Help on a MK II grenade please

[BrunoH]

Hello dear pineapple collectors,

A friend of mine allowed me to photograph his MK II grenade (deactivated and safe of course).
Is there one of you who would be able to tell me if it is a WWII manufactured one?
I've seen on some web sites there is some (many ?) differences depending on the manufacturer, the year (43, 44) aso ..

Any information would be appreciated.

Regards

[Paul G]

From what I see, it looks like the body was once all yellow painted, then overpainted with olive drab. Thats what they did with early WW2 produced grenades. THey found that the yellow was just too bright/noticeable. Thet repainted the ones that were already done and added a yellow band at the top. They then manufactured later ones with olive drab bodies and yellow band at the top only, to denote high explosive fragmentation type grenade.

PG-

[BrunoH]

Hello,

Your analyse is good.. kind of yellow with OD overpainting.
Thanks very much for all the information you've provide.

Regards

[Ferdinand W.]

US MkII

Bonsoir and Hello Bruno,

the handgrenade is fine ! Original WWII manufacture, the fuze is ok and the container for it too !!

It is one of early manufacture and first painted entierly yellow as already stated.
The olive "overpaint" is original and the maker's mark S in an oval is WWII.
This type of MkII was filled with orange granulated blackpowder, not TNT like in the later version.
Some of my own, ground-dug handgrenades from the Ardennes bear the same maker mark.

Congrats on this your friend's handgrenade !

Kind regards from L,

Ferd

[rott51]

Doesn't get much closer to showroom new!!! Very nice example!!!!!!!

[BrunoH]

Thanks Ferd (and all),

I know somebody who will be happy

Have a good week end.

Regards

[Grenademan2005]

Hello:
All already stated here is totally right, but nobody mentioned the "black thing" in the neck of the grenade. It is the waterproof sealing and you only can find it in the grenades found from a crate never used, (of course), and never issued to a soldier. I mean, this grenade just was used for unscrew the fuze and throw away the explosive charge. A very nice one with the original cardboard transport tube.