; surrounded by
caltrops (10th–12th centuries
National Historical Museum, Athens, Greece)
Pre-gunpowder , Germany Rudimentary incendiary grenades appeared in the
Byzantine Empire, not long after the reign of
Leo III (717–741). The
Byzantine army learned that
Greek fire, a Byzantine invention of the previous century, could not only be thrown by
flamethrowers at the enemy but also in stone and ceramic jars. ) and a grenade (upper right),
Dunhuang, 10th century AD Grenade-like devices were also known in ancient India. In a 12th-century Persian historiography, the
Mojmal al-Tawarikh, a
terracotta elephant filled with explosives set with a
fuse was placed hidden in the van and exploded as the invading army approached. A type of grenade called the 'flying impact thunder crash bomb' (飛擊震天雷) was developed in the late 16th century and first used in September 1, 1592 by the
Joseon Dynasty during the
Japanese invasions of Korea. The grenade was in diameter, weighed , and had a cast iron shell. It contained iron pellets, and an adjustable fuse. The grenade was used with a dedicated grenade launcher called a 'wangu' (碗口). It was used in both the besieging and defense of fortifications, to great effect. There is a documented precedent for the use of hand grenades by Catalan troops. At the very least, they were already utilized during the
Siege of Bonifacio in 1420. Another specific historical instance occurred in
1433: The fleet of
Alfonso the Magnanimous (Alfons el Magnànim), which set sail for Sicily, loaded
200,000 units of primitive "magranes de coure" (copper pomegranates in the Italian language of the time) in Barcelona. The historical account describes them as follows:"...It also carried 200,000 copper pomegranates filled with gunpowder, and when they set fire to them they made a great noise, and, as the pieces shattered, they did so much damage that they knocked to the ground anyone they touched..." —
Melcior Miralles: Chronicle and Diary of the Chaplain of Alfonso the Magnanimous. The key innovation here was the
fragmentation effect. Older grenades relied mostly on fire to burn the enemy. The Catalan copper grenades were designed to explode and spray metal shrapnel, making them a true ancestor of the modern fragmentation grenade. Moreover the quantity indicates they were a standard issue munition, not just an experimental prototype The first
cast-iron bombshells and grenades appeared in Europe in 1467, where their initial role was with the besieging and defense of castles and fortifications. A hoard of several hundred ceramic hand grenades was discovered during construction in front of a bastion of the Bavarian city of
Ingolstadt, Germany, dated to the 17th century. Many of the grenades retained their original black powder loads and igniters. The grenades were most likely intentionally dumped in the moat of the bastion prior to 1723. By the mid-17th century, infantry known as "
grenadiers" began to emerge in the armies of Europe, who specialized in shock and close quarters combat, mostly with the usage of grenades and fierce melee combat. In 1643, it is possible that
grenados were thrown amongst the Welsh at
Holt Bridge during the
English Civil War. The word
grenade was also used during the events surrounding the
Glorious Revolution in 1688, where cricket ball-sized ( in circumference) iron spheres packed with gunpowder and fitted with slow-burning wicks were first used against the
Jacobites in the battles of
Killiecrankie and
Glen Shiel. These grenades were not very effective owing both to the unreliability of their fuse and the inconsistent times to detonation as a result, saw little use. Grenades were also used during the
Golden Age of Piracy, especially during boarding actions; pirate
Captain Thompson used "vast numbers of powder flasks, grenade shells, and stinkpots" to defeat two pirate-hunters sent by the
Governor of Jamaica in 1721. By the 18th century, the popularity of hand grenades was declining Mexican forces used grenades in the
Battle of the Alamo. Improvised grenades were increasingly used from the mid-19th century, the confines of
trenches enhancing the effect of small explosive devices. In a letter to his sister, Colonel Hugh Robert Hibbert described an improvised grenade that was employed by British troops during the
Crimean War (1854–1856): Hand grenades were used by French and Russian forces during the
Siege of Sebastopol. , used during the
American Civil War During the
Battle of Fort Sumter, grenades were kept at critical points of the fort such as the room over the gateway
. About 93,200
Ketchum grenades were procured by the
Union Army throughout the
American Civil war; those weapons were used in the sieges of Vicksburg, Port Hudson and Petersburg. Grenades were issued to United States Ram Fleet and Union Navy vessels to repel boarders Hand grenades were used on naval engagements during the
War of the Pacific. British troops used hand grenades in Sudan between 1884 and 1885. During the
Siege of Mafeking, in the
Second Boer War, the defenders used fishing rods and a mechanical spring device to throw improvised grenades. Improvised hand grenades were used to great effect by the Russian defenders of Port Arthur (now
Lüshun Port) during the
Russo-Japanese War. At first, they were improvised from old iron cases or mountain gun shells. Later, they were replaced with cut down shell casings from quick-firing artillery; filled with dynamite or gun-cotton, and fitted with
safety fuses. The workshops in Port Arthur could turn out 2,500 grenades in 24 hours. In the month of August alone 18,000 grenades were prepared. Various models using a
percussion fuze were built, but this type of fuze suffered from various practical problems, and they were not commissioned in large numbers. An
improved version of Vasić's design was adopted by the Serbian Army in 1912; the grenade provide very useful during the
First Balkan War, specially during the
Siege of Adrianopole. The German Army adopted the
Kugelhandgranate in 1913; it was meant to be used by pioneers to assault enemy positions. Early in
World War I, combatant nations only had small grenades, similar to Hales' and Aasen's design. The Italian Besozzi grenade had a five-second fuze with a match-tip that was ignited by striking on a ring on the soldier's hand. Developed by Ian Kinley at
Försvarets Materielverk (FMV), shgr 07 is a self-righting, jumping hand grenade containing some 1,900 balls that covers a cone 10 metres in diameter with the centre about 2 metres in height. This minimize the dangers outside the lethal zone as there is little to no random scattering of fragments from the blast. ==Explosive grenades==