives, while F1 is fragmentation hand grenade with heavy corrugated cast iron body. While the French had come up with two good egg hand grenade designs quite swiftly, developing a good fuse for them took more time. Hence early on the two egg hand grenade designs got issued with variety of fuses all the way to 1930’s. Although Mle 1916 B fuse design seem to de facto become standard fuse design for these hand grenades already by mid 1920’s. During World War 1 and Russian Civil War France delivered F1 grenades as military aid to Russia in such a large numbers, that the Soviets later ended up developing their own fuse design for it and even started producing copy of F1 grenade. Being that common in Russian use, there was also quite a large number (at least 14,800 pcs) of these grenades in Finnish inventory in year 1919, but they do not seem to have seen any real use with Finnish Army – the inventory lists suggest that there either were no fuses for them, or the fuses were in such a shape that they were written off by year 1920. Only later, during and after Winter WarFrench F1 and OF hand grenades would make their great entrance to Finnish military inventory in significant numbers.

PICTURE: French fragmentation hand grenade F1 with percusion ignition fuse mle 1916. France supplied Imperial Russia with this combination during World War 1 and year 1918 seem to have ended up also to Finnish inventory in relatively large numbers. Regardless the combination does not seem to have seen any real use with Finnish Army. (Käsigranaatit military manual from year 1925, page 49. Public domain.)CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (78 KB).

BRITISH HAND GRENADES

When World War 1 started British Army already had an official hand grenade design - grenade hand number 1 introduced already in year 1908. But this defensive stick hand grenade proved soon very poorly suited for wartime needs. For one thing it was equipped with impact ignited fuse, which made throwing the grenade from closed space such as trench or room dangerous to user, since the grenade was quite long and once the safety pin had been removed any accidental impact to fuse located in tip of the grenade could cause detonation. British industry come up with highly successful fragmentation egg hand grenade design of its own quite early - No 5 Mark I grenade, better known as Mills bomb.

But even with Great Britain being the most industrialized country at the time the production capacity needed to produce Mills bomb in massive quantities needed in trench warfare was not there, hence number of other British hand grenade designs also saw mass-production during World War 1. From those other mass-produced British grenades most interesting are No. 15 Ball Grenade and No. 16 Oval Grenade, since both of them ultimately found their way in large numbers into Finnish military inventory.

English Ball Hand Grenade

(No. 15 ball grenade)

(“Cricket Ball Grenade”)

(Englantilainen pallokäsikranaatti)

(Englantilainen käsikranaatti malli Lemon)

PICTURE: British Number 15 ball hand grenade. The fuse seen here with it is a reproduction. Notice circular disc-shaped removable section of grenade body, through which the fuse is going and black strip of cloth. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (74 KB).

(*) With explosives, weight of empty grenade body is about 670 grams.

(**) Early production grenades possibly loaded with gun powder.

No. 15 Ball Grenade has simple ball-shape smooth cast iron body, which combined with size of the grenade body (about 77 mm / 3 inches in diameter) makes it challenging to throw. Unlike claimed by some sources, the grenade body does not appear to have internal segmentation, which would guide fragmentation. Fuse is relatively simple design in copper tube with Brock matchhead igniter and detonator. The standard fuse produced for hand grenades provided 4 – 5 second delay, while version of fuse manufactured for grenades intended to be thrown with catapults (such as West spring gun and Leach trench catapult) had 9 second delay. Once lighted the fuse will burn through and set off detonator, which blows up grenade’s explosive charge. The fuse is secured to separate disc-shaped section of grenade body with copper wire. The British originally created this grenade design specifically for Middle Eastern theatre of World War and Dardanelles Campaign early in the war and being easy to mass-produce it was produced in really large numbers. It was developed and introduced to production in year 1915, soon reaching impressive production numbers - for example in August 1915 some 200,000 being produced per week in mid-November as much as 500,000 per week. The explosive charge used in the grenade was 5.5 ounces / 155 grams of ammonal.

PICTURE: Drawings showing structural design of British Number 15 ball hand grenade. (Käsigranaatit military manual from year 1925, page 53. Public domain.) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (129 KB).

