Finnish military made its first nationwide inventory check in December 1918 – January 1919. According the inventory list gnerated and officially dated as 1^st of January 1919 the inventory had in total some 337,000 hand grenades, from which grand majority was stored in three depots – Helsinki (220,000 grenades), Viipuri (62,000) and Jyväskylä (20,000). Various Army units had 30,000 hand grenades and Civil Guard about 5,000. The hand grenade supply situation appears to have been quite sufficient considering that year 1919 the total mobilization strength of Finnish military was only about 110,000 men – so there would have been about hand three grenades per soldier. On cannot avoid wondering if this delayed development and starting production of Finnish hand grenades. On the other hand, the starting point for Finnish development and production was far from ideal at the time.

PICTURE: Shift change in State Ammunition Loading Plant (Valtion Ammuslataamo - VAL) in May of 1942. Visible on the background is one of the buildings and as seen the plant had railway connection. Photographed by Turo Kartto. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 88304). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (85 KB).

New-born independent republic of Finland had zero industrial manufacturing of explosives – not even manufacturing of gunpowder. This lack of basic capability was so obvious, that the first plans for creating gunpowder factory for Finnish state were made already in year 1920. Machinery for the factory was acquired and license for manufacturing acquired from German company Köhl-Rohweil AG in year 1926. With know-how acquired from Norway, mass-production of nitrocellulose-gunpowder started in year 1932. Two years later industrial production of primer caps was also started. But still in 1930’s the only Finnish industrial manufacturer of high explosives was Finska Forcit-Dynamit Ab, whose main product as the name suggests was dynamite – a civilian explosive. The standard issue military explosive for Finnish military at the time was trinitrotoluene, better known as TNT – which even during World War 2 was all imported. During course of World War 2 TNT was imported. The countries TNT was imported from during World War 2 from included Sweden, Norway, Italy, United States and Germany. It was the explosive, which was the was used for all Finnish-manufactured hand grenades. The most important Finnish production plant for hand grenade production was Valtion Ammuslataamo (State Ammunition Loading Plant, VAL), which was not established until year 1937, it was the main production plant, which filled the hand grenades with explosives and assembled them. Only other Finnish production plant that was involved to this work seems to have been Oy Ammus (Ltd Projectile) established in year 1936 by Rafael “Rafu” Lönnström, Gunnar Grönblom and German Arno Nitschmann. It must be noted that while Oy Ammus had much smaller role in Finnish hand grenade production than Valtion Ammuslataamo, its sister company Oy Sytytin (Ltd Fuse) also established by Lönnström in year 1929 manufactured fuses for them.

FIRST FINNISH STICK AND EGG HAND GRENADES

While Finnish military apparently had rather sufficient hand grenade inventory in year 1919, during 1920’s the situation was slowly changing. There were no acquisitions of new hand grenades, while much of the existing inventory was deteriorating at alarming rate, number of grenades was spent annually in training and in year 1930 the mobilization strength of Finnish Forces was already 200,000 men. The obvious solution for the problem was starting production of hand grenades in Finland, but doing that was much more easily said than done. The first Finnish hand grenade development to be officially approved was stick hand grenade m/28 (varsikäsikranaatti m/28), which before actual mass production was further developed as stick hand grenade m/32 (varsikäsikranaatti m/32). Along these offensive stick hand grenades was introduced defensive fragmentation egg hand grenade m/32 (munakäsikranaatti m/32), which had also been designed to serve as mortar shell for 47-mm mortars developed by Tampella. By May of 1931 the supply situation with hand grenades had deteriorated at such level, that when requested to supply more hand grenades to Army units for training, Ordnance Department for Ministry of Defence replied that they did not wish to deliver old hand grenades for training use anymore because their fuses had proved too unreliable and told to wait for new stick hand grenade, which expected to become available next year. With "Jaeger-officers" being core of Finnish officer corps at the time and much of the Finnish field gear at the time also being based on World War 1 era German Army kit, one cannot wonder if the combination of offensive stick hand grenade and defensive egg hand grenade was co-incidental or concept-wise based on what the German Army had been using in end of World War 1. If it was based on earlier German ideas, the Finns succeeded doing the grenades with “twist” of their own.

(varsikäsikranaatti 32 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Finnish stick hand grenade m/32. Notice design of grenade's head, which differed from foreign designs and carry hook. Metal parts of this grenade have the typical gun lacquer finish. Marking for fuse delay ("5 sek") indicating 5 second delay is on opposite side. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (67 KB).

The design of this Finnish offensive stick hand grenade was heavily based on German stick hand grenade m/1917, with the main differences between the two being that Finnish grenade m/32 was smaller, lighter in weight and was equipped with explosive train that was started by percussion fuse, while the late World War 1 German stick hand grenades had explosive train activated by friction fuse. While the Finnish grenade was smaller than its German predecessors, it also used more powerful explosive charge – 200 grams of TNT. Otherwise Finnish stick hand grenade faithfully copied most details of last World War 1 era German grenades, such as steel carry hook attached in side of grenade’s head, hollow wooden stick, star-shaped metal end cap removed by unscrewing it and porcelain ring/button in end of string, pulling of which activated the fuse.

The first version of Finnish stick hand grenade was referred as m/28 and did not see large-scale production, since the design of explosive train used in it proved so problematic, that it needed to be redesigned before being adopted in large-scale. It is unclear if there only single or several fuse designs tested early on, but Winter War era archive documents list stick hand grenades m/28 equipped with fuse system m/Silfverberg (*), use of which had been prohibited - presumably due to safety concerns. Stick hand grenade m/28 can most easily identified due to structural design of its head (metal container for explosive), front wall of which is a separate component, which was attached to rest of head with a rimmed edge not unsimilar to one often found in soup cans. After completing small-scale testing with prototypes, summer of 1930 Finnish Army delivered stick hand grenades m/28 for number for military units for unit trials. The test results from units proved to be very promising, but also revealed some quite significant problems. The basic grenade design was considered to be a success plus smaller size and lighter weight allowed better throwing distance than with World War 1 German and Russian stick hand grenades. On average soldiers were noted to be capable to be easily throw stick hand grenade m/28 to range of 35 – 40 meters. Being blast effect hand grenade the grenade’s explosion had effective range of maybe only about 10 meters and it did not really produce fragments, which would have been dangerous beyond 30 meters, but explosion could throw other debris (such as rocks) even to 40 – 100 meters. Three major problems were spotted in unit trials – the most serious of these three was structural weak point in bushing that was used to attach wooden hollow stick into the head – in particular if thrown on hard surface the grenade could get damaged by impact by even falling apart with bushing breaking loose and grenade becoming a dud, since its explosive train fall apart. Another somewhat smaller problem was that the explosive train apparently had problems with humidity, which could make the grenade unreliable. In addition grenade’s carry hook, design feature which had probably been copied from German stick hand grenades proved structurally too weak. Both structural problems were apparently fixed soon, but the safety issue with fuse system was unfortunately not spotted before accident in Pori Regiment (Porin Rykmentti) in September of 1930, due to which use of the grenade design was temporarily prohibited. Documents suggest that summer of 1930 grand total of 9,240 grenades were delivered for unit trials.

PICTURE: Finnish stick hand grenades m/28. Notice grenade head design. The top one painted yellow is a practice grenade version. The one at the bottom is live (offensive/blast effect) grenade version. Notice "5 sek" marking indicating delay of 5 seconds. (Photo provided by friendly collector). (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (74 KB).

Along these “live” grenades Finnish Army had issued already earlier 4,260 practice hand grenade m/28 (harjoituskäsikranaatti m/28), which was practice version of stick hand grenade m/28, that could be loaded with small explosive charge that produced only sound effect (loud bang). Practice hand grenade m/28 resembled live hand grenade m/28, but their head is painted yellow (*) and has rolled edges in both ends. Main components used for making practice hand grenades m/28 are compatible with those of live grenade – presumably to eliminate possibility of accident by making mixing parts of live grenade and its practice version impossible. Documents suggests that unlike standard (blast effect) hand grenades m/28, practice hand grenade m/28 remained in production also after year 1930 – quite possibly through 1930’s, hence reaching larger total production number than standard stick hand grenade m/28. Finnish military and Civil Guard through 1930’s apparently kept using practice hand grenade m/28 for training purposes at least until end of World War 2 and seem nowadays far more common in collector’s market than standard version of stick hand grenades m/28.

The improved mass-produced version of Finnish stick hand grenade was named as m/32 and apparently entered into production that year, although not much is known about pre-war production numbers, besides the first production batch being placed in production in year 1932 and apparently being for 10,000 grenades total and was later followed by second production batch of 40,000 grenades. Another thing known is that the total production remained so small that it later proved insufficient for properly equipping Finnish military, which by year 1934 had reached mobilisation strength of 315,000 men. Unlike earlier stick hand grenade m/32 has single-piece head, which does not have rim, but has visible thread pattern. Otherwise its basic design with carry hook, hollow wooden “stick” containing explosive train and star-shaped metal end cap resemble those of stick hand grenade m/28. There were two production versions of the percussion activated explosive train used in this grenade – early one with a metal claw holding and ultimately releasing striker when string was pulled far enough and late production version with small metal balls being used for the same purpose.

PICTURE: Finnish Army submachine gunner in snow camo suit with Suomi m/31 submachine gun and two stick hand grenades m/32. Photographed by Captain E. J. Paavilainen in December of 1941. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 66368). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (138 KB).

Stick hand grenade m/32 was built from components delivered by numerous Finnish manufacturers. It was filled with explosives and assembled only by State Ammunition Loading Plant (Valtion Ammuslataamo). These component manufacturers included companies such as Oy G.W. Sohlberg for grenade’s head, Oy Excelsior Ab for smaller metal components, Oy Sytytin for fuses and their components, which during World War 2 were also manufactured by Valtion Sytytintehdas (State Fuse Factory) established year 1941 and Turun Porsliinitehdas (Turku Porcelain Factory) for porcelain rings/buttons. The explosive train of stick hand grenade m/32 was activated with pull of porcelain ring/button attached to percussion fuse with cotton cord. Once pulled long enough the striker of percussion fuse releases itself and hits primer which lights fuse that burns about five seconds until the spark reaches detonator number 8, which blows up explosive charge – 200 grams of TNT stored inside grenade’s head. Due to shape of the steel container of grenade’s head and shape of TNT charge placed inside it the TNT charge needed some filler material around it to make sure it was reliably centered inside the steel container. In very early production the filler material used for the purpose was paraffin, which was later replaced with single layer of paper.

At least partly due to delay of in starting large-scale production of Finnish stick hand grenade regardless of their unreliability captured Russian stick hand grenades m/1914 remained in training use with Finnish Army at least until circa year 1934, after which stick hand grenade m/32 replaced them in training use. When Finnish-Soviet Winter War started in November of 1939 stick hand grenade m/32 was the standard blast effect hand grenade of Finnish Army. It was mass-produced through the war with last major delivery in April of 1943 and less frequent deliveries continuing even after that and the last batch being delivered as late as February of 1944. The total number of stick hand grenades m/32 delivered from start of Winter War to end of production seems to have been some 377,600 grenades. When production of this grenade ended, it was replaced in production by stick hand grenade m/41, first batch of which was delivered in May of 1943 and is essentially exactly the same grenade design minus carry hook and slightly tweaked improved fuse design. The production cost for stick hand grenade m/28 was 28 Finnish markka / grenade (without explosive 22 Finnish markka / grenade), during World War 2 on average the production cost of Finnish stick hand grenade (m/32 and m/41) was 48 Finnish markka / grenade – the higher price being likely mainly explained by cost of materials climbing during the war and inflation.

PICTURE: Soldier photographed hanging Finnish m/32 and German Sa/39 stick hand grenades on wall. Photographed by Military official O. Hedenström in April of 1944. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 148665). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (136 KB).

Orders of stick hand grenades m/32 with wartime deliveries:

• Order number 1047/466 made in March of 1938, the last batch was delivered in December of 1940. Size of the order and early deliveries remain unknown.
• Order number 187/40 S2 for 200,000 grenades, from which about 177,800 were delivered. Deliveries from January of 1941 to December of 1942.
• Order number 704/42 for 100,000 grenades, from which about 86,500 were delivered. Deliveries from December of 1942 to February of 1944.
• Order number 316/43 for 100,000 grenades, from which about 99,600 were delivered. Deliveries from October of 1943 to November of 1943.

PICTURE: While there never was fragmentation sleeve for Finnish stick hand grenades, at least one innovative Finnish soldier apparently found a way to create one. This field modification never seen anywhere else appears to be simply taking fragmentation sleeve from Soviet stick hand grenade m/33 and placing it around head of Finnish stick hand grenade m/32. Photographed by Military official P. Jänis in August of 1942. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 104781). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (92 KB).

