M9 Rifle Grenade 

Worth noting the Germans and Soviets had their own versions. Also the British developed a prototype during WW1

My dad a ww2 marine said he hated the rifle grenade. He carried it for a short time but switched to a Thompson after getting promoted during the Okinawa battle in 45. I still have all his ww2 marine stuff including helmet uniforms etc.

I did not know that this was a hollow charge capable of penetrating armor, I always thought it was just a chunk of explosive fired out further than you could throw a grenade. That's why I love this channel, I learn stuff. 👍

Some modern armies maintained a love affair with rifle grenades for a long time after WW2, notably the French and Belgians. Modern versions have a "shoot through" hole down the middle of the grenade body that captures the rifle gas, obviating the need for special blank cartridges.

For anyone interested, the movie sequences at 2:07 and 4:31 from To Hell and Back are Audie Murphy recreating his use of rifle grenades to destroy an abandoned tank. He was awarded the Bronze Star with a "V" for valor for meritorious or heroic acts in combat for this act.

Audie Murphy in this Video is shooting a American tank called M41 Walker Buldogg. Audie Murphy was a all American Hero.

the grandfather of the M79

Nice info. The M7 rifle grenade launcher (for the M1 rifle) wasn't issued until about 1943 - 44, so the M1903 (or M1903A3) was retained in service for use with rifle grenades. The carbine had an M8 launcher for the M9 grenade (a different attaching method as WW2 carbines didn't have bayonet lugs). The special blank cartridge was also called a "grenade crimp" by US military personnel. Back in the 1970s, I was a WW2 reenactor and we cautioned to never fire a grenade crimp when the blank firing adapter was fitted to our M1s. The GI blank firing adapter reduced the muzzle opening to allow the gas to cycle the weapon for semi-auto fire. Regular M1909 .30 caliber blanks didn't have the distinctive crimp, they had a slightly extended cartridge case that was closed off with a cardboard disk and red wax. Carbine grenade crimps were just smaller versions of the.>30-06 version. The two biggest problems with the M9 rifle grenade were the lack of penetration at many battle ranges and the fact that many GIs received little training or practice fire with the rifle grenades.I believe that it was during development of the M9 grenade that someone put a rocket motor on a test example and the bazooka was born.

Always wanted one of these for Airsoft

Americans actually upgraded their Grenadier count per Squad from 1 to 3 in 1944. Given how many there were per squad, its an underrepresented part of a Rifle Squads firepower in the movies.

Really thought i understood rifle grenades. Well, i did not. Thanks for posting this. I really had no idea there was a rifle grenade that effective against armor during ww2. Freaking impressive.

Also in Insurgency: Sandstorm the reloading and riflegrenade has appeared in the game aswell, when it had the bug to swap to the knife it had magically reloaded the rifle with the grenade and ammo it was fun to use lol

Watching the enlisted clips is funny, especially destroying the tank. The anti tank piat doesn't do anything a majority of the time but 1 rifle grenade knocks out 3 crew members while also being able to be used against infantry. What a wacky game

Really impressed that you had a clip from 'Nikita'. A great film.

Idea: Tranquilizer guns

As a fun little side fact the French Army actually uses a rifle grenade that uses live ammunition to fire it as opposed to blanks. I would definitely hate to be the guys that's forced to carry them.

This was the change of pace I needed.... I spent the day installing and calibrating laser grip sights on my .45. Thanks, Johnny!

That’s quite an explosive topic Johnny!

Nice vid as always! Awesome! Got an interresting theme, the naval "San Shiki" AA Shell. I think that kind of ammo is really something unusual... Ty Johnny

Love your format on these vids

Very well covered. I wonder, would the M79 be the direct followup or more of merging of rifle grenade and mortar?

Do a video on the accuracy of war video games

Great video, as always. Thanks

There are still a lot of people who do not know grenade launcher origins from WWII and even earlier without study history. Thanks to you. Some people even thought missiles are first used during Vietnam war.

Thank you for enlightening me on how the rifle grenade works.I wasn't sure if it was impelled by a rifle round or by the gas from the same round when fired.I never had the chance to fire one during training as they were being phased out along with the M-14 that we trained with.

Can you do a video on the m16

First grenade :3

Hey Johnny. Great vids. I subbed and have watched a few videos of yours. Very neat & informative stuff

This weapon always confised me. Ibshould have looked it up, but i knew Johnny would be on it.

"Ahh, pointing at things and shooting is too hard, let me do trigonometry instead" - SovietWomble

great as always

Since you mentioned underbarrel launchers, are you thinking about doing a video on the M203?

Came for the info, stayed for the pun at the end of the video.

