| Original caption: “Ready to make a shipment of pineapples to Hitler, Hirohito and Company. An infantryman at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, holds a double handful of deadly grenades that may one day blast open a road to Berlin or Tokyo.” GI holding Mark IIA1 “Pineapple” or “frag” antipersonnel grenades. The soldier is armed with a M1903 Springfield 30 caliber (7.62 millimeter) bolt-action rifle. American soldiers complained that they were too explosive and did not allow for a combat assault. The grenade was intended as a defensive weapon. Instead of rushing the enemy with grenades, the Mark IIA1 detonated with such force, fragmenting into 200 iron shrapnel shards, that the soldiers had to wait for the grenade to detonate before advancing. As an example, United States Army Private 1st Class Eugene E. Jackson (July 29, 1922 – February 15, 1945) attached to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Infantry Division, was killed in action in Haguenau, France during a night patrol when his platoon stormed a Nazi German observation post and their own grenades wounded Jackson in the head, when he didn’t wait for the grenades to complete detonation. The Mark IIA1 could be fitted with a number of different fuses. At the start of the war, they were painted yellow, but during the Guadalcanal campaign Japanese soldiers threw the yellow grenades back in night actions. Yellow grenades pinned to soldiers’ webbing was conspicuously visible. Grenades were painted olive drab in the field and then at the factory. Blue Mark IIA1 practice grenades and M15 White Phosphorus (WP) grenades were also available. Range was extended to 250 yards (228 meters) with the M7 grenade launcher for the M1 Garand Rifle, which fired a 22 millimeter (.87 inch) with a blank cartridge. In a December 12, 1942, report on American military jungle fighting, 1 solider remarked, “Some of our new men were so scared of our hand grenades when they were first issued, that they jammed down the cotter pin. Then later, in action, they could not pull the pin.” In the same report, Platoon Sergeant Hubert R. Strong (July 14, 1919 – December 4, 2009), A Company, 5th Marines reported, “Some of my men thought their hand grenades were too heavy. They tossed them aside when no one was looking. Later, they would have given six month’s pay for one hand grenade.” From a late war United States Army report appears this comment regarding the use of hand grenades by Sergeant Homer A. East (May 13, 1921 – August 21, 1991) of the 2nd Infantry Regiment: “Whenever possible at night we use hand grenades rather than small arms. Hand grenades don’t give away our positions.” From the same report appears this warning about the use of hand grenades in combat: “Men should be taught to remove grenades from pockets and put them in handy holes when occupying positions. We have had several exploded when the men were hit.” The outbreak of World War II in 1939 resulted in a large expansion of Fort Belvoir. An additional 3,000 acres north of Route 1 were acquired to make room for the Engineer Replacement Training Center (ERTC) on North Post. In March 1941, the ERTC began to provide basic military engineer training to draftees. After mid-1942, Fort Belvoir began training soldiers in numerous engineer specialties. By the end of the war in 1945, the ERTC at Fort Belvoir had trained roughly 147,000 engineer troops. The Engineer Board, which had been created at the installation in 1924, continued to make great strides in testing and developing new engineer equipment. The massive influx of inductees at Fort Belvoir prompted another wave of temporary construction during World War II. These “temporary” structures were only designed to last for 5 years. Many survived and were used well into the 1980s. At the end of the war, Fort Belvoir once again became a demobilization center. Photographed by Alfred T. Palmer (March 17, 1906 – January 31, 1993). A native of California, Alfred T. Palmer traveled the world during the 1920s and 1930s as a photographer for shipping lines. In 1940, he was selected to lead the photo department of the Office for Emergency Management. In 1941, he moved to the Office of War Information. After the war, Palmer was a staff photographer at “National Geographic”. He later produced films for the United States Maritime Commission, the State Department, corporations, and humanitarian groups. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1684.jpg |
| Image Size | 3.14 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 4357 x 5596 |
| Photographer | Alfred T. Palmer |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 1, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Fort Belvoir |
| State or Province | Virginia |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-66282(15) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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