Due to its size and shape the grenade proved difficult to handle and explosive charge was found to be excessive, since it broke the grenade’s cast iron body into unpredictable fragments often too small to be effective, but possibly also lethal to distance up to 100 – 150 meters. Sources suggest that solution used to mediate this problem was to replace third of ammonal with sand. Still, otherwise the grenade seems to have proven somewhat successful in dry climate of Middle-East and Gallipoli, but due to production of Mills Bomb not being sufficient these grenades were issues surfaced when issued to European theatre, which caused major problems to surface.

The British solution for handling problems of No. 15 Ball Grenade was to introduce No. 16 Oval Grenade, which as the name suggests has new kind of oval-shaped cast iron grenade body, but was also filled with ammonal and used as its fuse similar combination of Brock matchhead lighter and detonator as its predecessor No 15. While notably easier to handle due to its shape, No. 16 Oval Grenade also had smooth grenade body made from cast iron, hence could be slippery in wet conditions and fragmentation was probably quite random. The grenade body has brass plugs in both ends – with top plug being used to hold fuse which is secure to it with copper wire and bottom plug screwed in other end of the grenade. Fuse, which is in copper tube, is combination of Brock matchhead igniter and detonator required by ammonal. The grenade has No. 16 entered in production late 1915, possibly in September of that year.

English Oval Hand Grenade

(No. 16 Oval Grenade)

(Käsikranaatti malli 1913)

PICTURE: British Number 16 oval hand grenade. The fuse seen here with it is a reproduction. Notice large stip of cloth in fuse and bottom plug with slot for screwdriver. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (72 KB).

(*) With explosives, weight of empty grenade body is about 370 grams.

The real disaster in European theatre for these grenades hit during Battle of Loos (France) in September – October of 1915, for which No. 16 Oval Grenade had been issued in very large numbers. In wet rainy weather the grenade proved highly unreliable, with failure rate being recorded as being as high as 90%. While being supposed to be secured with wax the fuse design used in them proved highly sensitive to moisture. Ammonal is mix of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder - and is hydroscopic – in other words capable to absorb moisture, which may have made the problem worse. The disaster in Loos caused British soldiers to lose confidence on these grenades and they seem to have been withdrawn from use of British Army in France in November of 1915. Still, some sources suggest that manufacturing of No. 16 Oval did not end until September of 1916.While British Army was no longer using No. 15 Ball and No. 16 Oval grenades in France, ultimately replacing them with Mills Bomb, the British had quite a stockpile of the and decided to put them in good use, by supplying the grenades to their allies, who were even less fortunate with production capacity. Hence lot of these grenades got supplied to Russia, due to which number of them ended to Finland.

PICTURE: Structural drawing of British Number 16 Oval hand grenade. (Käsigranaatit military manual from year 1925, page 61. Public domain.) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (104 KB).

The total number of British No. 15 Ball and No. 16 Oval hand grenades that ended up to Finnish inventory during Finnish Civil in year 1918 was probably in tens of thousands. Chances are that they saw some use at least in Carelia. They saw some training use with Finnish military in 1920’s with coastal artillery apparently still using them for the purpose at least until year 1930. Apparently Finnish Army had some trouble correctly naming these hand grenades. Early on Finnish Army seem to have referred them simply as English ball hand grenade (Englantilainen pallokäsikranaatti) and English oval hand grenade (Englantilainen soikea käsikranaaatti), but by mid 1920’s No. 16 Oval also being renamed as English hand grenade m/1913 (Englantilainen käsikranatti m/1913). Ultimately Finnish Army named them named as Lemon hand grenade. The term Lemon may have originated from Russia sources, since Russian military seems to have the same name. Just before Winter War Finnish Army listed among mixed military materials, which it was planning to sell also 10,000 of these hand grenades. Inventory lists suggest that about two thirds of those 10,000 grenades were likely No. 15 Ball grenades and about one third No. 16 Oval grenades. But due to Winter War the plan was apparently cancelled -they were not exported and ended up staying in Finnish military inventory through World War 2, even if none of them were no longer issued for combat use. Hence even Finnish World War 2 infantry ammunition manuals still contain No. 15 and No. 16 grenades, which at the time were called:

