How destructive is a grenade?

Answer 1

Not nearly as destructive, as depicted on television. Nor do they let out the fire and flame depicted in Hollywood films. They are simply black bursts of smoke upon detonation. At night, they do show a burst of fire at the base of detonation.

Answer 2

There are smoke, concussion, gas, and fragmentation grenades. We'll presume you meant frag grenades. US Vietnam era grenades were very well designed and very effective in the field; but totally NOT like they are depicted in Hollywood films. Hollywood films show frag grenades exploding like 175mm cannon shells...destroying concrete buildings and solid steel tanks...NOT SO. The standard US Vietnam era frag grenade made NO FIRE, just a black cloud of explosion (unless seen at night, then there would be a ball of flame at the base of the explosion) and powerful enough only to demolish an area the size of a room of a standard house structure.

In the open field, the US frag was just about the size of a 60mm mortar explosion. The least effective frag grenades were what were actually called by GI's in Vietnam, the "CHICOM" (for Chinese Communist) stick grenade; a WWII German style potato masher with a wooden handle and a black cast iron warhead. Many a GI in Vietnam had those Chicoms land next to them (3 feet), and they only blew off the GI's steel helmet, causing no injuries; but then, to show how unstructured they were, one might go off twenty feet away and hit a man.