Defensive grenade wz. 33
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granat obronny wz. 33 | |
---|---|
TNT or Picric acid | |
Blast yield | 100 m (330 ft) |
The granat obronny wz. 33 (Polish for "defensive grenade, mark 33") was a
The grenade was modelled after earlier Polish grenades of the 1920s (such as the
The Polish name for the grenade was because the blast radius of fragments often exceeded 100 metres and the grenade had to be thrown from a defensive position, such as a trench or from behind a wall. Two such grenades as well as two
Development history
The wz. 33 grenade was basically a development of earlier Polish grenades. The earliest of them, the
Because of large stocks, it was decided to focus early modernisation efforts at developing a new fuse rather than design the entire grenade for indigenous production. This was considered a logical choice as a number of Polish companies inherited production lines of German World War I grenade designs.
In 1923 the Department of Arms started a competition for a new fuse that would fit the German
The Granat company continued to develop the fuse and in 1929 presented the armed forces with a time fuse code-named Gr 29 based on earlier projects by Cierpiński. It was accepted as the standard fuse for the new Granat obronny wz. KC defensive grenade. Eventually the line of fuses led to the final design accepted into Polish service as Zapalnik wz. Gr. 31 ("Fuse Mark 1931, Granat factory").[2]
The wz. 31 fuse was considered among the best in the world, soon after its adoption by the Polish Army; both France and Romania bought a license for their production.[5] Initially France bought 310,000 wz. 31 fuses in 1935 and two years later bought a license and adopted it as the standard fuse for all defensive grenades of the French Army.[6] Another country to adopt the fuse (in 1931) was Greece.[7]
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Aszyk, Marek (2012). "Granaty ręczne" [Hand Grenades]. Uzbrojenie Wojska II Rzeczpospolitej (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2021-12-04. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- Franczyk, Grzegorz (2010). Polskie granaty 1919–1939 [Polish Grenades 1919-1939] (in Polish). Kraków: Grzegorz Franczyk. p. 153.
- Deszczyński, Marek Piotr; Mazur, Wojciech (2004). Na krawędzi ryzyka: eksport polskiego sprzętu wojskowego w okresie międzywojennym [Edge of Risk: Polish Arms Export in the Interbellum] (in Polish). Neriton. pp. 455[, ISBN 9788388973987.
- Peverelli, Lex (2012). "Polish hand- and riflegrenades". Grenades, Mines and Boobytraps. Archived from the original on 2022-05-18. Retrieved 2014-06-20.
- Zasieczny, Andrzej. Broń Wojska Polskiego 1939-1945: wojska lądowe [Armament of the Polish Army 1939-1945: land forces]. Panorama Techniki Wojskowej (in Polish) (2 ed.). Alma-Press. p. 149. ISBN 9788370203542.