Wartime experiences of stick hand grenade m/32 seem to have been otherwise positive, except the carry book proved be a poor idea. Not only was it found dangerous in that sense that it could entangled into wrong place after fuse had already been activated, but also brought complaints of grenades carried from carry book being accidentally dropped and lost. Removal of the carry book from the grenade design was officially approved by Major General Väinö Svanström for its production blueprints already in 21^st of September 1940, but it apparently took years for this change to actually be introduced for produced grenades. Admitted, there are also surviving stick hand grenade m/32 with carry hook cut off, so it is possible that the Finns started cutting the carry hooks off during production at some point. The designs of stick hand grenade m/32 saw very little changes during its production – only notable production change seems to have been in attachment of bushing in which the grenade’s end cap is screwed on, with its original attachment to wooden handle being with small screws, but in late production small metal screws were replaced with cuts pressed to wood. Metal parts of these grenades are usually finished with thin coat of lacquer, which shows as brown shiny surface, but there are also some grenades which are lined wit tin or painted dull green in the market. The grenades were normally transported in metal boxes of 15 grenades or old wooden crates originally made for stick hand grenade m/28 and with capacity of 50 grenades per crate. The grenades were shipped with detonators number 8 removed and they were installed to grenades only when the grenades were prepared for use.

Egg hand grenade m/32 fragmentation

(munakäsikranaatti 32 sirpale)

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/32. The combination of grenade body version and fuse was the most common one - grenade body version referred as "drop"" (pisara) and fuse m/32. Early production fuses m/32 have safety cap made from brass, while late production had it made from aluminium. The base cap has thread for tail section, intended to allow attaching tail section for use as 47-mm mortar shell. The base cap is made from steel and is somewhat rusted, which was apparently somewhat common wartime problem, due to which the particular part was supposed to be greased before grenades were packed into transport boxes. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (72 KB).

This somewhat unusual defensive egg hand grenade was another of the two hand grenade designs approved in use of Finnish military during the era between World Wars. As the name suggests it seem been introduced year 1932 and is fragmentation hand grenade. What make it highly unusual is that it was developed to be used both as hand grenade and as mortar shell for 47-mm mortars, which Tampella was developing in 1930’s. Ultimately Tampella’s 47-mm mortars never saw large-scale production, hence the grenade saw very limited use as mortar shell, but it became the most common Finnish hand grenade of World War 2. Due to its nature as dual-purpose ammunition the grenade body has very specific shape finished by milling with inbuilt driving band. Two versions of the grenade body exist – soikea (oval) and pisara (drop). From these versions pisara (drop, as drop of liquid) is the standard production version, while soikea (oval) seem to have only seen pre-war production in very limited numbers. Explosive charge (60 grams of TNT) was moulded inside the grenade body with cavity left in centre of it for the fuse. The grenade body has no internal segmentation that would guide its fragmentation and while it lacks external segmented pattern as well, the basic shape and size with driving band grooves milled into it seem to allow rather good solid grip unlikely to slip easily. When used as mortar shell, the grenade body was equipped with tail section, propellant charge and impact-activated percussion fuse. The grenade body has base cap, a separate component screwed into it and usually equipped with external screw pitch for attaching tail section and two vent holes. Also base caps without external screw thread were produced, but apparently in smaller numbers.

PICTURE: Rare version of Finnish egg hand grenade m/32. This grenade has oval grenade body and base cap without thread, both of them rare features. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (87 KB).

Grenade bodies were produced by Veljekset Friis Oy (Brothers Friis Ltd) – steel foundry and machine works located in town of Kokkola. The material used for manufacturing of the grenade bodies was semi-steel (puoliteräs). There were three fuse designs for this hand grenade, all of them delay fuses with one being percussion activated and manufactured from brass, while other two are friction-activated and manufactured from Bakelite (early plastic). All three fuses also fit to later Finnish fragmentation egg hand grenades m/41 and m/43, although to physically fit MS/40 fuse needed TNT charge inside the grenade to have larger centre opening in the middle.

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/32 with fuse m/32, which have had its safety cap removed. The second safety with oval brass ring hanging from it is visible. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (73 KB).

These fuses were:

• m/32 fuse – percussion activated delay fuse made from brass components.
• K/39 fuse – friction activated delay fuse with Bakelite body.
• MS/40 fuse – friction activated delay fuse with Bakelite body.

By far the most common of those three fuse designs is fuse m/32 for egg hand grenades – officially referred as sytytin 32-16/20 (fuse m/32 with thread diameter of 16 mm and fuse rim diameter of 20 mm). Fuse m/32 is percussion fuse with removable safety cap, which is locked in place with pin, that needs to be removed first before removal of safety cap is possible. Once safety cap has been removed it exposes head of striker/plunger, which is still secured in place by smaller safety piece with oval-shaped ring in end of it – only once this safety piece has been removed can the fuse be activated by hitting end of the striker with palm of a hand or into some solid surface. Hit in end of the striker forces it down, it hits a primer cap setting it off. Primer caps lights tubular delay fuse, which burns through and produces spark needed to detonator number 6 placed on its lower end, which detonates grenade’s explosive charge. Unlike other two fuse models, fuse m/32 remained in production through World War 2 – even if it was quite slow and clumsy to activate, it seems to have otherwise been reliable and easy to use design. This fuse was early on manufactured and assembled only by Oy Sytytin (Ltd Fuse), but during World War 2 also by Valtion Sytytintehdas (State Fuse Factory) and Valtion Ammuslataamo (State Ammunition Loading Plant). Fuse m/32 for egg hand grenades had lead seals, which protected its sensitive parts from moisture.

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/32 with K/39 fuse. Fuse K/39 manufactured by Karhula Oy is smaller size of the two otherwise quite similar Bakelite fuses used with Finnish egg hand grenades. This grenade is what is in effect mint condition. (Photograph provided by friendly collector for Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (52 KB).

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/32 with MS/40 fuse. Unfortunately markings on side of this grenade are partially damaged. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (75 KB).

As mentioned, K/39 (sytytin K/39-16/40) and MS/40 (sytytin MS/40-16/22) are friction activated delay fuses with Bakelite bodies. The model markings indicate their manufacturers, which may probably have also designed the fuses, which share the same basic concept by differ in measurements and structural details. Both of the manufacturers had been producing Bakelite products already before World War 2 - manufacturer of K/39 fuse was Karhula Oy (Karhula Ltd), while MS/40 was manufactured by Matti Saurio Oy (Matti Saurio Ltd). Materials for the Bakelite fuses were slightly more expensive than the materials needed for manufacturing of fuse m/32 and it seems that they were a temporary solution introduced during Winter War (November 1939 – 1940) with intention to increase production of fuses for m/32 egg hand grenades, but apparently not a cheaper one (*). Both of these fuses work exactly the same – to activate the fuse its top covered is first unscrewed & removed to reveal then strap of cloth with button attached to it. Pulling the strip of cloth causes friction with activates the fuse and after 5 – 6 second delay detonator goes off detonating TNT. While these fuses were apparently ordered during Winter War, it seems likely that most were delivered after it had already ended. Production numbers for them are not known yet, but in January of 1941 Weapons Depot 3 had 500 “fuses m/39 for egg hand grenades m/32” and component for manufacturing of 65,000 such fuses – chances are these were either K/39 fuses or total combined number for K/39 and MS/40 fuses. When stored or transported without fuse, the top opening of grenade could be closed with Bakelite plug or felt cloth plug. Egg hand grenades were transported in wooden boxes of 50 grenades, with fuses and detonators for fuses removed and separately packed into the boxes of grenades.

PICTURE: Distribution of egg hand grenades m/32. Soldiers have removed safety caps from their fuses m/32 and the soldier on the left has stuck hand grenades in breast pockets of his summer tunic m/36. Photographed by Officer aspirant Pietinen in Nuijamaa in August of 1941. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 31047). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (253 KB).

There were four orders of fragmentation egg hand grenades m/32 with deliveries happening during war:

• Order number 3/2 T39 made in January of 1939 for 100,000 grenades. It seems that the production run started for the order was allowed to continue after the ordered 100,000 grenades had been delivered and the total production due it was about 174,600 from which 53,100 were delivered during or right after Winter War (in March – April of 1940).
• Order number 193/49 made in May of 1940 for 200,000 grenades, which were delivered by October of 1941.
• Order number 419/41 made in August of 1941 for 155,971 grenades, with about 164,200 grenades delivered by March of 1942.
• Order number 197/42 S4 made in March of 1942 for 100,000 grenades, from which about 59,700 were delivered by September of 1942. Rest of the order was cancelled in 5^th of October 1942 due to running out of grenade bodies, whose production had already ended earlier.

The manufacturing of these hand grenades ended in summer of 1942 with fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 replacing in it production. The last large deliveries of hand grenade m/32 took place in July of 1942 with the final small delivery batch being delivered the following month.

PICTURE: Finnish machine gunner with captured Degtjarev m/27 light machine gun has placed three egg hand grenades m/32 in snow in front of his position. Photographed by Military official M. Persson in March of 1942. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 76158). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (102 KB).

PICTURE: Exterior picture showing part of Finnish Army dug-out. Finnish dug-outs of World War 2 era were basically log cabins built underground. This one has rifle rack with five Italian "Terni-rifles" and two infantry rifles M/91 plus couple of hand grenades hang on the wall. Lance corporal with Lahti-Saloranta M/26 is trying to look busy loading its magazine without necessary loading tool. Photographed by Turo Kartto. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 67032). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (146 KB).

Soviet military launched its offensive to Finland in 31^st of November 1939, starting Finnish – Soviet Winter War. During the war Finnish military suffered from shortage of just about all sort of military equipment – and hand grenades were not an exception to this. When the war started only hand grenades in Finnish inventory that were in combat-worthy shape were stick hand grenade m/32 and egg hand grenade m/32, but their combined total number was so small that basically the whole inventory got issued to combat units immediately and there was no existing stockpile, which could have been used to replace grenades used in combat and keep the units properly supplied. These grenades continued to be manufactured during the war, but the production was not able to satisfy demand. It must be noted that the Winter War era production concentrated into manufacturing of stick hand grenade m/32, while there apparently were no deliveries of egg hand grenade m/32 after November of 1939 until March of 1940. Since existing stockpile of hand grenades was too small to satisfy the need and domestic production was not able to provide enough to fix the situation either, Finland ended up ordering hand grenades from number of European countries. Hence number of hand grenade designs of varying level of success were introduced to use of Finnish military during World War 2. During the war Finnish soldiers apparently heavily favoured stick hand grenade m/32, which they were familiar with, while they were notably more reserved when it came to use of foreign hand grenades. This was apparently for a good reason – there was very little available at the time when it to user instructions for the foreign hand grenades, which made using of more “exotic” hand grenades in particular quite dangerous. In March of 1940 Finnish ammunition production shifted from using TNT into amatol (combination of TNT and ammonium nitrate) to reduce spending of TNT for which as mentioned there was no Finnish production. But this change did not apply hand grenade production, which continued to use TNT.

PICTURE: Most important foreign hand grenades acquired by Finnish military during Winter War. Photo collage created from photo crops of two archive photos originating from SA-kuva.fi photo archive. Photographed by Volanen. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, collage created from photo crops of archive photos numbers 113339 and 1133340). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (82 KB).

The largest order made by Finnish military during Winter War was for 300,000 hand grenades and made to Hungary, with total order of 300,000 grenades ultimately being bought and imported, although almost all of them arrived only after the Winter War had already ended. The second most important supplier of hand grenades was France, which provided 200,000 hand grenades. The third most important supplier was Great Britain, which seem to have supplied probably about 50,000 hand grenades. In addition, there were about 2,000 Swedish hand grenades, which arrived with Swedish-Norwegian volunteer unit SFK during Winter War. In addition, Finnish troops also captured unknown number of Soviet hand grenades during Winter War, which they also used against their former owners. According the inventory list in 1^st of April 1940 in total there were 11,071 captured Soviet hand grenades in Finnish inventory at the time - 4,235 stick hand grenades and 6,836 egg hand grenades.

HUNGARIAN HAND GRENADE

Egg hand grenade m/U blast effect

(Hungarian egg hand grenade 36M)

(munakäsikranaatti U miinavaikuttinen)

PICTURE: Egg hand grenade m/U (Hungarian 36M). Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (89 KB).