Get all my research from Johnny. What a lad.

I continue to be overjoyed when you upload, simple quick and informative, great content

Good to see Enlisted pop up there. Fun game

eeeey props for showing project reality!

The ADF as well as other militaries still use modern rifle grenades in some capacity to this day as they can be a bit more effective than thrown grenades and aren't so limited in size for tube launchers like the M203 and M320, which they also use.

Sgt Roebuck: "Miller! Load up with those rifle grenades and blow that damn bird off his perch."

‘Too much pressure”. Jonny!

Like your videos, good combination of info and movie/anime footage. Thanks a lot for what you are doing!

It always amuses me that rifle grenades have more or less fallen out of favor as we went into the second half of the 20th century, but France retained rifle grenades for use on the FAMAS for a long time

Would be very cool to see automatic grenade launchers. Great video as always my man

1:45 I bought one of these grenade sights from the Army Surplus store, it did wonders for my Potato Gun's accuracy.

There’s actually a photo of both the gun and the soldier using it after they used a live round in a rifle grenade it’s not pretty for the human part and the rifle was basically shattered Also from 1945 to 1951 the us army made an improved model of the m7 called the m7a1 that allowed the user to keep the semi automatic action of the garand with it mounted but lose it when mounting a grenade onto the device using a simple spring loaded piston that stays closed until the grenade is either fired or removed then opens to allow use of the semi automatic capabilities of the rifle and the launcher recoiled as well when fired to prevent damage to the rifle and the rifle itself was modified slightly with a hardened gas cylinder lock labeled H for hardened that extended the amount of time a soldier could use the device This meant that the soldiers issued the rifle grenades could just slap the new device on their rifles and forget about it as they only lose the semiautomatic action when a grenade is mounted on it and only remove it if they are issued a bayonet and need yo mount it or when cleaning their rifle Which in the case of the fast paced battles of the wars of the time where a few seconds can be the difference between life and death for you and your squad meant a much quicker deploy time of the grenades which of course can be the difference between life and death And there’s a 2 more variants after the a1 meant to solve various problems found with previous variants with the a3 being modified to fire a much more powerful anti tank grenade to defeat the soviet t-34 tanks used by the North Korean army as the ww2 grenades didn’t have enough power to stop them And there were even booster charges for the standard m7 Called the vitamin pill by soldiers it consisted of a cutdown 45 colt casing with a small hole at the base loaded into the device like a shotgun shell and the flame of the main cartridge would travel into the hole igniting the charge and sending the grenade an additional 100-150 yards

I have an M7 grenade launcher for my M1 rifle. It's a nice accessory to have.

I already knew what the intro clip was going to be

Ayy a bit late but keep up the good content johnny :)

These are also used by US Rifleman squads in Company of Heroes 2 as their vehicle snare ability

Another great video for the books.

Not sure if this was became of my suggestion, but thanks either way Johnny! 😁👍

Excellent enlisted footage I really like that game.

videogame Day of Infamy has a nice realistic grenade launcher

Enough pressure to blow my mind away 😂

Audie Murphy there!

Always thought the idea of a GI hitting a MG34 nest dead on, in the heat of combat, with an unaimed rifle grenade fired in a high arch, was pretty fucking ludicrous in that scene in Band of Brothers. There's no way he would have made that shot first time, no God damn way.

Always wondered when you guys would get to rifle grenades

oh man the way you ended on the Vietnam war i thought it was gonna be a longer video! dammit lol still a great video.

Then there's the Bo-Hiya, a rocket/Grenade attached to the Banzutsu or hand cannon creating one of the oldest examples. Commonly used in sieges and naval warfare.

awesome 😃

I had no idea this was an anti tank weapon.

M9A1 actually penetrates 3.5-4 inches of armor. 60mm was more the very early M9, the A1 was much improved. The M17 frag was phased out due to its wimpy EC powder (guncotton) filling. The M9A1 used actual high explosive fill, as did later-model Mk.2 frags

The M1 Rifle could fore in semi-automatic mode with the grenade launcher in place, using ball ammo. When used to fire grenades, the launcher set back and a stud opened the valve on the gas cylindde lock screw, thus venting the gas. Without s grenade in place, spring pressure kept the launcher forward, keeping the valve closed.

I always watch 'till the end for the puns. ;)

Can you do one on the SKS?

I remember that game lol

my husband told me of the FN Fal rifle grenade and the dislike of using it even though it was in training.

nice

Some Rifle grenades actually allow you to fire using an actual bullet without using a blank, they're know as "bullet catchers" the FAMAS AT (APAV-40 & AC-58) grenades are notorious in the French army for the recoil it generates when using rifle grenades, often hitting the forehead of the soldier that is unprepared for the massive recoil, there are many videos of soldier getting the parallel lines of the FAMAS handgrip imprinted on their forehead

I wonder if there was a way to use the rifle grenades as hand grenades like that scene in SPR with the 60mm mortar rounds.

