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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

NEWTON GRENADES


mutley

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Can anyone tell me what Newton Grenades were? I have just come across a statement in a war diary saying

"It was impossible to get any more NEWTON Grenades as the supply had run dry."

I haven't heard of them before, any help appreciated.

Mutley

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Mutley,

there was a Newton trench mortar round but never heard of a Newton grenade(apart from the Isaac version."dont drop the bugga!!!")

mortar.jpg

PICT1364.jpg

Look on Tafski's somme tour 2007 thread for a photo of the launcher tube etc.from the Bullecourt museum.

Dave.

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IIRC correctly Newton was a busy chap, and designed several munitions. According to this old thread (the pics have long since gone, sadly), the Newton Pippin was the No22 Rifle Grenade. There may have been others, but I think this is the likeliest.

Adrian

 

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J T Gray said:
IIRC correctly Newton was a busy chap, and designed several munitions. According to this old thread (the pics have long since gone, sadly), the Newton Pippin was the No22 Rifle Grenade. There may have been others, but I think this is the likeliest.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/topic/7644-rifle-grenades/

Adrian

Your right Adrian.

There was a pippin hand grenade also .Totally forgot the Newton prefix! :o

A very rare bit of kit.

Dave.

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Captain Henry Newton did indeed invent the No. 22 Grenade, called the Newton Pippin grenade. There were two marks, the 1 and II. Both had distictive tin covers over the fuses. A similar fuze was designed for the Toffee Apple trench Mortar round (no 107 fuse), so think Newton may have designed the fuze if not the whole round.

the type 22 was in use from June 1915 as basic rifle grenade. I'm not sure when they were discontinued.

Gunner Bailey

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the type 22 was in use from June 1915 as basic rifle grenade. I'm not sure when they were discontinued.

Gunner Bailey

When an adequate supply of Burns dischargers for the Mills arrived, I guess. That doesn't help a lot with dates, though!

Adrian

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The Pippen was one of the 'emergency' patterns introduced in 1915 - alongside the jam tins and hairbrushes (No.12), Pitchers, No.6's, Battyes etc. Both Pippens were invented by a British officer Captain Henry Newton who also designed the rather more sucessful Newton trench mortar. All the Pippens were made in France, in workshops in Armentieres.

The hand version had a simple percussion and time fuze. For the rifle version (officially to become the No.22) Newton added a 15 inch rod and changed the shape to incorporate a sprung flat metal plate at the head as a detonation trigger. Range was around 300 yds+. When the grenade hit (normally head first) the striker plate would strike a modified .303 case containing a standard detonator and instantaneously explode the charge (2 1/4 oz of Ammonal or Amatol). Like any of these grenades which do not arm themselves in flight but are live before firing they were somewhat dangerous - virtually all other rifle launched grenades were only armed automatically on leaving the rifle by the force of firing.

In addition there were many cases when the shock of firing was enough to move the striker plate with the grenade exploding in the rifle. Apparently some 2% of launchings ended this way! The MkII was modified to help avoid this. The 'hat' you see below sits over a percussion cap with a tin safety strip inbetween, this strip is removed before launching but once this is done the grenade is not safe and an accidental knock to the hat will trigger the grenade...bang

There is some info in Saunders as to their offensive effect. He states that due to the sensitive and instant detonation the grenades exploded even in marshy ground and they were particularly effective at destroying barbed wire but without leaving a large crater, some 18x6 inches in clay.

post-569-1179157345.jpg

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  • 12 years later...

Hi there.

Here's a hand thrown version of the Newton Pippin that my Grandfather brought home.

It was fired with a blank .303 cartridge

Graham

 

IMG_6651.JPG

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Very nice. The tin caps are very rare.

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Here's a photo of the 'sharp end' in a good example.

 

2135320736_NewtonPippinGWF.JPG.f0822bdc8fd5832078613c8495a2503f.JPG

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  • 6 months later...

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