Not so long ago I made a post on the Safar Publishing socials showing the fragments that Soviet grenades generate at explosion. This post turned out to be quite popular, so I decided to publish a bonus chapter from the Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War book about the hand grenades. If you enjoy the text and want to see this all in printing, as well as other weapons, check out this book:
Introduction to Soviet hand grenades
The hand grenade has a long history and its efficacy in combat is unquestioned. Hand-held explosives were used well before modern firearms but the grenade we are familiar with today is comparatively modern, having come out of the period just before the outbreak of war in 1914, and in general terms, the design has remained largely unchanged since. While being as universal a weapon in militaries, as the rifle, not all ground forces around the world rely on them as heavily as Soviet infantry did. From the early days of the Red Army, the October revolution and Russian Civil War, the grenade became the unchallenged "weapon of the proletariat".
Since then, a lot of energy and creativity has gone towards perfecting hand grenades for the Soviet Army, while never changing the principle of the weapon. During the Soviet-Afghan War there were four main types of anti-personnel grenades in use. These were the RGD-5, F-1, RGN and RGO hand grenades. An honorary mention should be made for the RG-42, a WW2-era hand grenade that was issued to the first mobilized troops at the very dawn of the invasion, and was used occasionally the following year. But, for most soldiers, there were four infantry grenades in Afghanistan.
RGD-5 hand grenade
The RGD-5 is, in general, not so much a grenade but a powerful firecracker. These are described as anti-personnel fragmentation grenades but with just 110 grams of TNT and a thin fragmentation shell, they were treated extremely dismissively by the Soviet Army. It only has an injury radius of about five meters, and the lethal radius is much smaller than that. It does work better in confined spaces (as all grenades will) but over open ground they are more a deterrent than serious threat.
F-1 hand grenade
The legendary F-1, efka (phonetic Russian for the letter ‘F’) or lemonka (lemon) is the source of many myths about grenades. In Afghanistan it was called "pocket artillery" and was widely considered the most powerful grenade available, with an injury radius of 200 meters. But that's not true. In reality the F-1 is a completely unpredictable grenade, so sometimes it is spectacularly lethal while other times it is not. This is firstly because of the design that divides the cast shell into large cells. These are not there to aid fragmentation but to provide a better grip. In fact, the grenade actually produces rather small fragments. Experts in the physics of explosions claim that only about 1/3rd of the grenade is producing life-threatening fragments while the remaining 2/3ds is reduced to a fine, non-hazardous dust. Under test conditions the F-1 produced about a thousand fragments but of these only a few dozen were heavier than 0.3 grams; the minimum weight for fragments considered lethal.
But here is the trick. If the grenade body breaks up evenly, it can be very lethal over a significant area. But the odds against this as the percentage of cases that do not break up evenly is very high. Incomplete break-up usually means that the better half of the shell does not break-up at all. This means that the grenade can explode in two parts; opening up at the top or the bottom, making results uneven.
In other words, the area of hazardous space generated by fragments is completely unpredictable. The number of fragments produced and the direction and number of projectiles is a mystery every time. So, theoretically, the F-1 could tear off a body part (which is unlikely, but not impossible) or it may not cause any harm. And for a person lying down at a distance exceeding the radius of the destructive force of the shock wave, the safety is almost certain.
The F-1 was produced and used during WW2 and the RGD-5 was developed straight after the war to replace the RG-42. But both the F-1 and RGD-5 represent an older generation of grenades, designed with First World War technology. The other two grenades, encountered in Afghanistan, are considerably different.
RGN - ofensive hand grenade
RGN stands for Ruchnaya Granata Nastupatel'naya, or "hand grenade, offensive”, meaning that It is designed for throwing during the assault, when the grenadier does not have reliable cover for protection against his own grenade’s fragments. For this purpose, the effective radius is designed to be smaller than the expected throwing distance of 15 meters. The case of the grenade is made from aluminum with notches cut on the inside, to make fragmentation more even. It is equipped with an impact fuse that arms 1-1.8 seconds after the safety paddle is released, so it will detonate when it strikes anything solid and a timed fuse of 3.5-4 seconds if it doesn’t. In general, it’s not a bad weapon, just not the most powerful.
RGO - defensive hand grenade
The RGO, on the other hand, is a completely different story. This is the Ruchnaya Granata Oboronitel'naya, or ‘hand grenade, defensive’ and it is the ‘O’ that gives us the main characteristics of the grenade. In defense, a grenade is used when thrown from cover like a trench, against targets likely not taking cover, so the lethal radius is supposed to be larger than the expected distance one can throw it.
The steel body is made of four hemispheres - two external and two internal. Internal ones were added precisely to increase the number of fragments. All four hemispheres are notched to aid in even fragmentation. The explosion produces about seven hundred fragments weighing 0.46 g, on average, which fly at the speed of up to 1200 m/s. The fragments are tiny, like jagged needles, but with enough weight to be lethal. 73% of the mass of the grenade is used to form lethal fragments. The energy of RGO fragments is three times greater than that of RGN fragments, drastically increasing their lethal range. And, most importantly, all fragments are more or less uniform in size and weight. This makes the kill area incredibly deadly.
The RGO has the same dual-function fuse as the RGN. The impact fuse was especially useful in the mountains, where the advancing party is at risk from their own grenades bouncing or rolling back on the thrower.
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