Out to Launch, Lots of stuff that can be launched off the end of a rifle.

[rambob]

All during my past gun and militaria show excursions I have always bought any type of item that could be launched off of a WWII rifle or accessories that permitted this to be done. These items really interested me for some reason. The good news was that generally I didn’t pay much for any of these items, back in the good old days. The top row of the photo below I am very proud of, because it is a complete collection of Signals, Ground, Star, Parachute in all four issued colors white, red, green and amber. The right two tubes are still sealed with the tape around the middle and have never been opened. The weird looking signal in the middle is a sectioned version I did for display purposes. Here are the designations for each signal:
Signal, Ground, White Star, Parachute, M17A1 = with white cover, embossed WP
Signal, Ground, Green Star, Parachute, M19A1 = with white cover, embossed GP
Signal, Ground, Amber Star, Parachute, M21A1 = with yellow cover, embossed AP
Signal, Ground, Red Star, Parachute, M51A1 with red cover, embossed RP

The second row contains from left to right, Grenade, Rifle, Smoke M19; Grenade, Practice M11A3; Grenade, Practice M11; Grenade, Rifle, Frag, Impact, M17; Adapter, Grenade, Projection, Chemical M2A1; Adapter, Grenade, Projection, M1; Sealed can with Grenade Cartridge Assortment. This can contained the two boxes of cartridges, for the M1 Garand, M3 and M1 Carbine, M6, shown below can. The smaller box contains five Auxiliary Grenade Cartridges M7 that were used to increase launching distance even farther, than with only the standard Rifle Grenade Cartridge.

The third row contains from left to right, Recoil Boot; TB 23-30-1 for Sight, Rifle Grenade Launcher, M15; Jig for mounting the M15 sight onto rifle stock; M7 Launcher for M1 Garand; M2 Launcher for M1917 rifle; Sight, Rifle Grenade Launcher, M15, pouch and instructions; Clips, used to keep the signal/grenade from slipping down the launcher prior to launching.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Very nice. Well done on collecting all of these.

Cheers, Ade.

[Franz1944]

Agreed, very nice collection

[Andrew]

you just dont see a group like this. very nice!
andrew

[Nick Hessens]

Nice collection! Thanks for showing them.

Regards

[Gustaf B]

Rifle grenades are an interesting subject, in this photo several WWI rifle grenades can be seen, the German 1913 and 1914 rod grenades at the left, in the center, the Italian Benaglia rod grenade (with fins) and on the right the French (also used by the US) VB grenade and discharge cup. The VB grenade (and the German copy) were unique in that they used a standard ball round to project, the ball would pass through the hole in the center of the grenade, and strike the primer and then the gas behind the ball would propel the grenade down range.

Best
Gus

[rambob]

Gustaf, Greattttttttttttttttttttttttttt Collection!! Some very rare and unusual ordinance there for sure!! Thanks for sharing.

Bob

[Gustaf B]

Thanks Bob,
I think rifle grenades are an interesting subject, and have been trying to pick up a few more of the WWI rifle grenades for my collection, unfortunatly, it is getting more and more difficult to have them shipped from overseas.
Best
Gus