Anti-tank grenade
Encyclopedia
An anti-tank grenade is a specialized explosive device to defeat heavily armored targets.
grenades were improvised devices. The Germans were the first during World War One to come up with an improvised anti-tank grenade, taking their stick ("potato masher") grenade and taping two to three more of the explosive heads without the sticks to create one complete grenade. In combat, after arming, the grenade was thrown on top of the slowly advancing tank where the armor was thin.
During World War Two, various nations made improvised antitank grenades by putting a number of defensive high explosive grenades into a sandbag. Due to their weight, these were normally thrown from very close range or directly placed in vulnerable spots onto an enemy vehicle. Another method used by the British Home Guard in 1940 was to place dynamite or some other high explosive in a thick sock and cover the lower part with axle grease and then place the grease covered part in a suitable size tin can. The antitank sock was pulled out, the fuse lit and the sock thrown against the side of the tank turret in the hope it would stick until the explosion. If successful, it caused internal spalling
of the armor plate, killing or injuring the tank crew inside. It is not known if this type of improvised anti-tank grenade was ever successfully employed in combat. By late 1940, the British had brought into production a purpose-built adhesive anti-tank grenade - known as the "Sticky bomb
."
During World War II, when tanks overran entrenchments, hand grenades could be and were used by infantry as improvised anti-tank mine
s by placing or throwing them in the path of a tank in the hope of disabling a track. While this method was used in desperation, it usually proved more dangerous to the soldier on the ground than to the crew of the tank.
Purpose-designed anti-tank grenades invariably use the shaped charge
principle to penetrate tank armor. In military terminology, warheads employing shape charges are called high explosive anti-tank (HEAT
) warheads. Because of the way shaped charges function, the grenade must hit the vehicle at an exact right angle for the effect to work most efficiently. The grenade facilitates this by deploying a small drogue parachute
or fabric streamer
s after being thrown.
Britain put the first anti-tank grenade into the field during the Second World War in late 1940 with the No 68 AT Grenade, which was one of the first "any" type anti-tank weapons of the shape charge or HEAT type. The No 68 was fired from a rifle using the Mills grenade cup launcher. The Type 68 had a penetration of 50 mm of armor plating, which was astonishing for 1940. Also developed by the UK during the war was the No 74 ST Grenade, popularly known as a sticky bomb
, in which the main charge was held in a sphere covered in adhesive. In anticipation of a German invasion, the British Army asked for ideas for a simple, easy to use, ready for production and cheap close-in antitank weapon. The ST Grenade was a government sponsored initiative, by , a group tasked with developing weapons for use in German and Italian occupied territory, and they placed the ST Grenade into mass production at Churchill's insistence, but seeing how it was operated, the British Army rejected it for the Home Guard much less their regular forces.
The No 74 Grenade was later issued to troops as an emergency stop-gap measure against Italian tanks in North Africa, where it proved—to the surprise of many—highly effective. Later in the war, French partisans
used the No 74 effectively in sabotage work against German installations.
Shortly after the German invasion
of Russia in 1941, the Germans introduced the Panzerwurfmine(L), an extremely lethal close-quarter HEAT anti-tank grenade that could destroy the heaviest armored tanks of the war. The grenade was tossed overhand to land atop the tank. After release by the thrower, three spring-out canvas fins stabilized it during its short flight. The Panzerwurfmine(L) was lethal, and inexpensive to manufacture, but required considerable skill to throw accurately and was issued only to specially trained infantry tank-killer teams.
It did not take long after the Russians captured the German Panzerwurfmine(L) to come out with their own hand-thrown anti-tank grenade with a HEAT warhead. In 1940, they developed a crude antitank grenade that used the simple blast effect of a large high explosive charge, designated RPG-40
, which was stabilized in flight by a ribbon released after it was thrown. The RPG-43
(developed in late 1943) was a modified RPG-40 with a cone liner and a large number of fabric ribbons for flight stabilization after release. In the last year of the war, they introduced the RPG-6
, a total redesign of the RPG-43 with an improved kite-tail drogue in the handle and a standoff for the HEAT warhead, drastically increasing both accuracy and penetration was reported to be over 100 mm, more than adequate to cause catastrophic damage to any tank if it impacted the top. The Russian RPG-43 and RPG-6 were far simpler to use in combat than the German Panzerwurfmine(L)and did not require extensive training.
