Original German WWI Model 1915 Inert “Turtle” Defensive Discus Hand Grenade – Discushandgranate Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Totally inert and demilitarized according to BATF guidelines with hollow body and inert fuse. This grenade cannot be converted to an explosive device and is not available for export.

Offered is this Very rare World War I German defensive discus grenade, the Discushandgranate Model 1915. This example is in good condition, with light oxidation on the body, which appears to have been repainted. It is missing all four of the brass screw caps on the “legs”, though the brass cap for the detonator is intact and is missing the pull ring.

The trench warfare of WWI reinforced the long expressed need for impact detonated grenades, which would give no opportunity for the enemy to throw it back, like a conventional ‘timed’ grenade. In Germany, an original and efficient answer was developed in 1915 with the ‘Discushandgranaten’ (called ‘turtle grenades’ by the allied soldiers). The offensive model was made with two thin steel plates, crimped together, and is approximately 4 1/2 inches in diameter. The “defensive” model was smaller, about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and made of two pre-fragmented steel plates like this one.

These grenades have a lenticular “biconvex” shape , just like the discus thrown in Track & Field events. Inside the grenade were two bags of explosive, and the grenades were equipped with an ingenious igniting system looking like a star with 6 hollow cast aluminum tubes. The ones making the “legs” of the turtle contain mobile inertia blocks containing igniters. At the center of this cross is a “star” with 4 percussion pins, oriented towards the inertia blocks starters.

The other two tubes were for the safety and the detonator, respectively. The safety tube had a brass tube inside it that covered the “star”, and was retained by a safety pin. The tube opposite it contained the detonator itself, which would be ignited by the percussion charge.

To use this grenade, one had to remove the safety pin, and then throw it like a discus, giving it the necessary spin for a level flight. The centrifugal force also pushed back the inertial blocks, as well as the brass tube that covered the ignition star. Once the grenade landed, one of the 4 blocks would fall onto the star, and detonate the grenade. It was not a perfect system, but definitely ingenious and interesting.