USS ALABAMA BB-8 as aerial target

[Bgile]

I know that when I was in the National Guard, noone in my organization thought of the smoke grenade as anything other than a screening or marking device. They came in several different colors. You could toss them on the ground near your position and they wouldn't hurt anyone. To think of them as an antipersonnel weapon is just silly.

Maybe there was a "WP" grenade at one time, but as far as I know the smoke grenade used today is harmless except that if you try to pick one up it's very hot. There are also Thermite grenades which are used to destroy equipment, but those are also not especially dangerous to nearby personnel, just a few feet around where it is placed. It's typically placed in the breech of a gun to render the gun useless. It will set a vehicle on fire eventually, or right away if you put it near inflammable material.

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

smoke grenade

There are many different types of colored smoke grenades and canisters that do not contain WP at all. But those that do, are excellent anti-personnel weapons, as Eisenhower knew. Training with them is relegated to experienced soldiers and even then only with dummy rounds are used mostly; even these are dangerous.