M7 Grenade Launcher - Development

Development

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, all infantry were issued with the Mk 2 fragmentation hand grenade. Owing to its hand-thrown nature it had limited range of 35 yards (32 meters) and could not be used against armored targets. To keep its weight down it had to have a small charge, with a fatality radius of just 6 yards (5.5 meters). For longer ranges rifle grenade attachments were available for the M1903 Springfield (M1 grenade launcher) and M1917 Enfield (M2 grenade launcher). These rifles were rare as they had been all but replaced by the M1 Garand by 1943. To rectify this, U.S. Army Ordnance designed a new launcher attachment for the M1 Garand, designated the M7, which could fire much heavier grenades up to 250 yards. M7 compatible fragmentation grenades had a fatality radius of 11 yards (10 meters). It entered production and service in 1943.

Read more about this topic:  M7 Grenade Launcher

Famous quotes containing the word development:

    On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.
    Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)

    Ultimately, it is the receiving of the child and hearing what he or she has to say that develops the child’s mind and personhood.... Parents who enter into a dialogue with their children, who draw out and respect their opinions, are more likely to have children whose intellectual and ethical development proceeds rapidly and surely.
    Mary Field Belenky (20th century)

    Sleep hath its own world,
    And a wide realm of wild reality.
    And dreams in their development have breath,
    And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)