The engineers who created the Beano Grenade believed that if they modeled the weapon around a baseball then any young American man should be able to properly throw it. Baseball is America’s national pastime and one of the country’s most popular professional sports.
The Beano Grenade used a pressure trigger to detonate and explode on contact with hard surfaces. U.S. Soldiers fighting during the Second World War were taught to throw the grenade like a traditional baseball. Soldiers would even hold the grenade the same way a pitcher would hold a baseball when throwing a “knuckle ball.”
Several thousand Beano Grenades were shipped to Europe during the Second World War and U.S. Soldiers used them during the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944. However, the grenades were quickly recalled and taken out of service after several of them prematurely detonated and killed U.S. Troops.
