The was the first fragmentation hand grenade designed and deployed by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

History and development

After the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

of 1904–1905, the Japanese army experimented with a variety of grenades; however, no design reached mass production. Japanese military observers in the European front of World War I noted the technical development and tactical application of hand grenades as

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

support weapons with considerable interest, and the Army technical bureau was tasked with a project to develop a grenade launcher that could be used in combination with the

Type 38 rifle The is a bolt-action service rifle that was used by the Empire of Japan predominantly during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Second World War. The design was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905 (the 38th year of the Meiji period, hence ...

, the Japanese Army's standard

weapon. The project failed for a variety of reasons, including too small a bore, too long a

gun barrel A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressu ...

and difficulties with a propellant. The technical bureau then turned to a World War I-vintage German design for a small signal mortar, which was developed into the stand-alone Type 10 grenade discharger. The Type 10 grenade was designed for use with this grenade launcher when attached to a base containing a primer and propellant charge. It could also be thrown by hand, or fired from a

rifle grenade A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade were thrown by hand. The practice of projecting grenades with rifle-mounted launchers was first widely used dur ...

launcher with a tail assembly added.

Design

The design of the Type 10 grenade was almost identical to the later Type 91 with a grooved, "pineapple-shaped", segmented body designed to disperse sharp fragments when it exploded. The main difference was the Type 10's serrated top. A threaded socket in the bottom of the body allowed for the attachment of an auxiliary propellant canister for use in a grenade launcher, or a finned tail assembly for use as a rifle grenade. The fuse was a percussion-activated delay type, initiated by pulling out a safety pin and striking the top of the cap, which gave a 7–8 second delay. When used as a rifle grenade or mortar round, the fuse activated automatically, as the plunger was pushed in by the force of the launch. One issue with the design was the highly variable and inaccurate fuse timing, which resulted either in premature explosion, or such a long delay that the recipient could hurl the grenade back prior to detonation.

Combat record

The Type 10 grenade was quickly superseded in front-line combat service by the Type 91 grenade, and survived into the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II primarily in the form of flare shells and signal shells.US Department of War, Handbook on Japanese Military Forces

References

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External links

Type 10 Grenade

Notes

{{Japanese WWII infantry weapons 1 21 Rifle grenades Fragmentation grenades Hand grenades of Japan