V-40 Mini Grenade
| Factions | Frag Grenades | Icon | Classes | Ammo | Explosion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage | Radius | |||||
 US |
 V-40 Mini Grenade |
 |
Gun Game Zombies |
1/2 | 100 | 275 |
| Designation | Weapon Type | Fire Modes | Throwing Range | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-40 | Grenade | 3 Sec + 5 Sec | 25 meters? | 1 kg (2.2 lbs) |
| Full name | Caliber | Place of Origin | Date | Manufacturer | Total Length | Weapon Script Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FN | grenade | United States Of America | D8 | ARM | in ( mm) | weapon_v40 |
V-40 Mini Grenade is a very small defensive fragmentation hand grenade developed in the Netherlands, commonly nicknamed the “mini-frag,” “golf ball grenade,” or “hooch popper.” It uses a conventional lever-and-pin fuze with a short time delay and a pre-scored steel body intended to produce controlled fragmentation. It is best known for being compact enough to carry in large numbers and for limited Vietnam-era use by U.S. special operations units.
HISTORY
The V-40 was developed and produced in the late 1960s by Nederlandse Wapen en Munitiefabriek (NWM) “De Kruithoorn” as an unusually compact fragmentation grenade. The spherical body is notably small (around 40 mm in diameter) and uses internal pre-scoring to generate fragmentation while keeping overall size and weight low, paired with a typical delay fuze (commonly described as about four seconds). Production is generally described as ending in the early 1970s.
In Vietnam, the V-40 “mini-frags” were a special procurement item used by MACV-SOG reconnaissance teams and U.S. Navy SEALs from early 1969, valued because small teams could carry many grenades for breaking contact or close-quarters use. The same compactness also created handling drawbacks, with reports that the small lever could be difficult to manage with gloves and could be released inadvertently. Canada later adopted the V-40 for a period and eventually withdrew it in part due to these handling concerns.
Sources
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30023798 Grenade HE V-40 | Imperial War Museums
- https://dn720003.ca.archive.org/0/items/the-hand-grenade-rottman/vdoc.pub_the-hand-grenade.pdf The Hand Grenade | Gordon L. Rottman (Osprey)
- https://assets.nmm.nl/app/uploads/2022/10/ARMAMENTARIA-44-part-1.pdf Armamentaria 44 (mentions V40) | Nationaal Militair Museum (Netherlands) (PDF)
- https://old.weaponsystems.net/weaponsystem/BB01%20-%20V-40.html V-40 | Weaponsystems.net