#grenade

[the-alpine-glow]

[kropotkindersurprise]

July 16, 2024 - A Kenyan protester throws back a tear gas grenade, that was shot at them by riot police without provocation, smoking the cops out of their truck.

Kenyans have been protesting proposed neo-liberal tax reforms for weeks. After a brutal crackdown by police killed at least 50 people the protesters are now in the streets demanding justice for the murdered, and for the right-wing president Ruto to step down. [video]

[zegalba]

sculpture by Helena Hauss

[waterghostype]

hc jay does NOT play about his karaoke songs

[steph-photographie]

Photo originale par Steph-Photo

Une image que j'aime beaucoup et qui trône encore dans mon bureau ... L'escalier du Palais de Charles-Quint à l'Alhambra de Grenade (Espagne)

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I lived in a KFC but they started selling grenades and unicorn meat.

[theactioneer]

Guns (Andy Sidaris, 1990)

[ltwilliammowett]

The grenade

The grenade (grenade is likely derived from the French word spelled exactly the same, meaning pomegranate, as the bomb is reminiscent of the many-seeded fruit in size and shape. Its first use in English dates from the 1590s.) as we know it today is not a modern invention - on the contrary, it has its origins in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

First grenades appeared in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire not long after the reign of Leo III (717-741). Byzantine soldiers learnt that Greek fire (a mixture of sulphur and oil), a Byzantine invention from the previous century, could be thrown at the enemy not only with flamethrowers but also in stone and ceramic vessels.

Byzantine " Greek Fire" Grenade, c. 800-1000 AD

With the invention of gunpowder in Song China (960-1279), weapons known as ‘thunderbolts’ were created by soldiers packing gunpowder into ceramic or metal vessels with fuses. In a military book from the year 1044, the Wujing Zongyao (Collection of Military Classics), various gunpowder recipes are described in which, according to Joseph Needham, the prototype of the modern hand grenade can be found.

The grenades (pào) are made of cast iron, are the size of a bowl and have the shape of a ball. They contain half a pound of ‘divine fire’ (shén huǒ, gunpowder) inside. They are sent by an eruptor (mu pào) towards the enemy camp, and when they arrive there, a sound like a thunderclap is heard and flashes of light appear. If ten of these grenades are successfully fired at the enemy camp, the whole place goes up in flames.

Grenade-like devices were also known in ancient India. In a Persian historical account from the 12th century, the Mojmal al-Tawarikh, a terracotta elephant filled with explosives was hidden in a chariot with a fuse and exploded as the invading army approached.

These encrusted hand grenades were washed up from a 17th-century pirate shipwreck, Dollar Cove, in the coastal Gunwalloe district of Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula

The first cast-iron bombs and shells appeared in Europe in 1467, where they were initially used in the siege and defence of castles and fortresses. In the mid-17th century, infantrymen known as ‘grenadiers’ emerged in European armies, specialising in shock and close combat, usually using grenades and engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat. But grenades have also been in use at sea since the 17th century. They were used to inflict as much personal damage as possible below deck after boarding a ship by throwing the grenades underneath.

After the middle of the 19th century, grenades were used extensively in the Crimean War and the American Civil War. Before they changed in design and function to be used in the trenches, especially in the First World War and later. They are still in use today.

Forbes, Robert James (1993). Studies in Ancient Technology

Thomas Enke: Grundlagen der Waffen- und Munitionstechnik

David Harding (Hrsg.): Waffen-Enzyklopädie

Bertram Kropak: Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Handgranaten. In: DWJ Deutsches Waffen Journal. 1970

[illustratus]

[cocoshomebrew]

Free PDF available on my Patreon

[moyzs]

[iwachomen]

More older then Dirt memes that have been lost to time

[ysalis-analog]

Palais de l'Alhambra - Grenade

[thejody]

Whats your first thought?

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was at a lighthouse with my cousin and we ate pomegranates when one of them became a grenade (in our language pomegranate and grenade are the same word) and blew up in a pink dust.