After the end of World War Two, many eastern European nations engineered their own versions of the RPG-6, such as the East German AZ-58-K-100. These were manufactured in the tens of thousands and given to 'armies of national liberation', seeing combat worldwide, including with the Egyptian Army
during 1967 and 1973.
In the final two years of World War Two, the Japanese developed a crude hand-thrown HEAT antitank grenade, and a suicide-weapon HEAT-warhead anti-tank grenade, the lunge mine, that was not launched or thrown, but rammed into the target like a bayonet.
The hand-thrown grenade had a simple 100 mm diameter cone HEAT warhead with a simple "all the way" fuse system in the base. (If dropped accidentally with the pin removed, it would explode). It had what looked like the end of a mop head on the tail end of the warhead. A soldier would remove the antitank grenade from its sack, pull the pin, and throw it gripping the mop-head as the handle. This was dangerous, as there was no arming safety after release and the thrower could strike something in his back swing before release. Penetration was reported only around 50mm.
The second Japanese antitank grenade—a suicide weapon—was nicknamed the 'lunge mine'. This weapon was a very large HEAT warhead on a five foot stick. The soldier rammed it forward into the tank or other target, which broke a sheer wire that allowed a strike pin to impact a primer and detonate the large HEAT warhead—destroying both soldier and target. While crude, the Japanese lunge mine had six inches (150mm) of penetration, the greatest penetration of any antitank grenades of World War Two. The U.S. Army first encountered the hand-thrown anti-tank grenade in 1944, in the Philippines (some believe they were locally manufactured). The later suicide 'lunge mine' first appeared in the U.S. invasion of Saipan and subsequent invasion of Okinawa. Tens of thousands of these crude devices were produced and issued to both regular units and home-guard units on the home islands of Japan before the war ended.
In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army was worried about the lack of emergency antitank weapons for issue to its rear area units, to counter isolated enemy armored vehicles infiltrating or being air dropped. When the US Army asked for ideas, engineers at U.S. Army laboratories suggested the reverse-engineered and additional safety improvements of the East German AZ-58-K-100 HEAT antitank grenade that had been obtained from various classified sources. This concept was called "HAG" for High-explosive Antiarmor Grenade. While the civilian engineers working for the US Army thought it was a great idea, it was rejected out of hand by almost all senior US Army officers who had in the past commanded troops in the field as being of more dangerous to the troops who used them than the enemy vehicles that would be targeted. The idea was quietly shelved by 1985.
The most widely-distributed anti-tank grenades today are the post World War Two Russian designs of the 1950s and 1960s, mainly the RKG-3
.
Due to improvements in modern tank armor, anti-tank hand grenades are generally considered obsolete. However, in the recent Iraq War, the RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenade has made a reappearance with Iraqi insurgents who use them primarily against U.S. Humvees
, Stryker
s and MRAPs
, which lack the heavier armor of tanks. This has in turn led the U.S. to adopt countermeasures such as modifications to the MRAP vehicles by the fitting of "slate" armor or "bird cage" armor, which causes the antitank grenade to detonate too early.
History
The first anti-tankAnti-tank warfare
Anti-tank warfare was created by the need to seek technology and tactics to destroy tanks and their supporting infantry during the First World War...
grenades were improvised devices. The Germans were the first during World War One to come up with an improvised anti-tank grenade, taking their stick ("potato masher") grenade and taping two to three more of the explosive heads without the sticks to create one complete grenade. In combat, after arming, the grenade was thrown on top of the slowly advancing tank where the armor was thin.
During World War Two, various nations made improvised antitank grenades by putting a number of defensive high explosive grenades into a sandbag. Due to their weight, these were normally thrown from very close range or directly placed in vulnerable spots onto an enemy vehicle. Another method used by the British Home Guard in 1940 was to place dynamite or some other high explosive in a thick sock and cover the lower part with axle grease and then place the grease covered part in a suitable size tin can. The antitank sock was pulled out, the fuse lit and the sock thrown against the side of the tank turret in the hope it would stick until the explosion. If successful, it caused internal spalling
Spall
Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body and can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure...
of the armor plate, killing or injuring the tank crew inside. It is not known if this type of improvised anti-tank grenade was ever successfully employed in combat. By late 1940, the British had brought into production a purpose-built adhesive anti-tank grenade - known as the "Sticky bomb
Sticky bomb
The Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74, commonly known as the sticky bomb, was a British hand grenade designed and produced during the Second World War. The grenade was one of a number of anti-tank weapons developed for use by the British Army and Home Guard as an ad hoc solution to a lack of...
