No. 73 Grenade
Encyclopedia
The No. 73 grenade, also known as the Thermos or Woolworth bomb, was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 anti-tank grenade
Anti-tank grenade
An anti-tank grenade is a specialized explosive device to defeat heavily armored targets.-History:The first anti-tank grenades were improvised devices...

 used during the Second World War. It got its nickname from the resemblance to a Thermos flask
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...

.

Development

With the end of the Battle of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

 and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....

 from the port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a German invasion of Great Britain
Operation Sealion
Operation Sea Lion was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air and naval supremacy over the English Channel...

 seemed likely. However, the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 was not well-equipped to defend the country in such an event; in the weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation it could only field twenty-seven divisions. The Army was particularly short of anti-tank guns, 840 of which had been left behind in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and only 167 were available in Britain; ammunition was so scarce for the remaining guns that regulations forbade even a single round being used for training purposes. As a result of these shortcomings, a number of new anti-tank weapons had to be developed to equip the British Army and the Home Guard with the means to repel German armoured vehicles. Many of these were anti-tank hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...

s, large numbers of which could be built in a very short space of time and for a low cost. They included the Grenade, Hand, Anti-tank No. 74
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...

, also known as the 'Sticky bomb', which was coated with a strong adhesive and 'stuck' to a vehicle, and the No. 76 Special Incendiary Grenade
No. 76 Special Incendiary Grenade
The No. 76 Special Incendiary Grenade also commonly known as the A.W. bomb or SIP Grenade was an incendiary grenade based on white phosphorus used during World War II....

, essentially a British variation on the Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...

. Ian Hogg states that the "simplest of these grenades" was the No. 73 grenade, which was known under a variety of names, including the hand percussion grenade, the Thermos bomb and the Woolworth bomb.

Design

The No. 73 grenade had a roughly cylindrical shape and plastic screw-on cap, similar to that of a Thermos flask
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...

, from which the 'Thermos bomb' nickname was derived. It was approximately 3.5 inches (88.9 mm) in diameter and 11 inches (279.4 mm) in length, and weighed some 4.5 pounds (2 kg). Its explosive content consisted of 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of polar ammonal gelatine dynamite or nitrogelatine - both of which were easily flammable and could be detonated by the impact of small-arms fire. When thrown at a tank or other vehicle, a weighted tape held in the users hand unravelled and pulled free a safety pin, which was attached to a No. 69 "All-ways" fuse; this armed and then subsequently detonated the grenade. However, its considerable weight meant that it could only be thrown short distances, limiting its range to between 10 yards (9.1 m) and 15 yards (13.7 m), and its detonation could injure the user if they did not find cover before it detonated. It was able to penetrate 2 inches (50.8 mm) of armour, and "damage severely any light tank." However, it was best used against the tracks of a tank, which it could easily blow off and force its crew to waste time by stopping and repairing it.

Operational history

The No. 73 grenade was first issued in the last months of 1940, but it was rarely used as an anti-tank grenade; instead the fuse was usually removed and it was used as a demolition charge. It was withdrawn from service within a year, and reissued again in 1943 for the express purpose of being used for demolition work.

External links

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