Gewehr-Granatpatrone 40

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Gewehr-Granatpatrone 40, known as GGP/40, was a German shaped-charge rifle grenade used in World War II. It was developed for Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger units to give them a lightweight anti-tank weapon. WASAG designed it in 1940 at the Luftwaffe’s request. It wasn’t ready in time for the French Campaign, but it likely saw service in 1941 and was first used by Fallschirmjäger during the Battle of Crete. Soon after, its aerodynamics, accuracy, range and armor penetration were found to be poor.

In 1942 there was a push for a better projectile with more armor penetration (about 50–70 mm), but experiences on the Eastern Front showed even that would be insufficient, so development was abandoned. By then the army had also developed better rifle grenades.

The GGP/40 did not use the army’s Gewehrgranatengerät or Schießbecher. It had its own spigot launcher and did not fit inside the Schießbecher. A rubber base gasket allowed it to be placed around the Schießbecher and it was held in place by a clip. It was fired from a rifle cartridge that launched a hollow wooden bullet rather than a blank.

The grenade was fin-stabilized (six tail fins) and lacked a rifled driving band. It did not resemble the army’s rifle grenades, but more like a mortar round. Its major parts included a rubber base gasket, six tail fins, a hollow cylindrical base, a graze fuze, a bell-shaped warhead, an RDX filling, an internal steel cone, and a convex nose cap.

How it worked: on impact, the graze fuze ignited the RDX, which collapsed the internal steel cone to create a superplastic high-velocity jet that could pierce armor. In shaped-charge weapons, penetration increases with a longer, wider cone. The grenade’s low flight speed did not reduce its penetration capability because it relies on chemical energy.

Specifications:
- Mass: 515 g
- Length: 234 mm
- Diameter: 61 mm
- Maximum range: 91 m
- Warhead: 175 g (6.2 oz) of RDX
- Detonation: graze fuze
- Blast yield: equivalent to 35 mm of RHA