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A really nice early WWII MK2 grenade brought back by Marine flyer


rambob
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As some of you may know, I put a classified advertisement into a local bi-monthly community news paper that I buy WWII militaria. Pickings have been slim lately, but I recently I hit a treasure trove of items from a local family of a WWII Marine Corp, rear machine gunner on the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. I have this flyers log book and I can tell you he saw a lot of combat action in the Pacific Theater in the Midway and Marshal islands. I will be writing a detailed article about him, his exploits and the rest of the treasures I acquired from the family. I am including some photos of the flyer and his airplane for reference here.

 

I am posting here in the ordinance section, because when he returned from WWII, this flyer brought back three, inert and nice condition grenades in his foot locker. The grenades were a US MK2 pineapple hand grenade, a Japanese Type 97 hand grenade and a Japanese Type 99 hand grenade. For this topic, I have included a group photo of all three grenades, but of course will concentrate on the US MK2 grenade. From what I can determine, the grenade started life pre-WWII having been painted completely yellow and with a solid bottom. The manufacturer is American Fireworks from the AF stamped into one side of the grenades body. Also, on the opposite side of the grenade an E is more faintly stamped into the grenades body, maybe designating a lot designation. Sometime during WWII the grenade body was over painted Olive Drab green leaving a yellow band around the top of the grenade. On this example, the grenade body has been significantly chipped and the yellow paint, under the OD paint is easily visible. Lastly the original fuze is still on the grenade and the spoon is clearly stamped with FUZE M10A2 K (in a circle) LOT EK-746. BTW. There is no black paint at the tip of the spoon meaning that the fuze had been modified in the past.

 

I am not an expert on these grenades and welcome any comments or corrections that may come in from the forum members on this topic.

 

Bob

 

 

 

post-299-0-99639300-1583178791_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
Dirt Detective

Beautiful example of a OD over yellow American fireworks frag...with EK ( eastman Kodak ) M10A2 igniting fuze. Great pick up.

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Thanks for the nice comments. I was also taken by this grenade when I first saw it in the veterans foot locker. It does have a bit of paint chips off the body, but the base grenade color matches pretty well the shade of OD paint they used on the over coat. I believe the chipping occurred by being stored and banging against the Japanese grenades for 75 years in the foot locker.

 

Bob

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