Evening star., 1907-11-03
USING HAND GRENAOES
Tests by Gen. Crozier, Chic,
of Ordnance.
EMPLOYED BY JAPANESE
Projected by Modern Mortars Made
by Amazawa.
COULD BE THROWN BY HAND
Proposed Organization of a Corps Of
Army Ball Players to Toss
the Projectiles.
COULD BE THROWN BY HAND

Gen. Crozier, chief of ordnance, who
may fairly be called the Amazawa of oul
army. has of late been experimenting
with the hand grenade The Japanese
used grenades in the siege of Port Arthur
with wonderful effect. In fact. their frs
break through the outer line of forts
East Panlungshang was wholly due Il
the success with which band of sappers
and miners used some high explosive
hand grenades. The effective ness of thi:
missile in the recent war and the obviou:
advantage with us in the fact that Ameri
cans the greatest lovers of base bal
on earth combined in suggesting expert
ments with grenades.
Now that our boards of ordnance have
satisfied themselves of the stability in use
Of the most powerful high explosive now
now known-p1crate of ammonia-it is moi
surprising that there should be move
ment in our army to parallel the work
done by the japanese. 1t Is not merely
for the purpose of deviSing good gre.
made and training men in the art of throw
ing it, so that when the time comes to
use it in the case of siege opera tons OuI
army may be as well prepared as the
enemy but there would be a practica
immediate use for grenades In the Phil
ippines.
Use Against the Moros.
There were a number OF places, sai6
an old campaigner the other day. where
good effect In our work against the Moro2
l remember one place in particular where
we came out Of thick woods into an oper
space surrounding a Moro fort. Oul
mountain guns We're of little value in such
yyc =
ter down the Moro fort. whose walls wers
made of stone and about fifteen feet high
SO our only way of getting at the Moros
was to make rush. There was one en-
trance to the fort. and this was in tbs
rear. The opening door was about
four feet wide, and they had 1t barricaded
on the inside back about two feet from
the wall. Our men could get in there only
one at a time between the barrfcade and
the wall and the Moros were ready with
spears and carbineS and Martins and any
kind of an old gun they could get hold OF
to pick US one by one we entered. II
We had had few hand grenades loaded
with high explosives that we could have
thrown over the wall or over that barri-
cade as we made the rush. or even thrown
them into the fort with light wooden NOR
tars that the japanese used. our task
would have been made much easier and
the lives of several of our men would have
been saved. The more | read about the
use of hand grenades by the japanese
the more thoroughly convinced 1 am that
they would be very good thing to use.
Use by the japanese.
These grenades are made Of tin and
weigh about a pound. Thus far in the
experiments a few small lead bullets have
been put in somewhat on the shrapnei
idea, but mainly as ballast to secure mo-
mentum. The explosive Is contained in a
small wooden package in the center OF
the grenade and a fuse similar to that
used in the howitzer shells for impact
explosion with illuminate of mercury are
employed. The Japanese constructed their
grenades very roughly. as the supply
made early in the war was quickly ex-
hausted Col AmaZawa had a long low
shed al the end of the village of Chokia-
tun which he called his mandatory of
medieval weapons" There forty or fifty
men were occupied in pounding out empty
provision cans and soldering them into
grenades The short wooden mortars
were also made at this place and wound
with green withes twisted ropes OF
bamboo. The demand for these tn,
bombs was SO great during the last few
months Of the siege that old biscuit tins
and sardine and meat boxes were worked
up into grenades. These were not quite
the shape Of those designed by Gen. Gro
zier, but were about ten inches long and
two inches in diameter. and many of them
were filled with common black powder.
In one of the attacks in 1908 at Erlung-
shan a single grenade filled with shimose
killed forty Russians almost instantly
The mortars with which these grenades
were thrown In the later operations were
of wood about three feet long with a
caliber Of five or six inches. They We're
mounted at an angle of % degrees on a
light wooden platform. About two ounces
of black powder would throw tin gre
made loaded with shimose over 1000 feet.
With such a light charge the grenade
was simply tossed over into the RUSSIAN
forts where it was detonated by the force
of the fall.