Originally the Hungarian contact was for 300,000 grenades with immediate delivery of 20,000 promised and the rest about to be manufactured at pace of 20,000 grenades per every five days. The Hungarian hand grenade that Finland acquired was 36M egg hand grenade manufactured by Vitéz Gira és Becsey factory. During Winter War Finland used number of special representatives for its acquisitions of military equipment. The representative working in Hungary was Wilhelm Hilbert – a well-connected businessman, who in year 1932 had with Wilhelm Dahlberg established export-company Oy Dahlberg & Hilbert Ab, which had imported products from Hungary already before the war. Later starting autumn of 1940 Oy Dahlberg & Hilbert Ab with German company J. Veltjens Waffen und Munition AG became a go-between, through which German supplied military equipment to Finland. While Hilbert referred the grenade design as “well-known model” (godkänd modell) in his report in 27^th of December 1939, that does not really seem to have been the case considering the later events - at least not in that sense that Finnish military would have had been properly familiar with the grenade before making the order. The hand grenades were bought with US Dollars, with their set price being 75 cents/grenade delivered to Hungarian border and being delivered in sealed tin boxes of 50 grenades each. The first batch of 20,000 grenades arrived in January of 1940, but soon Germany stopped transports of military equipment intended to Finland through the territory that was under its control, hence later deliveries had to be taken from Hungary to Italy and shipped from there via Gibraltar and Atlantic Ocean to Finland. Such a long transport route delayed arrival of deliveries to such degree that the first larger delivery did not arrive until right after ending of Winter War (which took place in 13^th of March 1940). Total number of 100,000 arrived right after that by 15^th of April and another about 100,000 apparently later in that month. Rest of the grenades arrived even later. It seems likely that about half of the first batch of 20,000 Hungarian hand grenades delivered in January of 1940 were either used or otherwise lost during Winter War, since inventory list gathered right after ending of Winter War suggests that 9,894 total existed in Finnish military inventory at that time.

The Hungarian egg hand grenade in question is offensive grenade with impact ignited fuse. The impact fuse may look good on paper since it does not leave enemy any chance of being able to return the grenade by throwing it back and in theory is also simple to use. But in reality impact ignited fuses tended to be problematic and the rather complicated fuse system used in this hand grenade was no exception. Safety of this grenade was removed by pulling from a leather tab, which released top of the grenade. The grenade needed to be thrown in such manner that it rotated along its axle for the fuse to get activated, with two sections inside the grenade separate from one another and dislodges top of the grenade, which turns off integrated safety and places firing pin on top of the primer cap. After this once the grenade hits any sort of solid obstacle the two sections with firing pin and primer cap hit another – for this to happen reliably, it was preferrable for the grenade to land on its base. In theory the fuse system was supposed in case of misfire to make the grenade safe again by pulling back the firing pin, but that proved reliability-wise problematic and made any grenade that that had failed to explode dangerous to own soldiers. Year 1940 manual notes that the situation in which the grenade was most likely end up such condition that it failed to explode, but safety feature was not activated either, is one in which the grenade was otherwise correctly thrown, but landed on soft surface such as soft ground or snow. Finnish experience was that any grenade of this type that had been thrown and failed to explode, could do so if moved. Hence later Finnish Army ammunition manuals instructed that any dud egg hand grenade m/U was not to be touched and needed to be destroyed with demolition charge.

PICTURE: This photo crop of rare wartime colour photograph shows Finnish soldier with Hungarian m/U egg hand grenade. Notice how he holds the grenade and has rifle in another hand. Steel helmet is German or Austrian m/18. Photographed by Military official Esko Suomela. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number Jsdia115). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (150 KB).

As if that would not have been problematic enough, this egg hand grenade had also another rather serious problem – namely it was not very effective. Being offensive grenade with cylindrical thin sheet stell shell and integral components the grenade relied in blast effect produced by its explosive charge, but 83 grams of TNT was quite a small quantity of explosive for the task – for example Finnish stick hand grenade m/32 used for the same purpose was loaded with 200 grams of TNT – about 2.5 times the explosive charge of egg hand grenade m/U. For example Vilho Tervasmäki’s book Aaverykmentti kolmella Kannaksella (Ghost Regiment on Three Isthmuses) page 101 mentions case in which grenade thrown in a foxhole failed to cause any damage beyond possible psychological one to two Soviet soldiers who were in covered section of the same foxhole with piece of tarp acting as door of sort proving capable to soak up the explosion and what little fragments the grenade produced. Such events did not exactly raise confidence for the grenade among Finnish soldiers. Due to its problems the hand grenade was officially removed from use by Finnish military in summer of 1944 – having the distinction of being the only hand grenade model officially removed from use by Finnish Army during war, while still being available in inventory in fully functional shape and in fairly large numbers.

Egg hand grenade m/U is black with red horizontal stripes and was delivered in boxes of 50 grenades. Hungarians manufactured also practice grenade version with blue vertical stripes, but apparently none were acquired to Finland. During World War 2 version of this Hungarian hand grenade was apparently also manufactured under license in Switzerland by Munitionfabrik Altdorf (MFA).

FRENCH EGG HAND GRENADES

Egg hand grenade m/F fragmentation effect

(French Grenade Fusante No 1)

(F.1)

(munakäsikranaatti F sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: French hand grenade F with m/1916 Billiant fuse. The fuse is not in best of shape. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (85 KB).

Egg hand grenade m/O.F. blast effect

(French Grenade Offensive Fusante)

(O.F / OF1)

(munakäsikranaatti O.F. miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: French hand grenade O.F. with m/35 fuse. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (75 KB).

As mentioned, French hand grenade development during World War succeeded producing two highly successful egg hand grenades, which filled well the roles of defensive and offensive hand grenade:

• F fragmentation effect hand grenade
• OF blast effect hand grenade

These two grenades were quite similar to use, but served two separate purposes – F.1 fragmentation effect grenade was intended primarily for defensive use, in other words to be thrown from defensive position which protected soldier throwing the grenade and did damage to large area with metal fragments. O.F on the other hand was offensive grenade intended for storming defensive positions and hence had much smaller dangerous range and safer to soldier in the open, since the grenade did its damage with blast effect, which is particularly effective in closed spaces.

F.1 (Fusante No 1 ~ Fuse number 1) defensive egg hand grenade was first been introduced into use of French Army in limited quantities in May of 1915. It has cast iron body with external segmentation of 38 segments, which was copied to many other grenade designs, but no internal segmentation. Size, shape and external segmentation allow good grip, but since external segmentation does to not guide fragmentation pattern, the grenade’s body had known tendency of breaking not more than about ten large fragments, which according manuals could be lethal even up to 100 or even 200 meters. Later the Soviets introduced they own version of F.1, while US Mk I and Mk II fragmentation grenades were directly based to French F.1 grenade. What is known F.1 grenades delivered to Finland were loaded with Cheddite (marked as Chlorite in Finnish manuals) or possibly with Scheiderite. French industry manufactured F.1 grenade in between 1915 – 1940 with total production being about 60 million grenades.

OF (Grenade Offensive Fusante) offensive egg hand grenade was also first introduced to use of French Army in year 1915 and also referred as OF1 in French sources. It has oval-shaped grenade body made from two sections crimped another with crimp going around the grenade body. The material used for making outer shell of grenade body is very thin (0.3 mm thick) sheet steel, hence without explosives and fuse the outer shell of grenade body weights only 35 grams and is only intended to work as convenient container for the explosives. While otherwise smooth, the shape, size and crimp make OF allow rather good grip. While OF hand grenade were manufactured in variety of colours (red being practice grenade) what is known suggests that the OF hand grenades delivered to Finland had been loaded with TNT. OF1 grenade was replaced in production by OF 37 already before World War 2.

PICTURE: Three Finnish soldiers photographed in August of 1941. Photo crop. Two of the soldiers have French O.F egg hand grenades with m/35 fuses hanging from their belts. Two also have Finnish m/32 egg hand grenades equipped with m/32 fuses placed under their belts. All three soldiers have Suomi m/31 submachine guns and Swedish m/37 steel helmets. Photographed by Lieutenant Tauno I. Vartia in Hiitola. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 39055). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (179 KB).

Early fuses designs used with French F.1 and O.F hand grenade included:

• Wick ignition plug: Only used in small scale with F.1 and only in year 1915. Needed to be lighted with cigar or match.
• Mle 1915 and Mle 1916 percussion ignition fuses: Used with both F.1 and O.F Activated by removing protection tube and hitting head of the fuse. Structurally quite similar, but Mle 1915 has cardboard protection tube resembling old-fashioned shotgun shell while Mle 1916 has brass protection tube. Both proved unreliable and prone to humidity.
• Mle 1916 B Billiant: First modern use for these grenades.

While numerous fuse designs had been issued with these two grenades, already by mid 1920’s they had all been replaced by Mle 1916 B Billiant fuse, which is modern looking delay fuse design with safety lever/spoon and safety pin with ring. In 1930’s French hand grenade development continued with introduction of new grenade fuses, short-lived Mle 1931 Bourny and more successful Mle 1935. Both of these fuses were delay fuses with same basic concept with safety pin and lever as Mle 1916 B, but were otherwise design-wise notably different. Mle 1935 had been developed by Bornstein and already earlier introduced in use of Polish Army as model 1931. Mle 1916 Billiant seemed to have remained in French use at least until end of World War 2, but Mle 1935 fuse was not retired until 1970’s.

PICTURE: Finnish soldier prepares to throw French egg hand grenade O.F into Soviet dug-out. The rifle appears to be infantry rifle M/91. Photo crop. Photographed by Puupponen in August of 1941. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 31604). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (132 KB).

The most important supplier of hand grenades for Finnish Army during Winter War was France, which delivered 200,000 hand grenades during it. Finnish special representative responsible for acquiring military materials from France during Winter War was Colonel Aladár Paasonen (1898 – 1974), who had studied in École Spéciale Militaraire de Saint-Cyr in 1921 – 1922 and in École Supérieure de Guerre in 1922 – 1924. His later military career peaked as Chief of Finnish Military Intelligence in 1942 – 1944. During Winter War France was also supplying military equipment to Rumania and Yugoslavia, but due to political reasons French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier ended up giving Finland priority status in January of 1940. It seems this happened not only due to France wanted to capture Swedish iron mines that supplied Germany and basically treating Soviet Union as ally of Germany, but also because it boosted popularity of his government. Yet in 21^st of March 1940 France’s failure to aid Finland became the formal reason for fall of Daladier's government. What is known suggests that the hand grenades were in the first shipment of military equipment sent by France to Finland during Winter War, with all 200,000 grenades arriving in February of 1940. From those 200,000 hand grenades delivered to Finland 150,000 appear to have been O.F and 50,000 of F.1 variety.

PICTURE: Colonel Aladár Paasonen was one quarter of Hungarian descent. He had served in Finnish White Army during Civil War starting his officer's career in Finnish Army, which sent him to study in France in 1920's. Quickly rising ranks in 1930's he served first as Military Attache in Moscow and Berlin and then as Senior adjutant for President of Republic. His work in Paris during Winter War was essential for securing French deliveries of military equipment to Finland. During Continuation War he first served as regimental commander of Infantry Regiment 5 and starting year 1942 as Head of Finnish Military Intelligence. Due to his involvement of Weapons Cache Case and Operation Stella Polaris he decided to exile himself to western Europe, where he worked for French Intelligence in 1945 - 1948, helped Marshal Mannerheim to write his memoirs in Switzerland in 1948 - 1952 and then worked for CIA until year 1963. Photographer unknown. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 31604). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (62 KB).

Finnish military named F.1 hand grenade as munakäsikranaatti F sirpalevaikutteinen (egg hand grenade F fragmentation), while O.F was named as munakäsikranaatti O.F. miinavaikutteinen (egg hand grenade O.F. blast effect). These two grenades were delivered to Finland with two French standard fuse options for them at the time – Mle 1916 B and m/35 fuse, which Finnish military named as:

• Fuse for egg hand grenade, model 16B, 15/27 (Syt. 16 B-15/27).
• Fuse for egg hand grenade, model 1935, 15/26 (Syt 35-15/26).

What is known suggests that about one quarter of French hand grenades were used during Winter War and those used were practically all O.F hand grenades. To be more specific from 150,000 O.F and 50,000 F.1 hand grenades delivered to Finland in beginning of April 1940 there were still some 93,300 O.F and some 43,900 F.1 hand grenades remaining in inventory. What is known suggests that the remaining three quarters were mostly spent during first year of Continuation War (1941). There was no separate manual created in Finnish about these grenades, but they included to infantry ammunition manual (Jalkaväen Ampumatarvikkeet II) folder in year 1941.

BRITISH MILLS BOMB

Egg hand grenade Mills fragmentation effect

(British No. 36M Mk I Mills Bomb)

(Munakäsikranaatti Mills sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: British egg hand grenade Mills No. 36M. Three painted X's are marking for waterproofing and green painted stripe was indicator for type of explosive used. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (72 KB).

