HAND GRENADE EXPLOSION

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23587, 14 March 1942, Page 8

HAND GRENADE EXPLOSION

INQUEST INTO DEATHS OF FIVE SOLDIERS

OCCURRENCE AT ARMY

SCHOOL

(P.A.) WELLINGTON. March 13. The premature explosion of an emergency hand grenade at the Army School of Instruction was found by the Coroner (Mr H. Mellish) at the inquest to-day to have been responsible for the deaths of five soldiers. The verdict was that Major R. J. D. Davis, N.Z. Staff Corps, Sergeant R. A. Peters, Acting-Sergeant R. S. Thomson, and Corporal R. L. Geard died on February 7 and Acting-Sergeant H, H. Wood died on February 8 as the result of injuries received in a premature explosion. As it had been slated that the use of this type of grenade had been discontinued, no good purpose would be served by adding a rider as to what might be done in Ihe future, said the Coroner. The matter had been sufficiently ventilated as it stood. Second-Lieutenant J. C. Pring said he went with a squad of 26, four staffl-sergeant-instructors. and Major Davis, the chief instructor for grenade instruction. Each person in the squad threw and fired one grenade. After this they went to the rear of the firing bays, where Major Davis demonstrated how to prepare for firing a fire and throw emergency grenade which could be charged locally. Major Davis explained how to fit the gelignite plug, attach the fuse and detonator, and insert the charge into the greilade. Major Davis then lit the match compound on the end of the fuse and held up the grenade in full view of the squad, which was grouped round in a semi-circle three to four yards away from him. Two or three seconds after the match compound was ignited the fuse started to burn, and after that it seemed two or three seconds from then that the grenade exploded, just as Major Davis appeared to be adopting a throwing attitude. Sergeant N. P. Scott stated that after the fuse started to burn it burned half an inch, then appeared to go out. Major Davis flicked it with his finger and the fuse started burning again lower down about half an inch from the burning end. By this time Major Davis was holding the grenade in the right hand. The next thing he knew, said Sergeant Scott, was that lie had been thrown to the ground. The Chief Inspector of Munitions for the Armv Department, LieutenantColonel I. R. Withell, R.N.Z.A.. said the grenade which Major Davis was demonstrating was known as the ‘‘emergency grenade.” The ordinary commercial fuse was used, cut to the standard length of three inches, whi?h gave at least seven seconds' burning time. To Mr Scott, for the relatives of Corporal Geard. Colonel Withell said that this type of grenade was made to meet an emergency, but the manufacture of them ceased last April. The design was based on the components of the Mills grenade. A normal detonator could not be incorporated into this emergency grenade, so a commercial fuse was fitted into the detonator. A kink in a- short fuse length would be visible. At an inspection training point, at which the men in Major Davis’s squad were, an inspection of each part of the grenade was part of the instruction routine. After the accident he had “kinked” a number of fuses to a worse extent than he had ever seen any, and conducted stop-watch tests of the burning time. The shortest was 6 4-ssec. Others burned the normal time of seven seconds. It would not be correct to describe the grenade as an improvised grenade of a dangerous nature. It was improvised, but in the way it was made up all the points of danger had been covered and unnecessary risk eliminated. An instructor must have his men where they could see what he was doing. He could not have them peeping from over banks.

He did not agree that in the case of Major Davis there was danger of him becoming contemptuous of danger after his long experience in handling grenades. Mr Scott: To flick the fuse, was that not an unnecessary risk to take? Witness: It might appear so at this stage.