Yard Sale Potato Masher

[David Guist]

Hi guys I picked this up today at a yard sale. I dont know much about these.I think this one was for training mayby because of the white painted stripe?
It is hard to see but it does have an eagle/swaztica mark on it and another boxed type mark. It has 1940 stamped on the end by the tag.All opinions are welcome.Best regards. The eagle is hard to see.

[David Guist]

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More pics.

[David Guist]

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[butterfly]

Its a smoke version. There ought to be some holes on the underside of the 'head' where is screws into the wooden handle.......for emitting smoke. The ridge to the bottom of the handle was to enable the thrower to differenciate between smoke and HE.
very nice pick up, congratulations.

hope this helps
regards Kev

[David Guist]

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[MG34NZ]

Nice Nebel (smoke) grenade David. The can will have a series of holes drilled around the bottom of can? It should have and they are to let out the smoke.May be remains of white stenciling on the can?The label on the head is a warning label and the rings on the handle and white paint are other identification features of Nebel grenades.Great find

MG34NZ

[David Guist]

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[Alan Smith]

I have read that Sam Cummings (Interarms) imported a bunch of these smoke grenades from Finland into the U.S. in the 1950's-1960's time frame. Perhaps this is the source of your grenade?

Regardless . . . nice find!

[David Guist]

Hi this one was a vet bring back with a few bayonets.So realy this may still work?

[MG34NZ]

Unscrew head from handle and have a look inside the head,if the fuse well is still intact and the head is weighty it may well still have its chemical filling intact.Most often these grenades are inerted by cutting out the fuse well and scraping out the contents looking inside the can will soon tell you if this has been done as its quite a destructive way of inerting the other way was to pry open the seam at the base of the head where the bottom part with the thread attachment for the handle is crimped to the top part of the can,this will be quite obvious as the crimp will be damaged and uneven where its been folded back over but at least this method leaves the fuse well intact.If you are still in doubt I can weigh up inerted examples to give you a reference.

MG34NZ

[David Guist]

I can say it is realy light.Thanks

[Erik]

Very nice one!

The paper label is a warning saying it can cause death to use it in a confined space (closed room etc). The curves in the wooden handle are to make sure you know (feel) it is a smoke grenade when you operate in the dark and can't read the text or see the white markings. You don't want to throw a smoker when you need a HE in a combat situation.

Erik

[David Guist]

Thanks for all the help. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. Best regards.