Defensive grenade wz.33

Defensive grenade wz.33
granat obronny wz. 33
Type Percussion grenade
Place of origin  Poland
Service history
In service 1933–1945
Used by Poland
Wars World War II
Production history
Designed 1933
Produced 1933–1939
Specifications
Filling TNT or Picric acid
Blast yield 100 m

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.