As the name suggests this egg hand grenade with classic “pineapple-texture” was designed by English engineer William Mills (1856 – 1932), whose factory Mills Munitions Ltd in Birmingham was also its first manufacturer. The grenade’s technical design was based on Belgian Roland Grenade, which had been patented in year 1913. Mills Bomb was one the most successful hand grenade designs introduced during World War 1. Its production started in year 1915, but for a long time was unable to keep up with the demand, due to which number of other hand grenade designs was also produced by the British. Ultimately the mass production of Mills Bomb reached such level, that it became the most used grenade for British Army, replacing many other grenade designs. In Mills Bomb was manufactured by some 20 companies and the total production 1915 – 1918 was over 75 million grenades. After World War 1 it became the standard hand grenade for British Army and number of other armies.

While highly effective and equipped with modern delay fuse from the start, Mills Bomb still saw quite a bit of development during World War 1. Its first version of was No. 5 Mk I, which have small filler hole high up with small brass plug and large bottom base plug also made from brass. The first batch of No. 5 Mk I were delivered for field-testing in France in May of 1915 and mass-production started in September of that year. The next version was introduced in July of 1916 and was No. 23 Mk I, which had threaded hole in brass base plug for rod – allowing it to be used as rifle grenade when equipped with launching rod. No. 23 Mk II had iron base plug design, which could be more easily tightened without a spanner, while No. 23 Mk III features new grenade body version with recess for lever, sturdier leaver brackets and larger filler hole located somewhat lower in grenade body – both of these grenades had also designed to be used with launching rod if needed. There were also tropical versions of No. 23 grenades referred as No. 23M Mk I, No. 23M Mk II and No. 23M Mk III. No. 36 Mk I have grenade body similar to No 23 Mk III with yet another new base-plug design, which designed for attaching of disc-shaped gas check plate, that allowed the grenade to be used as rifle grenade with cup discharger. The ultimate production version was No. 36M Mk I, which is simply No. 36 Mk I with shellac coating for improved water-proofing. The “M” in No. 36M Mk I referred to Mesopotamia, indicating tropical version, which was introduced in March of 1918. Starting year 1930 No. 36M Mk I was the standard hand grenade design of British Army and remained in production until year 1972, with India and Pakistan apparently continuing to manufacture it to 1980’s and the grenade seeing use in numerous countries at least until 1990’s. In addition of British Army saw mostly use with countries of British Commonwealth and other Allied nations.

PICTURE: British egg hand grenade Mills No. 36M with gas check plate for rifle-grenade use. Finnish Army had not use for gas check plates. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (128 KB).

Mills Bomb can be most easily be identified from its cast iron body with external segmentation resembling pineapple and delay fuse with basic components of safety pin and lever, which have since become universal standard. It is also credited as being the first modern hand grenade and also as being the most long-serving hand grenade design. Lacking internal segmentation Mills Bomb suffered from the typical problem of World War 1 era fragmentation grenades – uneven fragmentation. While several sources suggest that the fragmentation was effective to 70-meter radius, this seems highly optimistic, while danger area due to individual large fragments extending up to 100 – 150 meters seems quite realistic.

All Mills Bombs used percussion activated delay fuse, but there were numerous versions of the fuse. No. 5 Mk 1 and all No. 23 versions had fuse with five second delay, but due to also being intended to be used as rifle-grenades with cup-launcher No. 36 and No. 36M were equipped with fuse that had delay of seven seconds. During World War 2 this changed again, when combat experience from Battle of France in year 1940 indicated that seven second delay was excessive and resulted the fuse delay being reduced to four seconds. Mills Bombs were typically delivered in boxes of 24 grenades with fuses removed. Hence grenades needed to be prepared for use by inserting fuses via hole covered by bottom plug.

Just like France, also Britain had its own political interest at heart for providing military equipment during Winter War. However, the equipment that it provided to Finland was in lesser extent focused on infantry weapons and also the number of hand grenades was notably smaller. The Mills Bombs that UK delivered to Finland during Winter War were No. 36M Mk 1, which as noted was the standard British hand grenade of that time. But pin-pointing the exact number for how many were delivered has proven difficult, since numbers suggested by Finnish sources seem to vary considerably, but the best bet seems to be that the total number delivered was probably around 50,000 grenades. What is known presumably 10,000 were delivered to Finland in January of 1940 and 40,000 in February of 1940. One of archive documents suggests that the total number of Mills Bombs in Finnish inventory during Winter War would have been 52,980 – which may include also still remaining earlier Mills Bomb versions originating from year 1918. This number would also seem to be quite close to number of gas check plates and .303 British blank cartridges apparently delivered as a kit with the grenades and left behind in Finnish inventory unused, since Finnish military had no Lee-Enfield rifles or its cup discharger for rifle grenades. It seems that grand majority of the delivered No. 36M Mk 1 grenades were already used in Winter War, with more being mostly used in first month of Continuation War. According Armed Forces wide inventory lists 1^st of April 1940 and 27´^th of January 1941 there were only 1,647 Mills bombs remaining in Finnish inventory at that point. No separate Finnish manual was published for this grenade, although it was still included to infantry ammunition manual (Jalkaväen Ampumatarvikkeet II) in year 1941.

SWEDISH GRENADES

Stick hand grenade R/18 blast effect

(spränghandgranat m/1918)

(varsikäsikranaatti R/18 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Stick hand grenade R/18 known in Sweden as spränghandgranat m/1918. Text "ej laddad" translates as "not loaded". Photo source Försvarsmuseum Boden (Sweden), acquired via Digitaltmuseum.se and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (110 KB).

Swedish-Norwegian voluntary unit Svenska Frivillig Kåren (SFK) took part in Finnish – Soviet Winter War and was equipped with donations gathered in Sweden. Among its weapons were 2,000 Swedish hand grenades bought from Marineförvaltning (Administration of Swedish Navy). While two Swedish hand grenade models of the time appeared in Finland at the time, it is not known for sure if both of these grenade models were included to that batch of 2,000 hand grenades, which SFK brought to Finland. It is possible that both hand grenade models may have been included to that 2,000 hand grenades, or that it may have all been stick hand grenade m/1918 with egg hand grenade m/40 only being delivered to Finland in notably smaller numbers. Either way at least few hundred grenades of this model appear to have been left behind to Finland from Winter War.

PICTURE: Cutaway of stick hand grenade R/18. Photo source Armémuseum (Sweden), acquired via Digitaltmuseum.se and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (57 KB).

Both of these two hand grenade models shared the distinction of having impact-activated fuses, but otherwise they were notably different from one another. Older of the two was stick hand grenade m/1918, which was the first modern Swedish hand grenade model that gained official approval. The grenade was manufactured in three versions – light (lätt), heavy (tung) and smoke (rök). The only version that saw use in Finland was the light one. It is somewhat primitive looking, but structurally relatively complicated stick hand grenade design with sheet metal can and wooden stick. Removal of plug from end of the stick removes safety and when thrown rotating motion while on air removes safety bars, after which the grenade is supposed explode when it lands no matter which part of the grenade is being hit by the impact. To be more specific the impact will activate percussion fuse, which detonates the grenade’s explosive charge. Apparently this grenade may not have seen any real use after Winter War, since January of 1943 when Finnish Armed Forces GHQ confirmed list of Swedish military equipment received during Winter War and approved to be returned to Sweden, the list contained 640 stick hand grenades m/1918. Presumably all grenades still remaining in Finnish inventory at that point got returned to Sweden, which ended its use with Finnish military. No manual was published about this grenade for Finnish military during Winter War, but it was finally included to Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) manual in December of 1941.

Egg hand grenade Mörner blast effect

(spränghandgranat m/40)

(munakäsikranaatti Mörner miina)

PICTURE: Egg hand grenade Mörner, known in Sweden as spränghandgranat m/40. The green paint was likely used as indicator for the grenade no longer containing expolosives. Photo source Armémuseum (Sweden), acquired via Digitaltmuseum.se and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (144 KB).

The second Swedish hand grenade design was best known in Finland as blast effect egg hand grenade Mörner – after its inventor in Bofors – Major G. Mörner. The design was first introduced for Swedish Army trials held in 1930 – 1933 as spränghandgrana fm m/1933. While fm m/1933 failed to achieve official approval, its development continued until version known as spränghandgranat m/40 was officially approved for use of Swedish military and also delivered to Finland. When brought to Finland the grenade model was still very new, hence Winter War may have provided Swedish military a suitable setting for field-testing it in real combat. Also Finnish Armed Forces Ordnance Department seems to have been curious about this new hand grenade model, since number of grenades were sent to Infantry Regiment 23 fighting in Taipale in January of 1940 for testing. While the conclusions based on the test were in large degree positive with use of the grenade being found to be easy to use and safe to handle as long as safety was not removed. Also blast effect of its explosives was found to be being fairly powerful and it apparently it worked quite reliably even when thrown in to snow, but the design raised concern due to its fuse being so sensitive that hitting any sort of minor obstacle like tree branch detonated the grenade and there being difficult to handle with gloves in freezing temperatures. Another raised concern was, that as inherent to hand grenades with impact-activated hand grenades, even with its highly sensitive fuse even this grenade did not have 100% reliability rate for exploding once thrown and hence was potentially dangerous to own soldiers. As the designation suggest, there was very little fragments of notable size being produced by the grenade. The final conclusion from the testing performed in Infantry Regiment 23 was “can be considered as fairly good hand grenade”.

Egg hand grenade Mörner blast effect has cylindrical body made of sheet metal with both grenades painted completely grey and grenades painted with red and black being delivered to Finland. Preparing it for use simply requires removing the plug located on top of grenade and inserting detonator and closing plug. When being thrown safety is removed by holding ring plates against bottom section of the grenade and rotating removal ring counter-clockwise – this releases the safety pin keeping ring plates in place. Finnish Army produced simple one-page long instruction for the grenade during Winter War explaining its use and although it was never issued to Finnish Army in any real numbers, this grenade was also included to Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) manual in December of 1941.

Instructions both of these grenades in Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II manual include warning for not to touch a grenade that has failed to explode. May of 1942 HQ of Home Front Troops issued order according with three specific hand grenade models when they failed to explode were to be destroyed with explosive charge placed next to the grenade, since moving them once safety was removed was considered to be too dangerous – egg hand grenade U, stick hand grenade m/1918 and egg hand grenade Mörner.

After egg hand grenade m/40 Swedish Army shifted its attention to hand grenades equipped with delay fuses. First Swedish acquisition after it was German stielhandgranate 24, which they named as spränghandgranat m/39. Later it was followed by all steel Swedish stick hand grenade spränghandgranat m/43 and egg hand grenade spränghandgranat m/45. None of these hand grenades or m/37 incendiary & smoke egg hand grenades saw any use in Finland.

CAPTURED SOVIET HAND GRENADES

There were three Soviet hand grenade designs, which Finnish Army captured during Winter War:

• Stick hand grenade m/1914-30 fragmentation effect
• Stick hand grenade m/33 fragmentation effect
• Egg hand grenade F-1 fragmentation effect

PICTURE: Selection of Soviet hand grenades with Dyakonov rifle grenade and its cup launcher captured during Winter War. Photographed in Loimola in December of 1939. Photographer unknown. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 2297). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (143 KB).

In Russia World War 1 was immediately followed by partially overlapping Russian Civil War (1917 – 1923), which resulted Soviet Russia inheriting rather large stockpile of not only Russian-made, but also British and French hand grenades, which had been supplied to Imperial Russia during World War 1 and Russian Whites for Russian Civil War. In fact year 1922 British Mills bombs were approved as official hand grenade model for Red Army and even in year 1925, there were still about 200,000 in Soviet inventory. Another very common hand grenade in Soviet inventory at the time was French F.1, whose (presumably percussion) detonators did not impress the Soviets, but provided starting point first for development of better fuse and later to improved copy of the grenade.

As mentioned Finnish Army officially captured some 161,000 hand grenades during Winter War and the number probably does not include grenades immediately taken to the use of troops that captured them. Some of the captured grenades were easier to take into Finnish use than others, but relatively little of them seem to have survived to Finnish depots after the war. Clearly the most common of captured Soviet hand grenades to be found in Finnish depot system after Winter War was stick hand grenade m/33, with some 19,000 total still remaining stored in three gun depots in January of 1941. I have not been able to locate any info about how many hand grenades were captured during Continuation War, but numbers of captured small arms suggest, that the total number of hand grenades captured during offensive in first year of Continuation War may have well been larger than the total number captured during Winter War. Very little had changed in Soviet inventory of grenades by that time, hence the grenades captured in year 1941 must have represented the same hand grenade models as earlier. While there were new Soviet hand grenade models introduced during Continuation War, which must have also been captured in some numbers, Finnish Army did not add them to existing manuals or publish new manuals for them. The reason for this was likely that there were much less Soviet equipment captured during trench war period or Soviet offensive of year 1944 that followed it.

Stick hand grenade m/14-30 fragmentation effect

(Ruchnaya Granata 14/30, RG-14/30)

(varsikäsikranaatti 14-30 sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Soviet stick hand grenade m/14-30 without fragmentation sleeve. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). (Photographed in Finnish Military Museum / Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (90 KB).

