grenades...

[dannyday5821]

Now...heres something i dont understand and ive wants to know.

Grenades.

How powerful are they really? Ive heard rap songs saying one grenade will blow up the whole "block", i heard the police cornered off a whole street because they found one grenade in a house and were worried if it went off.

In games they never seem realistic. Some its a pathetic burst of smoke, others its an over exagerated explosion. Plus games never take into account things like shrapnel.

So lets say theres a street of ten houses. the grenade goes off at house number 5. whats the likley realistic level of damage?

[spaced]

it depends on the type of grenande. Most will cause some damage from the explosion but most will cause more damage from the shrapnel, that swhy hand held grenades have the cris cross patterns on them, so when they explode they break up and send shrapnel everywhere.

[4GS]

Grenades are not specifically designed to kill, the purpose of them is to 'stun' the enemy for a few seconds while the killing party finishes them off with automatic fire.
Here's how we cleared Iraqi trenches in Gulf war 1 using a two man fire team.
First guy looks round corner of trench (they were made in a zig-zag way) posts grenade then takes cover behind second guy. When the grenade explodes the second guy moves into trench firing his weapon (30 rounds) into anything soft/ or that moves, he then moves to the next corner of the trench, looks round corner of trench, posts grenade etc etc, they carry on until they reach their objective.

[heathfield]

A grenade depends upon the fragmentation of its cast iron body to work as an anti-personnel weapon. There are several recorded instances of soldiers covering a live grenade with a helmet or knapsack, and lying on top of it to suppress the blast, and who have lived to tell the tale. There were UK newspaper reports in the last week or so of one of our soldiers in the Middle East doing just that recently
As to the effect on a house, It would likely blow the window out, and cause damage to the plaster work of a room. The other houses in the street should remain unaffected.