T13 Beano Grenade

" This page concerns the BEANO T-13 hand grenade, for other uses, see Beano (disambiguation)"Infobox Weapon
name= BEANO T-13 hand grenade


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origin= United States
type= hand grenade
is_ranged= yes
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is_explosive= yes
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wars= WWII
designer= OSS
design_date=
manufacturer= Eastman Kodak
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weight= 12 oz.
length=
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range= Thrown (20 m.)
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filling_weight= 9 oz.
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yield=The BEANO T-13 hand grenade was an experimental hand grenade developed by the Office of Strategic Services in the latter years of World War II.

Concept

The concept for the BEANO hand grenade was that a spherical grenade the size and weight of a common baseball would be effective in the hands of American troops.

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 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 5.5 oz total weight, it was later decided that this was too light and the weight was increased to 12 oz

Usage

The T-13 was approved for field use, and several thousand were shipped to Europe. They were supposedly issued in limited quantities during the invasion of Normandy, but injured more American soldiers than enemy troops due to premature detonation.

Literature

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