Stick hand grenade m/1914 was apparently the most successful of Russian World War 1 era hand grenade designs, hence it is quite natural that the Soviets selected it for further development. M/1914 grenades had been manufactured during World War 1 varied in exact size (presumably depending manufacturer), which made equipping them with removable external fragmentation sleeve impossible and variety of explosives used in production caused problems with maintaining stored grenades. Hence the main efforts of this modernisation which turned model 1914 into model 1914/30 were standardization of the grenade components and loading the grenades with TNT only. In addition, also fuse system was modernized. As the name suggests the modernized grenade was officially approved to use of Red Army in year 1930. Its production life proved relatively short, since it was replaced in production with RDG-33 already in year 1934. Still, it was manufactured in numbers large enough, that model 14/30 saw plenty of use during early World War 2, continued to serve Red Army in Eastern Front until year 1943 with the grenades stored in Siberia still being used against the Japanese in year 1945.

PICTURE: Another Soviet stick hand grenade m/14-30 without fragmentation sleeve. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). (Photographed in Finnish Military Museum / Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (64 KB).

Basic design of the grenade was similar to earlier m/1914, but it could be equipped with external removable fragmentation sleeve about 2 mm thick, which boosted the grenades fragmentation effect, although it does not seem to have effected the number of grenade fragments that much. According Finnish Army documentation (which may have likely based on translated captured Soviet manual) without the fragmentation sleeve the grenade produced about 2,800 fragments and with it about 3,000. Even with its modernization the grenade did get less than positive feedback from Soviet troops during World War 2. The fuse design was too complicated for easy use, hence it was not uncommon for the grenade to be thrown before it had been prepared and had safety removed in correct manner. In addition the grenade was found to be too heavy and its handle section to be too short for it to allow throwing to good distance. In addition of normal hand grenade two also practice grenade versions existed. One of those two practice grenade versions was equipped with cartridge case of rifle cartridge loaded with black powder, while another version was dummy grenade used for throwing practice. Germans referred captured model 14/30 grenades as handgranate 336(r).

Finnish Army had been using Russian stick hand grenades m/1914 for training until mid 1930’s, so when Winter War started in 1939 large number of Finnish soldiers must have been already familiar its basic design. Finnish Army started facilitating use of captured Soviet hand grenades during Winter War by providing documents explaining their characteristics and use. The first such document I have been able to find is from 1^st of January 1940. Later on info about this grenade was also included to Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) manual.

Stick hand grenade m/33 fragmentation effect

(Ruchnaya Granata Dyakonova obraztsa 33 goda, RDG-33)

(Varsikäsikranaatti 33 sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Soviet stick hand grenades m/33. The one on the left has been cut open to show fuse well. Removed fragmentation sleeve in the middle and grenade with fragmentation sleeve on the right. When found in collector's market m/33 hand grenades usually seem to be repainted, but these are not and the one on the right shows some original markings. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). (Photographed in Finnish Military Museum / Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (112 KB).

This hand grenade designed to be used as defensive and offensive grenade by simply adding or removing fragmentation sleeve to boost up its fragmentation effect is remarkably complicated design. The parts of grenade body are made from thin sheet metal, while fragmentation sleeve is made from notably thicker (about 3.5 mm thick) material and has diamond-pattern on its exterior. Head of the grenade contains also internal coiled fragmentation jacket pre-cut into chessboard pattern. The grenade’s mechanism was all built inside its handle. The main three parts (head, handle and fragmentation sleeve) were stored separately and were to be assembled before being issued. Before arming the grenade, its safety switch need to be released by flipping it left revealing white dot, after which one must grip both grenade head and handle. Handle is pulled, rotated clockwise and pushed in – red dot appears to in the cut-out and indicates that the mechanism is now cocked. The latch is now moved to the right to turn safety on – leaving the mechanism cocked with safety engaged. Once that is done the last part of preparations is to open fuse well closed with small metal cover by rotating it counter-clockwise, insert fuse and rotate the cover back. Just before throwing safety latch needs to be rotated left to reveal red dot. The momentum of movements yanking head of the grenade off from handle while grenade is being thrown activates its percussion system with striker hitting a primer and setting of delay fuse with 3.5 – 4 second delay, which ignites detonator. Fuse cannot be fully inserted into fuse well unless the grenade has been first cocked and its safety switch set on safe. As if this had not been enough issues Finnish sources suggest that grenade may have also had reliability problem concerning fragmentation sleeve. To be more specific the locking system for fragmentation sleeve apparently may not have been strong enough and grenade that landed on hard surface could have its fragmentation sleeve dropping off unintentionally before it exploded.

PICTURE: Stick hand grenades taken from arrested Soviet desantti (spy/saboteur, they were typically parachute-dropped, hence the term) in July of 1941. Photograhed by A. Naittamo. Photographed by Turo Kartto. Photo crop. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 21364). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (85 KB).

The grenade was designed by engineer Mikhail G. Dyakonov and was manufactured in massive numbers with over 50 million grenades produced in 1933 - 1941, but proved much too complicated to manufacture and use, due to which it was replaced with much more rudimentary RG-42 starting year 1942. Soviet manual from 1938 suggested use of three grenades bundled together against fortifications. The Soviets had also practice grenade version of this hand grenade, which is slightly shorter, has no fragmentation jacket, but has large holes in head of the grenade. Without fragmentation shield RDG-33 produced about 2,000 fragments and with it about 2,400. Even if replaced in production, the stockpile of RDG-33 grenades in Soviet Union was so large, that it continued to see use until end of World War 2 and beyond – being supplied also into Korean War (1950 – 1953) and Vietnam War (1955 – 1975). The Germans referred captured RDG-33 in their inventory as Handgranate 337(r).

Finnish Army included RDG-33 in numerous manuals – which might be taken as indicator that it quickly became apparent that using this grenade most definitely required a manual. The first instructions about the matter in Taktillinen Opas VI (Guide for Tactics VI) published 23^rd of October 1939. It was followed by Aseopas I: Venäläisiä aseita (Weapons Manual I: Russian Weapons) manual also published during Winter War, separate Finnish manual for F-1 and RDG-33 also still published in year 1940 and finally its own page in Jalkaväen Ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) in year 1941. Still – considering the complicated use, one can only wonder how willing Finnish troops were to use captured RDG-33 grenades, if any other grenades were available. According inventory list made in January of 1941 at the time there were only about 4,200 total of these hand grenades in Finnish inventory at the time. One archive document suggests that in year 1944 Finnish Army was about to start modifying captured Soviet m/33 stick grenades as egg hand grenades – hence replacing the Soviet grenade handle with its complicated and difficult to use mechanism with simpler delay fuse system. 15^th of August 1944 approval was given for ordering from Metallitehdas Sähi (Metal Factory Sähi) 30,000 adapters 12/15 – 10/15 for the purpose. It is not known if the modification plan was completed in some scale, but considering how late in the war it was approved, it is quite possible that the order may have been cancelled already before first delivery.

Egg hand grenade F-1 fragmentation effect

(Fugasnyy 1, F-1) “Lemonka” / “Efka”

(Munakäsikranaatti F-1 sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Soviet egg hand grenade F-1 with Koleshnikov fuse. The Koleshnikov fuse seen here is early production variant made from brass. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (83 KB).

As mentioned during World War 1 and Russian Civil War French F.1 hand grenades had been delivered to Russia and about million total were captured by Red Army. The Russians were unhappy with the fuses delivered with the grenades, what is known suggests that they had been equipped with French percussion ignition fuses, which proved less than satisfactory. Hence the Soviets found it necessary to develop better fuse to be used with the grenades. That fuse was Koleshnikov fuse approved in use of Red Army in year 1928. Originally it was used with captured French F.1 grenades, but once the Soviets decided to start manufacturing copy of F.1 grenade and the fuse was used with it as well. Koleshnikov fuse is a percussion-ignited delay fuse with 3.5 – 4.5 second delay. The fuses early version lacked grip, which was added to its spring-loaded fuse cover in year 1931 and were built with mix of brass and steel components. Still during World War 2 the Soviets replaced Koleshnikov fuse in production with UZRG fuse developed by by E.M Vitseni and A.A. Bednyakov. In post-war era UZRG fuse was replaced with improved version known as UZRGM.

PICTURE: Bag of Soviet F-1 hand grenades captured in battle of Ruhtinaanmäki in January of 1940. The grenades do not have fuses attached. Photographer unknown. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 3552). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (80 KB).

As the French original, this grenade has strong external segmentation to 38 segments, but obviously vary in detail. Also as original it lacks any internal segmentation, hence the fragmentation pattern tends to very random, which individual large fragments being dangerous up to range of 200 meters. The effective range also varies considerably in different sources, ranging from 7 to 20 meters. Early version of Soviet F-1 grenade body seems to have been basically direct copy of French design, but year 1939 engineer Fydor I. Khrameev designed easier to mass-produce version of the grenade body, which was drill-through version with bottom plug and made from cast steel instead of cast iron. This new version replaced the old one in production circa 1940 – 1941. While originally loaded with TNT, during World War 2 the Soviets used also other explosives for these grenades. There was also a rare wartime version with ceramic body being manufactured in Leningrad. Copies of F-1 were manufactured later at least in Bulgaria, China and Iran and it remains to be widely used in number of countries and still sees use in various conflicts.

While Koleshikov fuse has appearance quite similar to commonly used modern hand grenade fuses, it is somewhat different. What may look like a lever does not tip over to release striker of percussion system, but is a grip that is part of fuse’s top cover, which is spring-loaded and tries to push up once the safety pin has been removed. Hence it needs to be kept down after safety pin is removed, since allowing it to pop up allows striker to hit primer, which ignites delay that sets off detonator. The delay inbuilt into the fuse was about 3.5 – 4.5 seconds.

PICTURE: Young Finnish officer with captured SVT-40 rifle and F-1 egg hand grenade with Koleshnikov fuse. Older private behind him has Suomi M/31 submachine gun. Photo crop. Photographed by 2^nd Lieutenant Sampo Kilpi. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 53397). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (175 KB).

Finnish Army captured its first F-1 hand grenades during Winter War. There is no information about how many were used by Finnish troops, but fuse design of Koleshnikov fuse is quite simple to use, so I would not be surprised if captured F-1 egg hand grenades were commonly used by Finnish soldiers when available. The grenade has good size and shape, which with its exterior pattern allow good grip. The safety pin is on different size than typically in hand grenade fuses. According inventory list from January of 1941, in total there were about 6,800 total captured in Winter War inventory at the time and grand majority of them were reserved for units of 4^th and 5^th Army Corps of Finnish Army. The instructions for use of the grenade were included to Aseopas I: Venäläisiä aseita (Weapons Manual I: Russian Weapons) manual published during Winter War and later still in year 1940 a separate manual named Venäläinen munakäsikranaatti F-1 (Russian egg hand grenade F-1) was published about it. The grenade was included also as its own page to Jalkaväen Ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) published in year 1941. Due to its history Soviet F-1 grenade is compatible with French fuses issued for F.1 and OF egg hand grenades, but Finnish manuals only list Koleshnikov fuse for it. Soviet UZRG fuse is not included to these manuals. This is probably due to Finnish military capturing grand majority of Soviet weapons, hand grenades included, during Winter War and during Finnish offensive in first year of Continuation War – and UZRG not yet being in Soviet use at the time.

Continuation War

Even after last delivery batches of foreign hand grenades ordered during Winter War had arrived the supply situation of Finnish Army was not particuarly good. 14^th of March 1940, the next day after ending of Winter War, calculations were made in Finnish Armed Forces GHQ about the hand grenade supply and how large a stockpile of grenades would be needed to properly equip Finnish Army. At the time Finnish stockpile as issued and stored to all levels of supply system contained in total about 884,000 hand grenades that were good to go, while according calculations size of the needed stockpile would have been no less than 1,249,000 grenades – indicating deficiency of about 365,000 grenades. In addition according calculations during war Army could be expected to spent as much as 150,000 hand grenades per month, so the existing stockpile could have all been spent in bit less than six months. At that time the most numerous hand grenades remaining in Finnish inventory were egg hand grenades m/32 with some 552,000 existing in inventory and stick hand grenades m/32 with about 127,000 in inventory. They were also the only hand grenade types remaining in depot system in any real numbers, while all other hand grenade designs had been stored to lower levels of supply system or issued to military units. In April of 1940 the supply situation started to improve with arrival of large deliveries of Hungarian egg hand grenade model U starting to arrive, which later proved less than satisfactory, but with about 300,000 being delivered filled the stockpile.It is worth noting that the mentioned calculations made about expenditure of hand grenades did not prove particularly accurate since the the offensive launched by Finnish Army in beginning of Contunuation War in July of 1941 for a large part reached its objective in Carelian Isthmus in only two months and then and turned into trench war. While offensive in areas north of Lake Laatokka / Ladoga continued longer the last phase of offensive ended there in December of 1941 with battles also turning into trench war. Being most of times notably less intense than large-scale offensive or defensive operations, the consumption of ammunition (hand grenades included) was notably smaller. With shift to trench war estimated expenditure dropped from 14,000 hand grenades per month to mere 5,000 per month. The trench war period in Finnish - Soviet front would continue until June of 1944, when Soviet offensive started new phase of defensive warfare, during which the expenditure of hand granades again climbed rapidly.

