Real Grenades, looking for info.

[Mr. Clark]

I'll admit, I did not even bother clicking on the SEARCH button...

What exactly DOES a real frag grenade look like when it goes up? Is there any fire? Smoke? Flash?

What is a High Explosive grenade? Is this more the type that Hollywood gives us?

Finally, are Flashbangs only carried by anti-terrorist teams, or are they also used in the modern army?

Just curious! Thanks!

[Wolfpack]

What you see on TV are more akin to the flashbangs, lots of light and a huge noise. With frag grenades, if you see flame, you're probably about to be punctured by a hail of projectiles. =) They're mainly lots of smoke and a very loud noise...still quite impressive though, just not like all the Rambo grenades that blow up houses in an 80 foot fireball. =)

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It is nearly always better to be beaten and learn, rather than to win and take no new knowledge from that victory.

[Michael Dorosh]

I was disappointed when I threw my first grenade. Not at all like the movies; a little puff of smoke and a bright flame for half a second and that was it.

I remember reading that after seeing a movie in which the heros of the film blew up a bridge with a hand grenade, US troops in the Pacific during WW II put in requests for "those Humphrey Bogart grenades" that would do the same thing. They were probably disappointed too.

[BloodyBucket]

I have only seen frags go off through some very thick and dirty plexiglass, and they are not the big gasoline hollywood explosion commonly seen in movies.

More of a flash with lots of dirty smoke, and the sound is kind of a big "WHUMPH" rather than sharp bang.

They are very scary little buggers indeed.

Of course, these were not the old pineapple variety, wich might be a different story.

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"Roll on"

[Bullethead]

Mr. Clark said:

What exactly DOES a real frag grenade look like when it goes up? Is there any fire? Smoke? Flash? What is a High Explosive grenade? Is this more the type that Hollywood gives us?

I imagine a "high explosive" grenade is mostly a concussion device with little fragmentation effect.

As to what frags (or, for that matter, most other type of HE device including arty shells) look like when they go off, it's NOTHING like what you normally see in movies. Hollywood almost always uses a bucket of gasoline or deisel to give you this big mushroom fireball with little or no concussion--very safe for expensive actors be relatively close to. This type of explosion is an absolute turn-off for me in movies, BTW. I don't care how good the story is, if the explosions look totally bogus like this, the movie sucks.

With HE, you NEVER have flames per se and, if the HE was contained in a grenade or shell body, no flash in daylight, either.

Just a jagged cloud of flying dirt clods that quickly subsides leaving some hovering dust and, if the device was big enough, a little smoke. The explosions in "Saving Private Ryan" were very realistic in this way, both for frags and arty.

Uncontained HE, like a demo charge, makes a small, brief visible flash in daylight, varying in color from yellow to red. Shells make similar flashes at night, but these flashes are VERY small compared to the size of the dirt cloud thrown up. I never got into a grenade battle at night so can't tell you what they look like in the dark.

As for sound, frags, mortar shells, and AP mines make a very short, sharp, loud BANG. AT mines make a deeper, louder BOOM but are still short and sharp. Arty shells for some reason make more of a KAROOMP, longer and less sharp than the other devices. All of them segue seamlessly into a nasty, ass-puckering SWISH of flying fragments if you're close enough.

Finally, are Flashbangs only carried by anti-terrorist teams, or are they also used in the modern army?

"Flashbang" has 2 meanings. Some people use it for the small concussion grenades used by SWAT teams and such to stun people in a room without hurting them too much with fragments. Others mean a type of training boobytrap device, usually operated by tripwire--basically just a big firecracker to say, "Bang, you're dead" without even stunning.

The English gave a great 'Huzzah!'

And marched out to the guns of war.

They wavered, turned, and ran awa'

Like sheep at shepherd's warnin'

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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria.

[mensch]

first time on the grenade range I was all excited... but like mentioned before me.. just a little flash. whoopie.. dull... but then seconds after little wizzing sounds of the wire bundle that is around the explosive core ...yikes!

one word

RESPECT.

[Pak40]

I watched "Thin Red Line" for the 3rd time the other night and noticed that the they got the grenades pretty accurate. There wasn't much of an explosion when they went off.

[Mr. Clark]

Thanks for all the info guys!

It's all pretty much on par with what I suspected. I've always hated seeing a grenade dropped in a room or hallway, and then watching the actors outrun a gigantic, room consuming fireball.

I have never heard of the second type of Flashbang mentioned. I was refering to the Stunning weapon which blinds and deafens and generally confuses the targets seconds before someone puts a couple bullets in them.

[Gremlin]

Lots of pics of real ones: http://www.grenades.homestead.com/ (button at the bottom)

http://www.pacificcoast.net/~dlynn/index.htm

[This message has been edited by Gremlin (edited 01-26-2001).]

[GriffinCheng+]

Yep, but I think if one is on the receiving side, that would defnitely not "unimpressive". They are respectful. "Fire in the Hole!"

BTW, I read somewhere that modern hand grenades do contain some nasties like "steel bearings" to increase the effects of fragments, similar to those in modern AAM. Is it true.

How much difference in terms of explosion and damage effect between a hand grenade with a launched one? (say 40mm type used by US).

Griffin.

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"When you find your PBEM opportents too hard to beat, there is always the AI."

"Can't get enough Tank?"

[ASL Veteran]

Grenades are actually categorized into two types; Offensive grenades and Defensive grenades. Offensive grenades generally have little fragmentation effect and rely on the explosive power of the grenade to stun the enemy. Defensive grenades are what you would describe as 'Frags' because they rely on the fragmentation effect more than the explosive effect. The Germans, for example, had the stick grenade (Defensive) and the egg grenade (offensive). They also developed a rather interesting little stick grenade called the 'Nipolite' (sp?) grenade. This grenade was developed by creating this ... plastic type material from old powder the Germans had. It was found that this gunpowder/plastic stuff could be machined so the Germans just made the whole stick grenade out of the Nipolite stuff with no other material at all. Just a naked lump of explosives formed into a stick. Pretty ingenious I think. I am not in front of my sources right now so I can't give more detail than that.