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These are a series of hand grenades used by the Italian Army during World War II. Apparently developed more or less simultaneously all have same numerical designation, Mod.35. They are offensive types of thin sheet metal construction (mostly aluminum) with Allways impact fuzes. Painted a vivid red and having a notorious reputation of being dangerous when found in an unexploded condition they were nicknamed "Red Devils" by the British during the 1941-42 desert campaigns. There are other variations of these types (practice, smoke) as well as adaptations to other concepts (incendiary, stick grenades) but the focus here will be on these three high explosive types. |
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| Markings | ||
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These grenades are commonly identified by the manufacturer's company logo stamped on the grenade. The SRCM is embossed with "SOCIETA ROMANA". Production of the SRCM continued after the end of the war and was still being encountered in Europe as of 1992. It has an interesting internal safety feature that set it apart from the OTO and Breda designs. | |
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| Explosive Payload | ||
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Overall height ranges from 80 to 97mm, diameter from 51 to 56mm and they weigh approximately 200g each. The explosive used was TNT (Tritolo binitronaftalina) with an effective radius of about 10 to 15 meters. It is interesting to note that external size is not a very good indication of the explosive capacity of each grenade. Here are the internal HE capsules displayed in front of their respective grenades. You can see that while the OTO outwardly is the smallest of the three, a greater percentage of it's internal volume is devoted to explosive. |
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| 05.01.01 | |||||
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