."
During World War II, when tanks overran entrenchments, hand grenades could be and were used by infantry as improvised anti-tank mine
Anti-tank mine
An anti-tank mine, , is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles....
s by placing or throwing them in the path of a tank in the hope of disabling a track. While this method was used in desperation, it usually proved more dangerous to the soldier on the ground than to the crew of the tank.
Purpose-designed anti-tank grenades invariably use the shaped charge
Shaped charge
A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, to initiate nuclear weapons, to penetrate armor, and in the oil and gas industry...
principle to penetrate tank armor. In military terminology, warheads employing shape charges are called high explosive anti-tank (HEAT
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
) warheads. Because of the way shaped charges function, the grenade must hit the vehicle at an exact right angle for the effect to work most efficiently. The grenade facilitates this by deploying a small drogue parachute
Drogue parachute
A drogue parachute is a parachute designed to be deployed from a rapidly moving object in order to slow the object, or to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute...
or fabric streamer
Streamer
Streamer or streamers may refer to:* Pennon, a small pointed flag* Campaign streamer, flag used by military units* Paper streamer* Positive streamer, lightning bolt* Streamer moth, the geometer moth Anticlea derivata...
s after being thrown.
Britain put the first anti-tank grenade into the field during the Second World War in late 1940 with the No 68 AT Grenade, which was one of the first "any" type anti-tank weapons of the shape charge or HEAT type. The No 68 was fired from a rifle using the Mills grenade cup launcher. The Type 68 had a penetration of 50 mm of armor plating, which was astonishing for 1940. Also developed by the UK during the war was the No 74 ST Grenade, popularly known as a sticky bomb
Sticky bomb
The Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74, commonly known as the sticky bomb, was a British hand grenade designed and produced during the Second World War. The grenade was one of a number of anti-tank weapons developed for use by the British Army and Home Guard as an ad hoc solution to a lack of...
, in which the main charge was held in a sphere covered in adhesive. In anticipation of a German invasion, the British Army asked for ideas for a simple, easy to use, ready for production and cheap close-in antitank weapon. The ST Grenade was a government sponsored initiative, by , a group tasked with developing weapons for use in German and Italian occupied territory, and they placed the ST Grenade into mass production at Churchill's insistence, but seeing how it was operated, the British Army rejected it for the Home Guard much less their regular forces.
The No 74 Grenade was later issued to troops as an emergency stop-gap measure against Italian tanks in North Africa, where it proved—to the surprise of many—highly effective. Later in the war, French partisans
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
used the No 74 effectively in sabotage work against German installations.
Shortly after the German invasion
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
of Russia in 1941, the Germans introduced the Panzerwurfmine(L), an extremely lethal close-quarter HEAT anti-tank grenade that could destroy the heaviest armored tanks of the war. The grenade was tossed overhand to land atop the tank. After release by the thrower, three spring-out canvas fins stabilized it during its short flight. The Panzerwurfmine(L) was lethal, and inexpensive to manufacture, but required considerable skill to throw accurately and was issued only to specially trained infantry tank-killer teams.
It did not take long after the Russians captured the German Panzerwurfmine(L) to come out with their own hand-thrown anti-tank grenade with a HEAT warhead. In 1940, they developed a crude antitank grenade that used the simple blast effect of a large high explosive charge, designated RPG-40
RPG-40
The RPG-40 was an anti-tank hand grenade developed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Its anti-tank capability came from blast effect produced by the detonation upon contact of 760 grams of explosive contained in it. This effect enabled about 20 mm of armour to be penetrated, and secondary damage,...
, which was stabilized in flight by a ribbon released after it was thrown. The RPG-43
RPG-43
The RPG-43 was a high explosive anti-tank hand grenade used by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. It entered service in 1943, replacing the earlier model RPG-40. The RPG-43 used a shaped charge HEAT warhead, whereas the RPG-40 used the simpler HE warhead...
(developed in late 1943) was a modified RPG-40 with a cone liner and a large number of fabric ribbons for flight stabilization after release. In the last year of the war, they introduced the RPG-6
RPG-6
The RPG-6 was a Soviet anti-tank hand-grenade operating on the shaped charge principle, developed during World War II...
