SRCM Mod. 35

• Name — SCRM Mod. 35 • Type — Fragmentation Grenade, Offensive • Service — 1935–1990 • Height — 85 mm • Diameter — 57 mm • Origin — Kingdom of Italy • Manufacturer — Società Romana Costruzioni Meccaniche • Weight — 240 g • Detonation — percussion • Filling — TNT or dinitronaphthalene • Filling Weight — 43 g • Is Explosive — yes

Nicknamed "Red Devils" by the British in 1941–1942 during the North African Campaign after the red color of the most common type.

In the SCRM 35 Italian ordnance designers created a compact grenade that was designed to explode on impact, but it also gained a reputation for being spectacularly dangerous. The Red Devil earned its nickname for two reasons- the Italian ordnance color code for High Explosive was red and when Allies found the grenades unexploded, they sometimes had the habit of going off after the fact. The Red Devil was activated by yanking on a rubber tab that freed a safety ring. Once hurled into the air, a safety cap partially encasing the brightly painted aluminium body, disengaged and partially armed the grenade. A small chain inside the cap acted as a second safety, pulling away and preparing the grenade for detonation. Unlike almost all other grenades of the 20th century, the Red Devil did not use a timed chemical reaction to ignite the explosive filler. The grenade, once its safety disengaged, would explode on impact. The Red Devil had a small shutter built into the case. Only when the grenade struck a surface with sufficient force would the shutter move, allowing a striker inside the grenade to ignite the explosive filler. The Red Devil was designed to explode, sending shrapnel out, no matter how the grenade landed. While the safeties proved reliable, there were always problems with the grenade remaining unexploded. In North Africa, British forces during World War II would find these red-painted hand grenades undetonated. And, on occasion, when a grenade was picked back up the striker would engage and detonate.

Post-war produced grenades were painted a khaki color and using the same colored lines scheme for the various versions. • Version — Description • War — Red colored shell. • War Regia Marina — White with red stripe, loaded with TNT. • Smoke — Yellow during the war, after the war red; recognizable by many big holes on the outer shell. • Smoke Incendiary — For operational use, without holes, red upper half, lower half black with lettering on the bottom F and F1, respectively. • Charge reduced for training — Red with brown and blue stripes, charge is a mixture of 5 g of smoke, handle without the internal shrapnel wire. • HE — Red with yellow line, high-potential TNT charge.

• France • French Army • Nazi Germany • Wehrmacht • Kingdom of Italy • Regio Esercito • Regia Aeronautica • Marina Militare • Malta • Armed Forces of Malta