Defensive grenade wz.33

The '''granat obronny wz. 33' (Polish for defensive grenade, mark 33'') was a fragmentation grenade used by the Polish Army before and during World War II.

The shell casing was molded from cast iron and formed into a pineapple-shaped oval, typical of World War II-era hand grenades. More specifically it was modelled after earlier Polish grenades of 1920's (such as the Defensive grenade wz.24), which in turn were based on French World War I F1 grenade. It was fitted with wz.Gr.31 percussion fuse. To increase reliability, the grenade had two blasting caps and two strikers. The casing was produced in one of three factories, a letter on the casing denoting the producer (K for Końskie, M for Warsaw and W for Wilno).

The Polish name for the grenade was because the blast radius of shrapnels often exceeded 100 metres and the grenade had to be thrown from a defensive position, such as a trench or from behind a wall. Two such grenades as well as two wz.24 offensive grenades were standard military equipment for all enlisted soldiers.

External Sources

 * |Polish Armed Forces Museum's Movie about Polish hand grenades between 1930 amd 1945