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The Launchers. There were essentially 5 types of V-B launchers in US service. To minimize the time between adoption, production, and issuance, the V-B launcher and grenades were adopted as-is. The only initial changes needed were the dimensional changes required to adapt to US rifle barrel/front sight profiles. When US production caught up there were 4 US- specific Marks of launcher adopted, though the Mark II was never manufactured. 1. The original was the French launcher . While US producers were...

Nota Bene: this is a long one, and I've chopped it up into four parts. Okay, as I have said before, people who are trying to kill you while you are trying to kill them suck. They’re supposed to just surrender, right? I mean, why can’t we all just get along – especially if you’ll do what I tell you! Anyway, once this whole blackpowder/gun thing got going, especially as the guns got better, people started doing things like hiding. And that sucks. Besides, they rarely come...

Earlier this week I did a post on the XM-25, the newest grenade launcher in the inventory (though still not formally adopted). That post kind of got me thinking. How'd we get here? And just how fast has the evolution been? In the late 1600s into the 1700s and beyond, we had these things: Hand Mortars.

BTDTGTTS*Hearken back to 1978, Fort McClellan, Alabama. Cadet Donovan is engaged in CTLT, or Cadet Troop Leading Training, which was a 3 week add-on to ROTC summer camp. Cadets fanned out across the Army (West Pointers could score CTLT in Europe or Korea, but not us cheap kids at land grant universities) and were supposed to assume Lieutenant-level leadership positions in actual units. Some units were good at actually letting the cadets get their teeth into it. Others treated the CTLT cadets as tag...

If you need to catch up - click here.I gave you two hints yesterday, which I thought would at least get you to grenade, and possibly Russian grenade, in this case the M1912 "Lantern" grenade.In the previous post I italicized the word fragment in response to the previous visual cue. While I wasn't expecting anyone to really make the connection that the component I showed you was part of the structure that provided enhanced fragmentation effects for the grenade, I was hoping that the...