Looking for info on M7 rifle grenade

[Mad Mike]

Hi all,

after having discovered the effectiveness of the M7 rifle grenade for the M1 Garand against tanks (see pictures here: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1289897&postcount=353), I am looking for info on the rifle grenades available for the M7 in 1944-45. I did a quick search Google, but couldn't find anything useful.

I'm especially interested in the AT grenade and its specifications.

My second question relates to CMBN directly: Where can the amount of available rifle grenades (and their type) be seen in the UI?

Cheers,

Mad Mike

[SlapHappy]

M9A1, HEAT

This was the standard High Explosive Anti Tank rifle grenade which replaced the M9. It is constructed of steel sheet

metal, utilizing a shaped charge with base detonating fuze. It weighed 1.31 lbs and could penetrate over 2 inches of armor. A very successful design that served very well against a variety of targets.

It was painted yellow until 1943 when the olive drab coloring scheme was used.

[SlapHappy]

Here's the source and the rest of the ordnance:

http://www.inert-ord.net/usa03a/usarg/rg/index.html

[gunnergoz]

One more source for good measure:

[Mad Mike]

SlapHappy, gunnergoz .. thank you very much to both of you.

Now, does anybody know if the ammo info (type & numbers available) for rifle grenades is actually shown in the UI?

[YankeeDog]

My second question relates to CMBN directly: Where can the amount of available rifle grenades (and their type) be seen in the UI?

U.S. Squads in CMBN can carry two different types rifle grenades for the M7 launcher, HEAT, and fragmentation. The HEAT grenades would definitely be the M9A1 grenade, and these show individually as an icon in the "special equipment" panel of the UI (where things like demo charges, binocs, bazooka rockets etc. also show). Default loadout seems to be for American squads to carry one M9A1 each, though obviously this will vary depending on the whims of the scenario designer and/or supply levels.

Grenadiers will obviously use the M9A1 against AFVs, but I've also seen them fired at enemy infantry, especially at enemy infantry in buildings.

Fragmentation rifle grenades show as a numerical value under "66mm HE" in the squad's regular ammo loadout. Default loadout seems to be 3 per squad. I'm not exactly clear which rifle grenade these are supposed to represent. As depicted in CM, they appear to behave as a contact fuse frag grenade, which would be the M17 rifle grenade. However, the M17 was nearly completely phased out by mid-1944, being replaced by the M1 projection adapter, which was basically a carrier that allowed a standard Mk. II frag grenade (e.g., the "pineapple") to be mounted on the M7 grenade launcher and projected. However, to be properly represented in CM, these should have a simple timed delay fuse, which they do not seem to have in-game. In any event, the practical difference between having the grenade explode on contact, or impact and explode a second or two later, is probably small enough to be insignificant in 95% of situations.

There were other types of rifle grenades that could be fired from the M7, most significantly flare and smoke, but these are not represented in CMBN. In any event, the flare and smoke rifle grenades were probably used mostly for signal purposes, rather than illumination and obscurement, so they're probably not particularly relevant to CMBN.

Cheers,

YD

There are two different rifle grenades which the "66m

[Mad Mike]

The HEAT grenades would definitely be the M9A1 grenade, and these show individually as an icon in the "special equipment" panel of the UI (where things like demo charges, binocs, bazooka rockets etc. also show).

YD,

I checked again and can see them, though not consistently (but you answered my question).

Especially for the incident with the bazooka team which I posted in the screenshot thread, the team does not have any "AT Rifle Grenades" in its special equipment tab.

Also, watching the whole turn, the available ammo (60mm HEAT in the AMMO section) jumps between some values (without any weapons being discharged or team members being wounded or killed). Quite strange indeed.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Keep in mind that for some strange reason (bug?) US soldiers armed with the rifle grenade launcher will ALWAYS fire the HEAT round first, even if it's against enemy infantry. So if you want to preserve that HEAT round for armor you need to split off the AT team and give them target light orders.

[YankeeDog]

YD,

I checked again and can see them, though not consistently (but you answered my question).

Especially for the incident with the bazooka team which I posted in the screenshot thread, the team does not have any "AT Rifle Grenades" in its special equipment tab.

Also, watching the whole turn, the available ammo (60mm HEAT in the AMMO section) jumps between some values (without any weapons being discharged or team members being wounded or killed). Quite strange indeed.

Interesting.

One thing that may explain what you're seeing:

The ammo sharing mechanic allows teams to "borrow" ammo (including "specials" like Zook rockets and rifle grenades) from nearby teams of the same formation (i.e., within the same platoon). So before we go bug chasing here, we should make sure that this team isn't procuring rifle grenades from another team nearby.