Type 98 grenade

The Type 98 hand grenade (九八式柄付手榴弾, Kyūhachi-shiki etsuki teryūdan) was a fragmentation hand grenade deployed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Type 98 grenade
Type 98 grenade
Type	Hand grenade
Place of origin	Empire of Japan
Service history
Wars	Second Sino-Japanese War World War II

History

In 1938, the Imperial Japanese Army copied the Chinese Stielhandgranate 24 and produced them at a Japanese factory in Manchuria (then Japanese Manchukuo).

In 2015, Type 98s were documented to have been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo.^[1]

Design

Main article: Stielhandgranate

The weapon operated identically to the Chinese versions of the German Model 24 stick grenade, which had been encountered in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was based on these grenades, except that a pull ring was attached to the igniting cord, and the actual fuse delay itself was reduced to four to five seconds (varying from grenade to grenade).^[2]

The explosive charge contained 3 oz (85 g) of picric acid (a cheaper and more powerful but less safe explosive than TNT). The Type 98 is much smaller than the Model 24 and the charge is less than half from the same grenade.^[3]

Like the Chinese grenades, it was a crude copy of the Model 1924 and a number of issues plagued its effectiveness.^[4]

Users

• Empire of Japan
  • Imperial Japanese Army