• Munakäsikranaatti Lemon sirpale pallo (Egg hand grenade fragmentation Lemon ball)
• Munakäsikranaatti Lemon sirpale soikea (Egg hand grenade fragmentation Lemon oval)

What is known suggests that the total number of Mills Bombs in Finnish inventory at the time may have not been more than hundreds. Inventory lists of Finnish depots suggest that in addition of Number 5 Mark 1 there may have been also some No. 23 grenades among the Mills Bombs that were in Finnish inventory right after Civil War, since one inventory report seems to mention some having launching rods as accessories. Still – the number of Mills Bombs in Finnish inventory in 1920’s and 1930’s was so small, that they likely did not see any use. Only World War 2 would change this.

PICTURE: British Number 5 Mk I egg hand grenade. This was the first version of famous Mills Bomb and can be most easily recognized from versions of Mills Bomb by base plug design, which is in this model is a large brass component. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (98 KB).

HAND GRENADES PRODUCED BY “BOMB FACTORIES”

There were also more or less improvised hand grenades being used in Finnish Civil War. Finnish professor of chemistry and marine researcher Kurt Buch (1881 – 1967) had in secret started small under-ground “bomb-factory” for Civil Guard already in year 1917. The start was complicated because Finland still being occupied by Russian military and there were no suitable explosive, grenade bodies or fuses available. The solution for explosives was to manufacture their own. The first “bomb factory” was in Helsinki with two sort of explosives being manufactured in there – Sprengel explosive similar to rackarock being made for hand grenades and picric acid for demolition purposes. The first try for getting grenade bodies for the purpose was made to buy them from Finnish manufacturers, who had been producing grenade bodies for Russian military and still had plenty left, since Russian Revolution had resulted all existing orders being de facto cancelled. Person posing as Russian officer was sent and successfully bought 20,000 bodies for hand grenades, which were officially to be delivered to (fictional) "1st Ukrainian Regiment" and sent by train towards Petrograd with plans of intercepting and re-routing the transport to its real destination. But that plan failed miserably when transport of the grenade bodies was intercepted and confiscated by Finnish Red Guards in railway station of Nurmi. Since the factory-produced grenade bodies were no longer available, improvised hand grenades produced by the factory were built into paint cans, with fuses which could be lighted with match or cigar stuck through a hole in the lid. The explosive used in the grenades required fuse to be equipped with detonator, about 2,000 of which Finnish Civil Guards succeeded buying in city of Viipuri, with few hundred additional detonators received from other sources. Total production of the “bomb factory” was about 2,500 hand grenades and 40 kg of picric acid intended to be used for demolition purposes. The grenades were assembled in end of January 1918 – just bit too late for them to be delivered elsewhere due to Red Guards starting their revolution and taking over city of Helsinki. Hence improvised hand grenades that it had produced remained in the city and ultimately were used by Helsinki White Guard (Helsingin Suojeluskunta) in Battle of Helsinki in 12th – 13th of April 1918.

PICTURE: Improvised hand grenade built by Helsinki "bomb factory" for Finnish White Guards during in year 1918. As mentioned the grenade has been built in a paint can. Fuse is visible on top of the grenade. (Photo copied from Suojeluskuntalaisen lehti magazine vol 24/1923. Public domain). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (24 KB).

Another smaller known "bomb factory" of Finnish activists was in town of Kauhava and also started its production in year 1917, manufacturing hand grenades from home-made explosives loaded into ball-shaped grenade bodies of unknown hand grenade type. The grenade bodies were acquired by stealing them from Russian military transport, which had stopped in local railway station. In the particular case word of the "bomb factory" got out, which forced persons running to shut down its activities. The total production was possibly only dozens or at most hundreds of grenades and the details concerning their use remain unknown.

List of sources used for making this page are listed on next page.

Last updated 18th of May 2023
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Copyrights (text and graphics): Jaeger Platoon Website. Copyrights of photographs vary on case to case basis and are marked along each picture.