Video idea Irish soldiers in the civil war

The M9 Grenade Rifle Reminds me from World at War Hard Landing.

Worth noting, the M10 grenade was a more powerful follow-on weapon, but was too large to be fired from a rifle (there was discussion about using the bayonet as a rocket launch rail). Finally they held a contest to build a launch system for the M10, the bazooka was the winner.

"You may hit your targets but I hit MY targets" ~SovietWomble

The M8 launchers for the M1 Carbine were first used in Europe by soldiers fighting in France and then Korea on the M2 version.

SVT-38/40 in movies next?

cool

Hey Johnny I collect militaria and I do have 33 grenades including 7 ww1 rifle grenades UK, Italy etc

One small thing that may be interesting is that you can take a 60mm mortar round, detach the fin, and screw it into the rifle grenade fin. There are a few pictures of it being done, essentially acting as an even more portable mortar.

I love your videos can you do a overview of a world war 1 French uniform

Rifle Proppeled Grenade. I'm a huge fan of the ospray in Foxhole, especially with green ash.

niiiiiiiiiiice!

My friends dad still alive has an annecdote about being a very green soldier and crossing the rhine. seing a german in a fox hole. and getting a hole in one

Why did it take so long to develop tube launched cartridge grenades for infantry? I've tried looking this up but never found a well-sourced answer. Some say it was because rifle grenades were primarily anti-vehicle weapons, and that tube launchers lack the range, penetration and power to damage armored vehicles. Another explanation was that gas operated intermediate caliber rifles like the AK and M16 were ill suited to a grenade rifle. Others point to armament doctine, saying that dedicated mortar teams were deemed more effective You're amazing at sourcing info. Did you ever run across a mid-century development request that explains why? There's gotta be one for the M79 (or some predecessor) but I can't find it But enough about that -thanks for another great video!!

The misconception in movies is that they never inserted a blank round in the chamber to fire the rifle grenade. Because if you just insert it at the tip and fired it's gonna blast on your face

The Hungarians had rifle grenades as well, pretty decent compared to other Hungarian weapons

Always wondered how they were fired and actually thought used a real bullet

This grenade doesn't get enough credit on how effective it was 1:40 in anti-monsters warfare during WW2 and way into the 1950's.

The Aussie, Chinese and Italian soldiers know this, for their culture.

1:45 Rang was not adjusted that way for the M9/M9A1s. They were to be put all the way on and range was adjusted by the angle of fire. Its maximum range is around 260ish yards from a 45 degree angle. Only the adapters for the hand grenades used the notch system with angle of elevation. It should also be noted that despite men being trained to shoot it from the ground, in all the photos that I have seen and in most of the pictures, they all are firing it from the shoulder. 2:25 By august of 1944 the army called for 4 rifle greaniders per rifle squad. Not all squads had all 4 but at full strength they did. Anyone could’ve been made a rifle gun in the air. But typically the assistant squad leader would most definitely be a grenadier

With the Post Scriptum detail in mind, what happens if and when a trooper doesn't have a special blank around to help with the grenade? Anyway, hope to see the China Lake launcher too sometime. Might even expect a certain Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail scene to accompany it.

m203 next ?

Effective against panzers..........and dinosaurs!

There's a few that can use reg ammo

It is so insanely slow to load in Insurgency: Sandstorm ... like , damn , it is embarrassing .

The M9 rifle grenade was most effective when firing down on enemy tanks in urban combat. If not in an elevated position, the soldier firing the grenade would have to hit the tank in a vulnerable spot. Otherwise the grenade would have no effect on the thick frontal armour of enemy tanks. Soldiers could also try to hit a tank's roof by firing the grenade like a mortar but trying to hit a moving target in such a fashion was next to impossible on the battlefield. Any tank's armour is the thinnest on top, which also explains why tanks were more vulnerable to air attacks.

wait can I destroy tanks with that in enlisted?!?!?!?

Those things look pretty effective. This episode created excessive back pressure in my chamber. It’s undoubtedly gonna lead to excessive wear on my locking lugs and premature aging of my entire bolt carrier group.

Will you talk about the panzer series and I mean by only the panzers panther doesn’t count cause it’s one of the more known vehicles the panzers always get over looked by the big cats

The Beast From 20,00 Fathoms! Question though, the thumb is confusing, the M9 could not be fired from an M-1 Carbine, yes?