The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

RG-42 (Ручная Граната образца 42 года > ''Ruchnaya Granata obraztsa 42 goda'', "Hand Grenade pattern of 92 year") was a

fragmentation grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade gene ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

from 1942 onwards as an emergency measure to replace the complex

RGD-33 grenade The Soviet RGD-33 (''Ручная Граната Дьяконова образца 33 года'' >''Ruchnaya Granata Djakonova obraztsa 33 goda'', "Hand Grenade, Dyakonov design, pattern year 93") is an anti-personnel fragmentation stick grenade ...

. It continued in use with the USSR and its

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

allies in the post-war period until replaced in 1954 by the RGD-5 grenade. Stockpiles were held for emergency or reserve issue, military aid, or foreign sales. They were eventually destroyed in the 1980s due to the TNT filling degrading and becoming unsafe. Unlike the RGD-33, the RG-42's components were simple to produce and assemble. Only the fuze required specialized manufacture and the parts could be easily assembled by hand by cottage labor. Partisans often made copies of the simple design when out of contact. It contained about 200

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

s of explosive charge (

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

) in a cylindrical stamped-metal can. It used the 3.2 to 4 second UZRGM fuse, also used in the

RGD-5 The RGD-5 (''Ruchnaya Granata Distantsionnaya'', English "Hand Grenade Remote") is a post–World War II Soviet anti-personnel fragmentation grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but ...

RG-41 The Soviet RG-41 was a fragmentation grenade developed during World War II. It was in production for only short time from 1941 to 1942 before being replaced by RG-42.http://army.armor.kiev.ua/hist/rg-41.shtml It contained a 150 g high explosiv ...

, and F1 grenades. The grenade could be thrown about 35–40 meters and has an effective blast radius of around 10 meters. The total weight of the grenade with the fuse was 420 grams.

Foreign copies

* : Type 42 grenade.

Users

* * * : were used at least until 1997 * : Used during civil conflicts in 1990s * : were used at least until 2019 * : were used at least until 2018"''На задержанных военных судах ВМС Украины находились... Граната РГ-42 – 48 ед.''"В отношении противоправных действий кораблей ВМС Украины в территориальном море России
// официальный сайт ФСБ РФ от 27 ноября 2018

References

External links

{{WWIIUSSRInfWeapons Hand grenades of the Soviet Union World War II infantry weapons of the Soviet Union Fragmentation grenades Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1942