The BEANO T-13 hand grenade was an experimental
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 ge ...
developed by the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(which later became the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
), with assistance from
Eastman Kodak Corporation, in the latter years of
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Concept
The concept for the BEANO hand grenade was that a spherical grenade the size and weight of a common
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
would be effective in the hands of American troops. The designers believed that by emulating a baseball, any young
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
man should be able to properly throw the grenade with both accuracy and distance.
Design
The final design for the T-13 hand grenade utilized a pressure trigger as well as an in-flight arming device. The grenade was designed to be thrown as a traditional baseball, and as such it was held with two fingers on a weighted and
knurled "butterfly cap" and the
arming pin was removed. Once thrown, the cap detached from the body of the grenade and a length of
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pet ...
string unwound until a secondary arming pin attached to the far end of the cord was pulled, arming the grenade to detonate upon impact with a hard surface. While the original design called for a total weight, it was later decided that this was too light and the weight was increased to .
Usage
The T-13 was approved for field use, and several thousand (produced by Eastman Kodak Corporation) were shipped to Europe. It was reportedly issued in limited quantities during the
invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
, but is believed to have injured more American soldiers than enemy troops due to premature detonation.
Collectability
Due to the timing of its development, and lack of deployment into service the T-13 remains one of the rarest and most sought after World War II grenades. At the war's end, the remaining stock was ordered destroyed and the records classified. While there are T-13s in existence, they are rare, and command top price in their class.
Literature
* A novel. {{Google books, cs7JRLq3gVUC, Ordinary Heroes.
Hand grenades of the United States
World War II infantry weapons of the United States
Office of Strategic Services
Kodak
Weapon development
Military equipment introduced in the 1940s