PICTURE: Photo crop of four Finnish soldiers from front row of group photo showing infantry platoon sometime during Continuation War. The four soldiers seen in the photo have egg hand grenades m/32 hanging from breast pockets of their summer tunics m/36. Considering that pulling safety pin from the fuse m/32 used in these grenades only allows removal of safety cap and reveals another safety under it, this was likely a very smart way of carrying these grenades. Two soldiers in the middle have stick hand grenades m/32 hanging from their belts. Photographed by Senior Sergeant T. Mäkinen. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 39027). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (252 KB).

7^th of October 1940 Finnish Army depot system housed only 9,349 stick hand grenades and as many as 258,448 egg hand grenades (Hungarian egg hand grenade model U), with unknown number of grenades stored at lower levels of supply system and issued to military units, although there probably had not been much practical change since April of 1940 beyond size of wartime Finnish Armed Forces being expanded, due to which the size of hand grenade stockpile needed to be expanded. Feedback based on combat experiences from Winter War for both stick hand grenade m/32 and egg hand grenade m/32 had been quite positive. Finnish hand grenade production was kept running also during Interim Peace between Winter War and Continuation War with deliveries of egg hand grenade m/32 continuing without any real pause until February of 1941 and production of stick hand grenade m/32 being re-started with new deliveries starting from January of 1941. Due to this production the hand grenade stockpile was slowly growing in size, but at rather slow rate. 1^st of February 1941 Finnish Army depot system housed 33,278 stick hand grenades and 372,324 egg hand grenades with lower levels of supply system and military units being fairly well supplied.

PICTURE: Private of Finnish Army photographed crushing coffee beans in helmet with stick hand grenade m/32. While Western Allies referred German stick hand grenade as "potato masher" the design apparently did suite some culinary use. Finns are the nation that consumes most coffee per capita in the world and coffee was rationed from October of 1939 to year 1954. Photographed by 2^nd Lieutenant Sampo Kilpi in August of 1941 in region of Kiestinki / Kestenga. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 53382). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (153 KB).

25^th of June 1941 marked starting of another war for Finland – Continuation War. While the supply situation had improved notably since end of Winter War, but at the same time size of wartime Finnish Armed Forces had been expanded, so the supply situation was not completely satisfactory. According calculations made by Ordnance Department of Finnish Armed Forces GHQ in January of 1941, the hand grenade stockpile at the time was in total about 770,000 hand grenades, which was still about 600,000 hand grenades short of the required total number seen necessary to supply Army in battle for three months and maintaining necessary stockpile in supply system. Following Finnish – German treaty for transport of German troops to and from northern Norway in Germany had started supplying Finland with military equipment starting from September of 1940. Hence when Finnish Army launched its offensive in July of 1941 and heavy fighting of following months caused considerably high expenditure of hand grenades, rapidly reduced size of existing stockpile, the solution was buying 500,000 hand grenades from Germany. Those 500,000 hand grenades bought from Germany were stielhandgranate 24 stick hand grenades. Finnish military received 499,700 hand grenades total, with delivery arriving in two ships. The larger of these shipments was 434,700 grenades, which arrived with S/S Lütjehorn in 10^th of August 1941 and the smaller shipment of 15,000 grenades with S/S Immo-Ragnar in 24^th of September 1941. In between 1^st of July 1941 and 1^th

Stick hand grenade Sa/39 blast effect

(Stielhandgranate 24)

(varsikäsikranaatti Sa/39 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Stick hand grenade Sa/39 (Stielhandgranate 24). Notice text in grenade head and other details. Photo source Digitaltmuseum.se - original photo by Armémuseum (Sweden). Used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (48 KB).

Stielhandgranate 24 was further development directly based on last German World War 1 era Stielhandgranate m/1917. Unlike its predecessors it had no carry hook and staring mid 1930’s star-shaped end cap had been replaced with simpler design. It was also slightly longer and somewhat narrower than earlier German stick hand grenades. Otherwise the grenade shared their basic design with cylindrical steel metal head containing explosives and hollow wooden handle (stick) containing fuse system. Head of the grenade and other metal parts being normally painted olive green. Two versions of fuse system similar in working principle but differed in construction were used in these grenades:

• Brennzünder 24 (Bz. 24) fuse
• Brennzünder 39 (Bz. 39) fuse

Both of these fuses were friction-activated fuses with delay tube and number 8 detonator.

During its production stielhandgranate 24 was loaded with two kind of high explosives – TNT (Füllpulver 02 mix) and Donarit, which was ammonium-nitrate based explosive. Early production grenades were loaded with TNT, with the shift into using Donarit for the purpose started in in February of 1940. Finnish ammunition manuals only mention only TNT as explosive used in the grenades, but it is not known for sure if there were also grenades loaded with Donarit among those delivered to Finland. The grenades were delivered in purpose-built suitcase-shape steel crates, each containing 15 grenades with detonators being stored in small boxes of 15 detonators inside each crate.

PICTURE: Finnish soldiers with stacks of crates for German stick hand grenade Sa/39 (Stielhandgranate 24) on ammunition storage or supply dump of some sort. Photographed by Military official O. Hedenström in April of 1944. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 68615). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (138 KB).

During production number of simplifications were introduced to make production faster and save materials. For example, the exact of threaded parts that are used to attach head of the grenade into wooden handle (stick) were modified several times during production. Maybe the most visible early simplification was omitting the familiar stencilled text VOR GEBRAUCH SPRENGSKAPSEL EINSETZEN (Before use insert detonator) from head of the grenade, which happened already in year 1940. There were also certain parts, the grenade’s head part with crimped edge and rain-cap to which the grenade head was screwed into, which the German industry had re-painted after the grenade had been assembled, but this practice was discontinued circa 1941 – 1942. Four small screws used to attach rain-cap into wooden handle were also replaced with pressed cuts and ultimately in year 1943 also end cap design was simplified by replacing cardboard disc with spring that had kept porcelain ring under pressure with just basic cardboard disk. Year 1944 Stielhandgranate was replaced in production with cheaper and easier to produce stielhandgranate 43, which has solid wooden handle and uses the same Brennzünder 39 ignition fuse as with egg hand grenade eihandgranate 39. Both stielhandgranate 24 and stielhandgranate 43 were offensive (blast effect) hand grenades, but year 1942 the Germans introduced as their accessory splitterring fragmentation jacket, adding of which to grenade provided fragmentation effect. Two version of the fragmentation jacket were manufactured – SS model and Heer (Army) model. While fragmentation jacket made the grenade more effective, it apparently also reduced its maximum throwing range considerably. Nebelhandgranate 39 was smoke hand grenade version based on stielhandgranate 24 and had head filled with zinc powder and hexachlorethan. To give some idea about production numbers in year 1941 German industry produced some 4.8 million and in year 1942 some 5.9 million stick hand grenades.

PICTURE: Finnish soldier throws stick hand grenade Sa/39, while his fellow soldier provides cover with his Suomi m/31 submachine gun. Photographed by Tauno Norjavirta. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 49024). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (118 KB).

As mentioned Finland ordered 500,000 stielhandgranate 24 from Germany in year 1941 and 494,700 were delivered in August - September of 1941. Feature-wise the grenades delivered to Finland were apparently at least mostly the production variant often referred as version of year 1939.

Finnish Army named German stielhandgranate 24 as stick hand grenade Sa/39 (varsikäsikranaatti Sa/39), with “Sa” referring to Saksa (Germany) or saksalainen (German). While the German grenade was somewhat larger and heavier than its Finnish equivalent stick hand grenade m/32, the practical differences concerning how the grenade readied for use or used in combat were for all practical purposes identical, which must have made it easy to introduced for use of Finnish troops. What is known suggests that the grenade was apparently quite popular in Finnish use. Finnish Army did not acquire or use splitterring fragmentation sleeve, stielhandgranate 43 or nebelhandgranate 39, but nebelhandgranate 39 may have effected development of Finnish smoke stick hand grenades during Continuation War.

PICTURE: I doubt the German military envisioned this sort of use for their Stielhandgranate 24 while developing it, but Finnish military has always been good at improvising. Finnish soldier with improvised crossbox capable launching stick hand grenades Sa/39 up to range of 75 meters. Photographed by Ensio Lindholm. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 129668). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (160 KB).

Last part of the Finnish offensive that had been launched in July of 1941 ended in 6^th of December 1941. Ammunition supply report dated few days after that in 11^th of December 1941 indicates that by that time in total 292.542 egg hand grenades and 230.496 stick hand grenades had been spent. At the same time Finnish hand grenade stockpile contained 390.220 egg hand grenades and 498.551 stick hand grenades.

MID-WAR – NEW HAND GRENADES

While feedback concerning stick and egg hand grenades m/32 from Winter War had been mostly positive, there was development work done for new improved grenade designs. Two new Finnish hand grenade designs designed at that time saw mass-production - stick hand grenade m/41 and fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41.

Stick hand grenade m/41 blast effect

(varsikäsikranaatti 41 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Finnish stick hand grenade m/41. Notice that this design has the same grenade head design as in stick hand grenade m/32 but does no longer have carry hook. Metal parts of of this grenade have the typical gun lacquer finish.("5 sek") marking indicates 5 second fuse delay. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (66 KB).

This Finnish stick hand grenade is basically the same as earlier stick hand grenade m/32, but without carry hook and equipped with new fuse design. While leaving out carry hook is the notable visible change, the change of model marking was probably due to new fuse design. The removal of carry hook from the manufacturing blueprints had been officially approved already in September of 1940 and there are some m/32 stick hand grenades in collections with it removed. The manufacturing of stick hand grenade m/32 did not end until December of 1942 and the first stick hand grenades m/41 were not delivered until May of 1943. Hence it seems highly unlikely that the change of grenade model designation would have been due to it.

As to be expected the basic design of stick hand grenade m/41 is identical to its predecessor and its MS/41 fuse is also percussion-activated delay fuse, which functions the same manner as the fuse design that it replaced. Considering naming of the fuse, it seems possible it was manufactured by Matti Saurio Oy (Matti Saurio Ltd). Otherwise manufacturers for components and manufacturing process seems to have also been the same as with stick hand grenade m/32 and the typical finish for external metal surfaces of this grenade was also similar - gun lacquer. Like late production stick hand grenade m/32 the metal components attached to wooden handle are mainly attached to it with pressed cuts instead of metal screws. The grenades were normally transported in metal boxes of 15 grenades or alternatively in old wooden crates originally made for stick hand grenade m/28 and with capacity of 50 grenades per crate. Detonators (detonator number 8) were shipped separately packed in small wooden boxes inside transport boxes/crates of the grenades and only installed to grenades when they were prepared for use.

The only order made for this grenade is order number 597/42 made in March of 1942 for 117,500 grenades total. The deliveries for this order started in May of 1943 with large shipment being delivered in November of that year, although the last large deliveries happened already in June. The total number of grenades delivered was 99,567. It is more than likely that the manufacturing of this hand grenade ended due to decisions made by Hand Grenade Committee. Since the order had been made already earlier and manufacturing of components had started, the order was presumably allowed to run until the available inventory of components had been exhausted. Still, there must have been stockpile of certain components being left behind unused, since later on heads of stick hand grenade m/41 would see use in two egg hand grenade designs built by putting them into use – egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect (munakäsikranaatti m/41 miinavaikutteinen) and post-war egg hand grenade m/41-61 blast effect (munakäsikranaatti m/41-61 miinavaikutteinen).

Egg hand grenade m/41 fragmentation effect

(munakäsikranaatti 41 sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/41 fragmentation effect with fuse m/32. Fuse m/32 was the standard fuse design used with these grenades. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (77 KB).

