Rifle grenade

A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade was thrown by hand.

The practice of projecting grenades with rifle-mounted launchers was first widely used during World War I and continues to the present, with the term "rifle grenade" now encompassing many different types of payloads including high explosive, fragmentation, and anti-tank warheads as well as concussion, smoke, incendiary, and flare missiles.

Rifle grenades have largely been supplanted in the infantry fire support role by a combination of grenade launchers (typically affixed to rifles) and disposable anti-armor rockets.

Adaptation of grenades for use in rifles began around 1904. The first experiments are credited to a Japanese Colonel Amazawa, who experimented with rifle fired grenades during the Battle of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War, and the idea was further used by the Spanish, though the French were the first to put it to widespread use during the trench warfare of World War I.

In 1907, Martin Hale developed the rod grenade. "A simple rod was attached to a specialized grenade, inserted into the barrel of a standard service rifle and launched using a blank cartridge." The British did not immediately adopt the idea and entered World War I without any rifle grenades. However, as soon as the trench warfare started, there was a sudden need for rifle grenades. The British government purchased a rodded variant of the No 2 grenade as a temporary solution.

By 1915, Hales had developed the No 3, which is commonly known as the Hales rifle grenade. The Hales grenade was improved throughout World War I to make it more reliable and easier to manufacture. However, production of the grenade was slow. In order to speed rod grenades to the front, the British also made rodded versions of the Mills bomb.

Although a simple approach, launching a rod grenade "...placed an extreme amount of stress on the rifle barrel and the rifle itself, resulting in the need to dedicate specific rifles to the grenade launching role, as they quickly became useless as an accurate firearm. This led to the search for an alternative and resulted in the reappearance of the cup launcher during the latter years of World War I". After World War I, the rod-type rifle grenade was declared obsolete and the remaining Hales were replaced with gas-check equipped Mills Bombs shot from a rifle via a cup launcher.

...
Wikipedia