Rare WWII O.S.S. T-13 "Beano" Grenade - Inert

Description

10/2/26 - This is a very nice, totally inert and non-functional example of a WWII-era T-13 "Beano" grenade that was manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company. This is a very nice example of the experimental grenade developed by the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S., later became the CIA). The body of this grenade has very minimal finish loss, but does show some light denting around the bottom hemisphere of the hand grenade. There are a couple areas of light patina though nothing that seems to penetrate past the outer layer. Around the middle of the grenade, it is painted "GRENADE   T13   (COMP A)   EKC39". The fuse cap on this Beano is stamped 32, EKC, and Fuze, T5.

During the war, the T-13 grenade was designed to emulate a baseball in both size and weight. This concept was thought to be optimal for American Troops as every young American male had experience throwing a baseball. This experience would theoretically grant U.S. soldiers the ability to throw the grenade with more accuracy and distance.

The "Beano" utilizes a pressure plate connected to an arming device that was designed to be triggered mid flight for an on-contact detonation. The grenade was to be held like a baseball, with two fingers resting on the knurled pressure plate at the top of the device, which is held down by an arming pin. The soldier would pull the arming pin and hold the pressure plate down until the grenade is thrown. Once the device leaves the throwers hand, the top detaches from the body and a string attached to the cap would pull out a secondary arming pin which arms the grenade for detonation on impact.

While several thousand of these T-13 grenades were shipped to Europe during WWII, however shortly after being put into circulation by U.S. troops, they were recalled due to many of them prematurely detonating, killing many allies. After the war, the military's supply of T-13 grenades were ordered to be destroyed and any files pertaining to them were classified. This destruction made any existing examples rare.

This device is inert and non-functional.