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IWM (MUN 1607)Second World War period British smoke grenade. This is the first production version of the No 83 Grenade that was introduced into British service in February 1944, as the Mk I was not produced.
The grenade body is made of several parts, namely a cylindrical outer container with a top cap rolled and seamed on that has four emission holes, a threaded top recess to take the striker mechanism, and a bottom that is also rolled and seamed onto the main body. Contained within the body is a sheet steel canister that is perforated and contains the smoke composition held in place by a paper wrapper. When activated, the grenade emitted smoke for about 20 to 40 seconds. This particular example has been sectioned to show the inner canister filled with clay to represent the real filling, the striker assembly (including fly-off lever and split pin) screwed into top, and is painted green with red stripe around top (indicating that it is filled). No 83 grenades were produced in four smoke types, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green, of which this example is marked up as being 'RED', and was manufactured in 1945.
