The RG-42 was a fragmentation grenade designed in the Soviet Union during WWII, when production was not sufficient to supply the original pre-war hand grenades. It was essentially a redesign of the short-lived RG-41 grenade to use the UZRGM universal grenade fuze, also used on the F-1 hand grenade and later the RGD-5. The production is a very simple design compared to the complicated RGD-33 stick grenade. After the war the grenade continued to be produced in Poland and China: it was eventually replaced in Soviet use by the RGD-5, starting in 1954.
Specifications
(1942 - 1954, all remaining examples destroyed in the 1980s due to unstable TNT filler)
Type: Offensive hand grenade
Length: 130 mm
Weight: 384 g (420 g with fuze), filler 200g TNT
Blast radius: 30 meters
Fuze: UZRGM universal time fuze, 3-4 seconds.
The RG-42 hand grenade and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:
