Type 91 Grenade - Variants

Variants

As a hand-thrown grenade, the 7-8 second delay of the Type 91 proved too long in actual combat, enabling the enemy to pick up and throw the grenade back. To resolve this, the Type 97 fragmentation grenade was adopted for hand-thrown use. In addition to a four-second delay, the Type 97 had no provisions for attaching a tail assembly for rifle grenade use, or a propellant base for firing by grenade projector. These changes prevented accidental usage in the latter roles while simplifying production. When the Type 97 with its shortened delay came into production and was being delivered to front line combat units, the Japanese Army continued to use the older Type 91 grenades as hand-thrown weapons, in addition to rifle and grenade projector use. Many of the Type 91 grenades were modified by shortening the fuse to a four to five second delay, drilling out the base, and welding small extensions on the body, so that it could not fit into the Type 10 or Type 89 grenade discharger, and painting the bottom white. The resulting modified Type 91 was visually almost identical to the Type 97 except for its white base.