Austro-Hungarian Hand Grenades of the Great War Part Ten – The Zeitzünder M16 Grenade

The Zeitzünder M15 was superseded by the M16 ‘Torpedo’ in 1916, ostensibly because it had a greater range, although the M15 continued to be used, presumably until stocks ran out.  The M16 was a smooth tube, cast-iron canister grenade that, like the M15, could be used as both a hand and rifle grenade.

I am fairly certain that the two smaller holes you can see in the above photo allowed the wire handle to be inserted to convert the grenade into a hand grenade.

This is a late-war example, which may be why, amazingly, on removing the cap,…

…the paper charge bag is still in perfect condition inside,…

…as is the fuse at the other end, and here you can see that one of the problems associated with the M15, that of the exposed fuse, had singularly failed to be addressed; damp conditions could quite easily cause the fuse to fail.  Waterproofing, and you can see traces here, was limited to simply covering the fuse in tar.

And, despite its age, this superb example of the M16 still retains all its original paint, too.

Next in this series: More Schweres.

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