Original Item: Only One Available. Totally inert and non-functional, this is an original WW2 BEANO T-13 hand grenade was an experimental hand grenade developed by the Office of Strategic Services (which later became the CIA) in the latter years of WW2. This particular Beano was never loaded there for never marked and was acquired from the Grandson of one of the men that worked on the project in the early 1940s. The letters "EKC" stand for the manufacturer, the Eastman Kodak Company. This example is offered in excellent condition.

The concept for the BEANO hand grenade was that a spherical grenade the size and weight of a common baseball would be effective in the hands of American troops. The designers believed that by emulating a baseball that any American young man should be able to properly throw the grenade with both accuracy and distance.

The final design for the T-13 hand grenade utilized a pressure trigger as well as an in-flight arming device. The grenade was designed to be thrown as a traditional baseball, and as such it was held with two fingers on a weighted and knurled "butterfly cap" and the arming pin was removed. Once thrown, the cap detached from the body of the grenade and a length of nylon string unwound until a secondary arming pin attached to the far end of the cord was pulled, arming the grenade to detonate upon impact with a hard surface. While the original design called for a 5.5 oz total weight, it was later decided that this was too light and the weight was increased to 12 oz.

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.

At the end of the Second World War, the U.S. military’s supply of T-13 Beano Grenades was ordered destroyed and files pertaining to the weapon were classified. Today, the Beano Grenade is a rare and highly prized artifact from the Second World War.