The WiZard is In - 20-7-2011 at 06:54
All sorts of cool stuff 1946.
Accession Number : AD0200807
Title : Miscellaneous Weapons
Descriptive Note : Summary technical rept. of Div., 19, NDRC, Vol. 1
Corporate Author : OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT WASHINGTON DC
Handle / proxy Url : http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/AD200807
Report Date : 23 APR 1958
Pagination or Media Count : 155
Descriptors : *WEAPONS, *MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, *SECURE
COMMUNICATIONS, *SABOTAGE, EXPLOSIVES,
INSTRUMENTATION, GRENADES, ROCKET LAUNCHERS, MORTARS,
TIME DELAY FUZES.
Subject Categories : AMMUNITION AND EXPLOSIVES GUNS
ROCKETS
djh
----
Extracted from:-
Peter G. Kokalis
The World’s Worst Grenades
The Shotgun News 56(26) 20-1 10 October 2002
The very worst grenade of this type [instant impact fuzed] was the
World War II U.S. T13 “Beano” hand grenade developed by the
National Defense Research committee at the request of the Office
of Strategic Services (OSS). It is though that Yugoslav partisans
wanted a grenade of this type to use against trucks carrying
German troops.
A fragmentation type the T13 was spherical in shape and weighed
only 11.9 ounces. Its diameter was 2.83 inches and it was filled
with 4.6 ounces of Composition A. Its supposed effective radius
was 20 meters.
…….. After the safety pin was removed, the checkered circular
plate on top of the grenade was held down by the thumb. When the
grenade was thrown, the circular plate was forced away from the
grenade body by a spring. The circular plate acted as drogue
unwinding a tape attached to the arming pin.
When the tape was fully unwound, I pulled out the secondary
safety pin, thus arming the fuse. When the secondary safety pin
was pulled, the two retaining balls receded into the firing pin
assembly and permitted the striker to move. Arming was supposed
to take place between 15 and 25 feet from the thrower. Any
impact would then ignite the “always” fuze
The T13 project ended disastrously. During the final tests at
Aberdeen proving ground, in front of a large assemblage of high-
ranking officers, one of the Army’s civilian engineers gave an
enthusiastic lecture about the T13 and then demonstrated by
pitching it high over his head like a baseball. This of course armed
the grenade. When he stepped under the T13 and caught it, he as
instantly vaporized in front of the stunned audience. All further
tests of the T13 were stopped and the project abandoned
immediately.
smuv - 22-7-2011 at 22:01
A T13 showed up on the show 'pawn stars', due to its history it was worth a pretty penny. I am sure you can find the clip on the discovery channel
website/somewhere on the internet if you are interested.