T38 - GRENADE, HAND, FRAG, T38 (ALUMINUM ALLOY BODY MK II) "1948"
On 26 April 1948 Picatinny Arsenal received a request from the Ordnance office to test a Mark II aluminum bodied grenade ( O.O. 471.61/604, ORDBB 471.61/927).
Eastern Metal Products Company, of Tuckahoe, New York manufactured the grenades.
The grenades were received at Picatinny Arsenal in September 1948 and loaded with flake TNT.
Test were conducted in October 1948 and as the testing proved satisfactory Picatinny Arsenal was informed in a letter dated 28 March 1949 that cast Aluminum casing material should be investigated further for development of an interim hand grenade.
Three designs were selected for testing. PX Drawings 164-53, -54, -63. Drawing 164-53 being an aluminum grenade body similar to the Mark II, 164-54 a smooth surface ellipsoidal, aluminum grenade and 164-63 a commercial "tin can".
There were a total of 150 of the grenades produced.
Who has a copy of the drawings mentioned in the text above?
Photos below © Jon Gawne.
These grenades might be the ones as mentioned in the text, one of them being unfinished.
Jon wrote that the threads on one of these two grenades does not accept the normal fuze. Not real ?
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