I have no photos of what this grenade really looked like, I only have the text written below. Thanks Jon, for getting me this text!
"Among the romantic youngsters who wrote their names permanently into the records of the Philippine wars was James L. Wood.
Wood had been ranking cadet in his class at Culver Military Academy, and as such rated a commission as Second Lieutenant in the regular army. But life in a military post was not to his liking, and this restless fighting man turned across a far horizon to take on with the muddy riflemen of the jungle patrol.
In 1904 he came to Manila, where he became a Third Lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary with a service assignment in Mindanao. He was remarkably equipped for his job. He spoke Spanish fluently, and during his Philippine service he learned eighteen of the native dialects. By birth, education, and ability, Wood was certainly one of the highest type men to seek action in the Constabulary.
Wood was a ballistics expert. He had carried with him to the Islands a Winchester .45-70 rifle, complete with bullet molds and reloading equipment. As a result of this interest in preparing his own loads, he developed a unique bit of strategy that was most effective in recovering outstanding rifles in Moro hands. Major Wise of the Scouts had used the device casually in Samar, but Wood put it to positive use as an effective means of discouraging the use of rifles by the Moros.
He was ordered shortly after his arrival in Mindanao into that endless and tiresome duty of rounding up firearms in outlaws' possession. Wood was quick to note the fact that the Moros carefully followed Constabulary details in the hope of finding lost cartridges. Even with the greatest care, bodies of men on the march were constantly losing bits of equipment. Occasionally a cartridge would fall from a loop, to be swooped upon by the Moros, for cartridges were worth their weight in gold in Mindanao and Sulu.
It was soon noted by the Moros that Wood's detail was downright careless in this matter of losing shells. A visit to his abandoned camp sites always resulted in the finding of six or eight cartridges.
And then one day, a malignantly unfriendly Datu sent an emissary to the Constabulary post stating that he desired peace and was willing to turn in a rifle, . . in bad condition. It seemed that the Datu also wished to come in for hospitalization . . . having met with a serious accident. He was brought to the post with the entire right side of his face missing. His rifle barrel was split and the entire bolt action was missing.
Rifles lost face in the vicinity of Iligah, with the result that a Krag, in first-class condition, once a priceless commodity, would no longer make even a first payment on a third-class Moro wife. Wood had seen to that. He had loaded several hundred government cartridges with dynamite, and conveniently dropped them to be found by the Moros.
Wood's first experiment in the field of ballistics encouraged him to try another.
He evolved a special "Wood's bomb" for use against the cottas . It consisted of two tin cans, one within the other. The inner can was packed with white nitro, and the outer with carriage bolts, nuts, scrap iron, and nails.
One night he had his first opportunity to try the weapon. Approaching with his men, he hurled the bomb over a cotta wall and waited developments. He had not long to wait . . . within ten seconds the bomb was lying sizzling at his feet, hurled back by the defenders.
Hastily Wood threw it over the walls again--just in time. Thereafter he experimented in detail with fuse lengths, and in time developed a bomb that was the equal in every respect of the grenades of the doughty Conway of the Scouts.
The Moros, ever ready to learn from an ingenious foe, developed Mohammedan improvements to combat Wood.
On one occasion the Lieutenant approached a cotta wall with a patrol, when suddenly a number of Moros appeared with a bamboo tube twelve feet in length and four inches in diameter. This had been stoutly wrapped with wire and half filled with scrap iron and powder.
It was fine in theory, and the Moros lighted the slow fuse and braced the cannon with their shoulders.
The Constabulary took temporary cover, and when the explosion came at last there was a shattered cotta, a few rifles--but no Moros". |