, a total redesign of the RPG-43 with an improved kite-tail drogue in the handle and a standoff for the HEAT warhead, drastically increasing both accuracy and penetration was reported to be over 100 mm, more than adequate to cause catastrophic damage to any tank if it impacted the top. The Russian RPG-43 and RPG-6 were far simpler to use in combat than the German Panzerwurfmine(L)and did not require extensive training.
After the end of World War Two, many eastern European nations engineered their own versions of the RPG-6, such as the East German AZ-58-K-100. These were manufactured in the tens of thousands and given to 'armies of national liberation', seeing combat worldwide, including with the Egyptian Army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...
during 1967 and 1973.
In the final two years of World War Two, the Japanese developed a crude hand-thrown HEAT antitank grenade, and a suicide-weapon HEAT-warhead anti-tank grenade, the lunge mine, that was not launched or thrown, but rammed into the target like a bayonet.
The hand-thrown grenade had a simple 100 mm diameter cone HEAT warhead with a simple "all the way" fuse system in the base. (If dropped accidentally with the pin removed, it would explode). It had what looked like the end of a mop head on the tail end of the warhead. A soldier would remove the antitank grenade from its sack, pull the pin, and throw it gripping the mop-head as the handle. This was dangerous, as there was no arming safety after release and the thrower could strike something in his back swing before release. Penetration was reported only around 50mm.
The second Japanese antitank grenade—a suicide weapon—was nicknamed the 'lunge mine'. This weapon was a very large HEAT warhead on a five foot stick. The soldier rammed it forward into the tank or other target, which broke a sheer wire that allowed a strike pin to impact a primer and detonate the large HEAT warhead—destroying both soldier and target. While crude, the Japanese lunge mine had six inches (150mm) of penetration, the greatest penetration of any antitank grenades of World War Two. The U.S. Army first encountered the hand-thrown anti-tank grenade in 1944, in the Philippines (some believe they were locally manufactured). The later suicide 'lunge mine' first appeared in the U.S. invasion of Saipan and subsequent invasion of Okinawa. Tens of thousands of these crude devices were produced and issued to both regular units and home-guard units on the home islands of Japan before the war ended.
In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army was worried about the lack of emergency antitank weapons for issue to its rear area units, to counter isolated enemy armored vehicles infiltrating or being air dropped. When the US Army asked for ideas, engineers at U.S. Army laboratories suggested the reverse-engineered and additional safety improvements of the East German AZ-58-K-100 HEAT antitank grenade that had been obtained from various classified sources. This concept was called "HAG" for High-explosive Antiarmor Grenade. While the civilian engineers working for the US Army thought it was a great idea, it was rejected out of hand by almost all senior US Army officers who had in the past commanded troops in the field as being of more dangerous to the troops who used them than the enemy vehicles that would be targeted. The idea was quietly shelved by 1985.
The most widely-distributed anti-tank grenades today are the post World War Two Russian designs of the 1950s and 1960s, mainly the RKG-3
RKG-3 anti-tank grenade
RKG-3 is the designation of Russian series of anti-tank hand grenades. It superseded the RPG-43, RPG-40 and RPG-6 series of grenades.-Design:RKG stands for Ruchnaya Kumulyativnaya Granata . When the pin is pulled and the grenade is thrown a four-panelled drogue parachute is deployed by a spring...
.
Due to improvements in modern tank armor, anti-tank hand grenades are generally considered obsolete. However, in the recent Iraq War, the RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenade has made a reappearance with Iraqi insurgents who use them primarily against U.S. Humvees
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle , better known as the Humvee, is a military 4WD motor vehicle created by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles formerly served by smaller Jeeps such as the M151 MUTT, the M561 "Gama Goat", their M718A1 and M792 ambulance versions, the CUCV,...
, Stryker
Stryker
The IAV Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled, 4-wheel-drive , armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III and produced by General Dynamics Land Systems, in use by the United States Army. The vehicle is named for two American servicemen who posthumously received the Medal of Honor:...
s and MRAPs
MRAP (armored vehicle)
A Mine Resistant Ambush Protected is a family of armored fighting vehicles design led by the United States Marine Corps in use by the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations Forces with the goal of surviving IED attacks and ambushes - prompted by US deaths in Iraq...
, which lack the heavier armor of tanks. This has in turn led the U.S. to adopt countermeasures such as modifications to the MRAP vehicles by the fitting of "slate" armor or "bird cage" armor, which causes the antitank grenade to detonate too early.