This is Finnish defensive egg hand grenade was developed during World War 2 and replaced egg hand grenade m/32 in production. It has built from two cast iron (or semi-steel - documents do not specify exact material) components - cup-shaped body section with vertical groves and top cover. The two parts are attached to one another with metal wire and top-cover has “S” marking of the iron works that manufactured the components – Rauta- ja metallivalimo Suomi (Iron- and Metal Foundry Suomi). Another marking found on top-cover is “41” indicating model. It appears to be much easier and faster to produce than egg hand grenade m/32 since the cast iron components are simple to produce, since exterior surface does not need to be fancied up and there is not need for base plug. The cast iron body is thick enough for the purpose with rather deep external grooves, but does not have internal segmentation, so its fragmentation must have still been quite random. While I have not seen any reports suggesting about problems with the design, in which two sections of the grenade body are locked one another with metal wire going around the lugs, later egg hand grenade m/43 which replaced this grenade in production, was equipped with notably larger lugs for locking wire, which suggests that there may have been some sort of problem with lug design used in this grenade. While none of the Finnish sources mention comment this, considering the basic structural design, it seems possible that the grenade body used in in this grenade may have been invented by Colonel (later: Major General) Arvo Ensio Saloranta (1895 – 1976). The explosive charge used in egg hand grenade m/41 (and later in egg hand grenade m/43) was a pre-moulded cylindrical block of TNT, which weight about 60 grams. Size-wise the the pre-moulded explosive charge of TNT 29 mm in diameter, 80 mm long and with hole 9 mm in diameter in centre of the block along its axis.

PICTURE: Finnish sentry that is wearing plash palatka raincape / shelter half with Suomi M/31 submachine gun and four hand grenades. Partially visible behind the drum magazine is fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 with fuse m/32 and more poorly visible behind it egg hand grenade m/32. The stick hand grenades appear to be Finnish - either M/32 or m/41.Photographed by Military official Esko Töyri in September of 1944. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 160246). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (200 KB).

The standard fuse design used with this grenade was fuse m/32 (sytytin 32-16/20), which as name suggests had been introduced with egg hand grenade m/32 already before World War 2. But the grenade was also compatible with Finnish K-39 and MS/40 friction-activated delay fuses made from Bakelite and may have seen some use with those fuses. These grenades were transported in wooden crates of 20 pcs with fuses removed, but packaged in the same crate. The wooden crate used for the purpose was the same as with other Finnish egg hand grenades. Inside the wooden crate was a wooden plank with slots cut into it for storing m/32 or MS/40 fuses.

PICTURE: Machine gunner with Lahti-Saloranta M/26 light machinegun has fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 with-in arms reach. Photo crop. Photographed by Military official J.M. Vuorela in August of 1944. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number 156395). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (105 KB).

There were two orders made for this hand grenade:

• Order number 715/41 made in November of 1941 for 30,000 grenades. Whole order of 30,000 was delivered in December of 1941.
• Order number 184/42 S4 made in March of 1942 for 150,000 grenades. Total number of 150,500 grenades were delivered in patches in between September of 1942 and August of 1943. "Extra" 500 grenades were likely included to the order for quality control testing purposes and intended to be blown up under controlled conditions.

The first order of 30,000 seems unusually small and may have been intended for large-scale field testing. The second order of 150,000 differs from previous orders of egg hand grenades because loading TNT into grenade bodies was outsourced to facility of Asevarikko 1 (Weapons Depot 1) on Vallisaari Island. Previously Valtion Ammuslataamo (State Ammunition Loading Plant) loaded TNT into all hand grenades, but in this case it only delivered necessary grenade components to Vallisaari facility. The components included necessary number of fuses m/32 assembled by from fuse components manufactured by Sytytin Oy and detonators number 8 used with fuses.

When manufacturing of fragmentation egg hand grenade ended in Autumn of 1941, it was replaced in production by egg hand grenade m/43, which was slightly improved version based on it.

Egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect

(munakäsikranaatti 41 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenades m/41 blast effect. The one on the left is unusual being made from head of stick hand grenade m/28. These grenades were equipped with K/39 and MS/40 fuses. The one seen left is with MS/40 fuse, while the standard egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect on the right is with bakelite plug used for storage and transport. (Photograph provided by friendly collector for Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (74 KB).

This offensive egg hand grenade is basically head of stick hand grenade m/41 turned into egg hand grenade by leaving out handle components and replacing them with either K/39 or MS/40 friction-activated delay fuse. While page for the grenade had been included to Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) manual already in October of 1941 it seems that it may have been intended as “Plan B” sort of solution for such a situation in which production of hand grenades needed to be boosted beyond delivery capability of manufacturers who made components for stick hand grenades. I have not been able to find any order for these hand grenades, but I was able to find in Finnish National Archives some documents with approvals for orders of components needed to their production – which are all from summer of 1944 and hence could have been caused by Soviet offensive, which had started in 9^th of June 1944 in Carelian Isthmus.

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect with K/39 fuse. The grenade head used in this case seems to be finished with gun lacquer. (Photograph provided by friendly collector for Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (46 KB).

To be more specific these approvals for orders are:

- 19^th of June 1944 approval given for ordering 100,000 grenade bodies for the grenade model from G.W. Sohlberg for price of 2.80 FIM/pcs.

- 13^th of August 1944 approval for ordering 50,000 adapters for the grenade model for price of 2.34 FIM/pcs.

In addition, ammunition production plan drawn to start from beginning of July 1944 had plans for future monthly production of 50,000 blast effect egg hand grenades, similar number of fragmentation egg hand grenades and 5,000 satchel charges / antitank hand grenades. But according reports at least by September of 1944 there had been no deliveries of this grenade, hence the mass-production apparently did not start at least during World War 2. Finnish - Soviet Continuation War ended in September 1944 and while it was followed by Finnish - German Lapland War, Finnish Armed Forces in general cancelled orders of military equipment (including ammunition), which had not yet been delivered. Finnish development and production of ordnance materials was not re-started in substantial scale until year 1952. At this moment nothing is known about possible post-war production of this hand grenade.

The idea for finding use for putting unused heads previously manufactured for stick hand grenade m/41 re-surfaced in post-war era with new adapter piece made from nylon and fuse m/55 being combined with it to create egg hand grenade m/41-61 blast effct (munakäsikranaatti m/41-61 miinavaikutteinen).

HAND GRENADE COMMITTEE

Hand grenade committee (Käsikranaattitoimikunta) was committee set up by Finnish military to make decisions concerning future production of hand grenades. The committee had two meetings – first in 30^th of November 1942 and second time in 11^th of January 1943. In between the two meetings it arranged testing of hand grenades existing in Finnish inventory at the time. Chairman of the committee was Colonel Kaarlo Julenius and committee members were Lieutenant-Colonel Linkomies, Engineer-Major E. Periäinen, Captain Jussila, Captain Lehto, Captain Rusama and Lieutenant Näätänen.

PICTURE: Colonel Kaarlo Julenius (1896 - 1956) was chairman of Hand Grenade Committee, which existed in 1942 - 1943. In 1930's he had been assistant for General Vilho Nenonen. He had been commander of Artillery School in 1930 - 1941 and during Continuation War served in Artillery Office of Finnish Armed Forces GHQ. Photographer unknown. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photo number a_797). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (88 KB).

First committee meeting

The first question that the committee started mediating was if there was need for manufacturing both stick hand grenade and egg hand grenade. The early unanimous conclusions were that egg hand grenade was better suited of the two for Finnish terrain covered by forests because it was less likely to be deflected by foliage when thrown and the goal should be to produce one hand grenade model only. It was noted that while stick grenades could be thrown further, the difference in maximum throwing distance was insignificant. In addition weather-proofing of hand grenade fuse was noted to be easier if being packed separately for transport and storage. Fragmentation hand grenade was noted to be more effective than blast effect hand grenade and to be a functional solution also for offensive use, although one of the committee members preferred option of blast effect hand grenade, which could be equipped with fragmentation sleeve.

When it came to detonators it was noted that none of the existing Finnish hand grenade fuses was filling the requirements when it came to production cost, length of delay and weatherproofing. From foreign fuses the fuse design used with panssaripanos m/42 (hafthohlladund) was considered to be the best design (*) due to its simple structural design, low production cost and good weatherproofing capability. Another big question was if there were any hand grenade designs, which were not necessary to keep in production and came to conclusion that manufacturing of stick hand grenades could be ended, but if it was necessary to keep one in production, it was to be stick hand grenade m/41. Decision was made that possible further acquisitions of following hand grenade models were to be absolutely rejected:

• Egg hand grenade m/U
• Egg hand grenade m/Mörner
• Egg hand grenade m/32
• Egg hand grenade m/17 (eierhandgranate m/17)

The reasons behind this absolute rejection was due to user experiences and cost of manufacturing. It was noted that egg hand grenade m/32 had originally been developed to be also used in mortars and its manufacturing cost was much too high.

The committee wanted to study closer following hand grenade designs:

• Egg hand grenade m/O.F. (French O.F)
• Egg hand grenade m/F (French F1)
• Egg hand grenade m/F-1 (Soviet F-1)
• Egg hand grenade Mills (No. 36M)
• Egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect
• Egg hand grenade m/41 fragmentation effect

The goal of closer study was to determine if one of the particular grenades could be placed into production as they were or after minor modifications.

Second committee meeting

When the committee met the second time it had in its use test results from testing of hand grenade performed in Santahamina military base in 17^th of December 1942. They indicated that:

• The most successful hand grenade in throwing tests was French egg hand grenade O.F, with Finnish egg hand grenade m/41 fragmentation effect and egg hand grenade m/41 blast effect designs proving second and third best. When thrown in forest terrain with typical density of vegetation 69% of thrown stick hand grenades were deflected by foliage, while with egg hand grenades the number was 43%. When it came to average throwing distance in such conditions, it proved to be about five meters in favour of egg hand grenades.
• Fragmentation tests in which fragmentation effect was measured from radius of five and ten meters from exploding grenade fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 proved to be the most successful design, while French egg hand grenade F proved second best and British Mills (No 36M) third most effective.

Hence the committee’s conclusion was to support adaptation of fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 as standard hand grenade and if having hand grenade with blast effect was seen necessary, then blast egg hand grenade m/41 was recommended for the purpose. While I have not seen document that would explicitly indicate that Finnish hand grenade acquisitions from that on were based on the committee’s findings, production of stick hand grenades did end, although later than one might expect and fragmentation egg hand grenades became the new standard. As for the committee’s favourite fuse design for hand grenades – it would later appear to Finnish use.

YEAR 1944

Egg hand grenade m/43 fragmentation effect

(munakäsikranaatti 43 sirpalevaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/43 fragmentation effect with fuse m/32. Late production fuses m/32 were equipped with safety cap made from aluminium seen here. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (78 KB).

This defensive egg hand grenade was the last World War 2 era Finnish hand grenade to enter mass-production. It was clearly based on earlier fragmentation egg hand grenade m/41 with similar basic structural design of grenade body consisting two cast iron parts, cup-shaped body with vertical grooves on exterior surface and top-cover with the two parts being locked to another with thin metal wire zig-zagging the lugs of those parts. When compared to its predecessor the only real changes were change of top-cover design with the new top-cover having notably larger locking lugs and the markings on top-cover. There were two manufacturers for the grenade bodies, each with their own set of markings – Rauta ja Metallivalimo Suomi (Iron and Metal Foundry Suomi) used top-cover markings “R M 43”, while Veljekset Friis Oy (Brothers Friis Ltd) used “V F 44” markings. From these two manufacturers Veljekset Friis Oy appears to be the rarer one, which is probably related to number of grenade bodies ordered from each manufacturer.

PICTURE: Finnish fragmentation egg hand grenades m/41 and m/43 - how to easily identify, which is which? Check the pattern formed by copper wire from the top - M/41 on the left and M/43 on the right. Original orders for these grenades specified brass or copper wire to be used, but also iron wire have been used with them at least later on. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (89 KB).

As with previous fragmentation egg hand grenades m/32 and m/41, the standard fuse for this grenade was percussion-activated delay fuse m/32 (sytytin 32-16/20), but also friction-activated K/39 and MS/40 fuses made from Bakelite were compatible with it. While the grenade was rather deep external grooves, it does not have internal segmentation, hence fragmentation probably tended to be rather random.

Finnish military placed two orders for egg hand grenade m/43:

• Order number 47/44 Stal.4 made in January of 1944 for 150,000 grenades and specified number being delivered in batches in between May and September of 1944.
• Order number 680/44 made in 26th of August 1944 for 150,000 grenades, from which only 60,000 were delivered in delivery batches, which all happened in November of 1944. Rest of the order was cancelled with request to stop production by 1^st of December 1944.

With both orders the actual work of assembling loading grenades with TNT, assembling and packaging them to transport crates with fuses was bought from a private company – Oy Ammus (Ltd Projectile), which later proved to be problematic decision. The final expenditure and hence cost per unit proved higher than originally expected, with post-war legal battles between Finnish military and Oy Ammus about the matter. No information is available about post-war production numbers.

Egg hand grenade Sa/39 blast effect

(Eihandgranate 39)

(munakäsikranaatti Sa/39 miinavaikutteinen)

PICTURE: Two examples of German egg hand grenade model 1939, known as egg hand grenade Sa/39 in Finnish use. Both of these deactivated grenades have been repainted, hence the fuses no longer have colour markings. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (90 KB).

