The Forgotten 3-Shot Grenade Launcher Before the M79: The T148E1 with expert Jonathan Ferguson

This week, Jonathan explores the T148E1, an experimental three-shot 40mm grenade launcher developed in the 1950s. Often overshadowed by the legendary M79, the T148E1 shows that the US was experimenting with multi-shot grenade launchers right from the start. So why did it fail? Object Number: PR.12264 (https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-282515) Sources/Reading: -Springfield Armory Museum SPAR catalogue entries; https://museum.nps.gov/ParkORet.aspx?pS=t148e1%26db%3Dobjects%26dir%3DCR%20SPAR# (search includes 1x XM79) https://museum.nps.gov/ParkORet.aspx?pS=t148e2%26db%3Dobjects%26dir%3DCR%20SPAR (search includes 1x additional T148E1 not found in above search - for a total of 21 T148 series weapons) -Manual; https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3254587-U-S-Army-TC-23-3-XM79-and-T148E2-Grenade-Launchers.html -Kevin Dockery, ‘The Development of the M79 Grenade Launcher’, Small Arms Review Vol.5 No.8 (2002). https://smallarmsreview.com/the-developement-of-the-m79-grenade-launcher/ -Roy E. Rayle, ‘Random Shots: Episodes in the Life of a Weapons Developer’ (2012 reprint). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477464107 -Joseph Trevithick, ‘No-One Loved the Bulky, Fragile T-148 Grenade Launcher’, War is Boring blog, January 17 2017. https://medium.com/war-is-boring/no-one-loved-the-bulky-fragile-t-148-grenade-launcher-513787a3eb2c Please like, comment and subscribe for more episodes of What Is This Weapon? Subscribe to our channel for more videos about arms and armour Help us bring history to life by supporting us here: https://royalarmouries.org/support-us/donations/ Sign up to our museum membership scheme here: https://royalarmouries.org/support-us/membership/ ⚔Website: https://royalarmouries.org/home ⚔Blog: https://royalarmouries.org/stories/ ⚔Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalArmouriesMuseum/ ⚔Twitter: https://twitter.com/Royal_Armouries ⚔ Instagram: http://instagram.com/royalarmouriesmuseum We are the Royal Armouries, the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Discover what goes on behind the scenes and watch our collection come to life. See combat demonstrations, experience jousting and meet our experts. Have a question about arms and armour? Feel free to leave us a comment and we'll do our best to answer it.