This German offensive egg hand grenade was introduced in year 1939 and manufactured until end of World War 2. The basic concept of grenade was small and light egg hand grenade that could be carried in large numbers and thrown far may have been based to World War 1 era German Eierhandgranate m/1917, but unlike its predecessor it had been designed not as defensive, but offensive hand grenade. Hence it has smooth oval grenade body made of thin sheet metal. The grenade body has two stamped halves, which are crimped into another with seam going around “waist” of the grenade. Fuse is attached to crimped fuse well, which is on top of the grenade. Considering similarities, it seems likely that French O.F. hand grenade may have served as inspiration for the structural design. Year 1942 carry ring located in bottom of the grenade was added to the design. Fuse was activated by rotating its knob counter-clockwise until it gets loose and reveals piece of string, after which the knob and string attached to it are pulled to get the fuse going.

The fuse used with this grenade was friction-activated BZE 39 (Brennzünder Eifer 39) delay igniter with number 8 detonator. There were four versions of this fuse. fuse colour-coded for their delay options:

• Red: 1 second delay
• Blue: 4.5 second delay
• Yellow: 7.5 second delay
• Grey: 10 second delay

From these four versions blue version was the standard version used in vast majority of the grenades. Red fuse was what is often referred as “zero-delay fuse” and typically used when grenade was used to build booby-trap, but also with smoke grenade version. Yellow fuse was also used with Hafthohlladung 3 antitank-weapon. For mass-production igniters tended to have a small safety margin, which could add up to one second in their actual delay. The fuse could be equipped with piece of steel that gave it “wings”, which made removing of fuse easier. Finnish Army only acquired blue fuses (with 4.5 – 5.5 second delay) for its Sa/39 hand grenades and it is worth noting that this fuse was the very fuse design, which Hand Grenade Commission of Finnish Army had previously considered to be the best hand grenade fuse design that they had seen by far. Hence their valuations likely effected why Finnish Army decided in 1944 to acquire these particular hand grenades. Finnish Army knew particular fuse model as fuse Sa/39 10/30 (sytytin Sa/39 10/30).

Besides standard offensive hand grenade version, there were also two special versions of this grenade – smoke hand grenade which produced red smoke and throw practice version with painted red with holes through grenade body. Donarit was Ammonium Nitrate based explosive and therefore powerful high explosive, but 112 grams is not terribly much for offensive hand grenade, which does raise a question how effective this grenade actually was. Apparently German industry could paint this grenade with variety of colours including green-grey, black and yellow-brown. They were delivered in suitcase-shaped steel transport cases of 30 grenades with detonators removed and only inserted into grenades when being prepared for use. The steel transport cases used for the purpose were similar to those used for Stielhandgranate 24 stick hand grenades, but with different sort of internal structure. Detonators were packed separately into transport cases in boxes each containing 15 detonators. German industry started manufacturing fragmentation sleeve (splittermantel) for this hand grenade in year 1944 – but it was rare even in German use and never acquired by Finnish Army.

PICTURE: Photo crop showing Finnish soldier in snow camo suit with German Sa/39 and French O.F egg hand grenades hanging from his leather belt m/30. Hanging from the best is also 71-round drum magazine Suomi m/31 submachine gun. Photographed by Uuno Laukka. (SA-kuva.fi photo archive, photograph number 76663). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (131 KB).

Soviet offensive in Finnish front that started in June of 1944 ended the relative lull of trench war and caused dramatic increase in demand of hand grenades with almost 200,000 hand grenades being spent just in June of 1944. The expenditure raised at alarmingly high level and threatened to spent the whole stockpile since Finnish production was not able to meet the demand. Hence Finnish military decided to order 150,000 egg hand grenade Sa/39, as the Finnish military referred to German eihandgranate 39. The grenades were delivered with S/S Aldebaran delivering total number of 149,087 in 9^th of August 1944 and the grenade was added to Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II) military manual in 20^th of August 1944. Only version of this grenade that Finnish Army acquired was blast effect hand grenade. Considering that the delivered happened so late in the war, chances are that not all of the grenades were necessarily even issued before ending of the war.

END OF THE WAR

Continuation War in between Finland and Soviet Union ended to armistice signed in 4^th of September 1944. Due to requirements of armistice treaty Finland ended up fighting against German troops stationed in Finnish Lapland – Lapland War fought from 15^th of September 1944 to 27^th of April 1945. By early November of 1944 Lapland War had for practical purposes concluded, with major battles being over and there being occasional small skirmishes. According statistics from 1^st of November 1944 by that time Finnish Army had spent:

- 732,191 fragmentation effect egg hand grenades

- 446,751 blast effect egg hand grenades

- 1,071,843 stick hand grenades

- Total: 2,250,765 hand grenades

In addition Finnish troops had spent by that time 85,245 satchel charges / antitank hand grenades and other special hand grenades.

Another set of wartime statics suggests that combined expenditure of hand grenades and satchel charges during Continuation War reached following numbers:

1^st of October 1944 Finnish Army depot system, storages of various levels and its military units had in total:

• 150,484 fragmentation effect egg hand grenades
• 146,239 blast effect egg hand grenades
• 107,499 stick hand grenades
• 14,340 satchel charges / antitank hand grenades

PICTURE: Finnish egg hand grenade m/55 - a combination of grenade body of egg hand grenade m/43 and fuse m/55. Yellow paint on fuse indicates that it was a dud item used for training even before surplused with deactivated grenade. (Copyrights of the photograph Jaeger Platoon Website). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (89 KB).

When it comes to post World War 2 era hand grenades, grenade bodies of fragmentation egg hand grenades m/41 and m/43 enjoyed a very long career, but with new fuses, which since World War 2 have already been replaced numerous times. Post World War 2 fuse models intended for these grenades include fuses m/55, m/71. m/83 and m/95. From these two m/43 grenade body with fuse m/95 apparently still remain in use along much more modern fragmentation egg hand grenade M95 and blast effect egg hand grenade M99. All of the new fuses that replaced wartime fuses used with grenade bodies m/41 and m/43 were the basic delay fuse type, in which removing safety pin and releasing the lever activates the percussion igniter – the type of fuse design, which have since become the de facto standard hand grenade fuse design worldwide. Early on after World War 2 also grenade bodies fragmentation egg hand grenades F and F.1 modified to work with Finnish fuses were apparently issued with fuse m/55. Other World War 2 era hand grenades are long gone from Finnish inventory, with new blast effect egg and fragmentation effect hand grenades and phosphorus egg hand grenades being introduced since.

SOURCES (FOR GRENADES PARTS AND 2):

Books, articles and military manuals:

Ampumatarvikkeiden valmistus Suomessa vuosina 1939 – 1944 by Risto Erjola.

Räjähteet Suomessa by Mikko Uola.

Räjähdysaineoppi by Jalo Wuorinen

Suomen sota, 11. Osa, sotatalous by Eversti E.O. Tirronen

The Hand Grenade by Gordon L. Rottman.

Waffen Arsenal Band 174, Deutsche Handgranaten 1914 – 1945 by Wolfgang Fleischer.

Hand Grenades, a Handbook on Rifle and Hand Grenades. Compiled and illustrated by Major Graham M. Ainslie 1917. Republished by Naval and Military Press.

Waffen und Gerät der Sowjetischen Landstreitkräfte by Richard F. Arndt.

Article: Iske ja heitä! (Strike and Throw!) by Jyri Paulaharju in Ase magazine vol 5/87.

Article: Valkoisen Suomen ensimäinen kranaattitehdas (The First Bomb Factory of White Finland) by Kurt Buch in Suojeluskuntalaisen lehti vol. 23/1923 – 25/1923.

Article: Kauhavan pommitehdas (Bomb Factory of Kauhava) by Vihtori Kosola in Hakkapeliitta magazine vol. 5/1928.

Article: Unkari ja Suomen talvisota / Hungary and the Finnish Winter War by Gábor Richly in Sotahistoriallinen Aikakauskirja 15 / Journal of Military History 15 (1996).

Military manual: Käsigranaatit (Hand Grenades) by Niilo Hernberg (published year 1925).

Military manual: Käsikranaatit ja kiväärikranaatit (Hand Grenades and Rifle Grenades) by General Staff of Finnish Armed Forces (published year 1926).

Military manual: Käsikranaattiharjoitusohjesääntö (KKR.H.O.) ehdotus (Standing Orders about Hand Grenade Practice) (published year 1927).

Military manual: Munakäsikranaatti m/32 (Egg Hand Grenade m/32) (published 1939).

Military manual: Varsikäsikranaatti m/32 (Stick Hand Grenade m/32) (published year 1939).

Military manual: Unkarilainen käsikranaatti (Hungarian Hand Grenade) (published year 1940).

Military manual: Aseopas I, venäläisiä aseita (Weapons Guide I, Soviet Weapons) by GHQ of Finnish Armed Forces (published 7^th of January 1940).

Military manual: Jalkaväen ampumatarvikkeet II (Ammunition for Infantry II).

Military manual: Jalkaväen ryhmänjohtaja. Opas nuorelle upseerille by P. Huhtala. (Squad Leader for Infantry. Guide to Junior Officer). (Printed year 1932).

Military manual: Upseeri. Upseerien ja aliupseerien kertaus- ja jatko-opiskelukirja by P. Huhtala. (Officer’s and Non-commissioned Officer’s Book for Refresher and Further Studies). (4t^h edition published in year 1942).

Military manual: FSTC 381-5042: Handbook of Foreign Explosives.

Military manual: Anleitung über den Gebrauch der Hand- und Gewehrgranaten (Printed year 1917).

Websites:

Lexpev.nl (from year 2017 in Wayback Machine) - Grenades, mines and boobytraps.

Passion & Compassion 1914 – 1918.

Carnets d’un collectionneur de grenades francaises (in French).

Weapons of First World War (in Russian).

Bergflak’s Lounge.

Inert-Ord.net.

Swedish Handgranates page by Olof Janson in Gothia Arms Historical Society webpage.

The Mills Grenade Collectors site.

Ordnance.info.

Youtube:

Evelution of the German Stick Grenade on Militaria Reviewed channel in Youtube.

Archive documents:

T-2049/24: Inventory lists of Weapons Depot 3 years 1918 – 1924.

T-2219/9: Inventory lists of Weapons Depot 1 years 1920 – 1922.

T-4380/6: Inventory lists of depots years 1922 – 1925.

T-4360/7: Inventory lists of depots years 1931 – 1935.

T-4384/5: Inventory lists of depots years 1918 – 1923.

T-17278/7: GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Acquisition documents for ammunition 1941 – 1943.

T-17279/1. Ministry of Defence, Ordnance Department. Documents for acquisitions of ammunition 1938 - 1941.

T-17279/4. GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Documents for acquisitions of ammunition 1938 - 1939.

T-17667/2. GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Documents for acquisitions of ammunition 1944 - 1945.

T-17667/3. GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Documents for acquisitions of ammunition 1944 - 1945.

T-17669/8: GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Documents for acquisitions of ammunition 1943 - 1946.

T-17674/19: Ammunition Office for Ministry of Defence. Reports about acquisitions of weapons and ammunition in 1939 – 1945.

T-17677/18: Ammunition Office for Ministry of Defence. Correspondence, reports and protocols 1943 - 1947.

T-17677/19: Ammunition Office for Ministry of Defence. Reports for manufacturing of weapons and ammunition 1939 – 1944 and 1945.

T-18413/1: Ministry of Defence, Ordnance Department. Correspondence and inventory reports 1928 – 1941.

T-18419/1: Report of Ordnance Department activities during Winter War and mobilisation predating it. List of small arms ammunition delivered by 15th of April 1940.

T-18421/1 and T-18421/2: Inventory lists of weapons and ammunition issued to Finnish military units in year 1930.

T-18421/10: Inventory lists of weapons and ammunition issued to Finnish military units in year 1934.

T-18460/16: GHQ Ordnance Department correspondence 1929 – 1930.

T-18460/17: GHQ Ordnance Department correspondence 1933 – 1935.

T-18461/9: GHQ Ordnance Department yearly reports during Continuation War.

T-19043/5: Inventory reports of Weapons and Ammunition Depots 1940 - 1941.

T-19045/6: Finnish GHQ report 1^st of January 1940 about main characteristics of captured hand grenade 1914/30.

T-19380/6: GHQ, HQ of Military Economy, Office 4 (Stal4). Information about ammunition production during Winter War.

T-19043/20: GHQ Ordnance Department, Reports of foreign acquisitions.

T-20206/F11: GHQ Ordnance Department, Reports of foreign acquisitions.

T-21417/1 c:1 sal: Classified briefings and statistics of Ordnance Supply in 1940 - 1944.

Special thanks:

- Friendly collectors who made this update possible, but decided to remain anonymous.

- Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo), Helsinki.

- Museum of Reserve Officer School (Reserviupseerikoulun museo), Hamina.