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- Upper left: Scetch of a boarding grapnel
- Upper right: Soldier swinging grappling hook
- Lower left: 6-hooked boarding grapnel
- Lower right: Feudal Japanese grappling hook: kaginawa
A grappling hook or grapnel is a drag-looking device intended for grappling onto something. It typically has multiple hooks (known as claws or flukes) attached to a rope or cable; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold on to objects. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge for submerged objects.
The device was invented by the Romans in approximately 260 BC.[1][2] The grappling hook was originally used in naval warfare to catch ship rigging so that it could be boarded.[3]
Design
A common design has a central shaft with a hole ("eye") at the shaft base to attach the rope, and three or four equally spaced hooks at the end, arranged so that at least one is likely to catch on some protuberance of the target. Some modern designs feature folding hooks to resist unwanted attachment.
Grapple gun
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Most grappling hooks are thrown by hand, but some are propelled via compressed air, gunpowder, or rockets, either from dedicated grapple guns, or line throwers, such as the Plumett AL-52, or from conventional weapons, such as mortars, or guns with the appropriate muzzle device.[4]
Applications
Entring (boarding)
Traditionally, grappling hooks have been a tool of naval boarding, used to grapple the rigging or railing of enemy ships, and allow boarding parties to climb over. This tactic also transcends onto land, where it is used to climb over obstacles and entring buildings.[5]
Historically there has also existed big boarding grapnels, swung from the rigging of ships, also known as "boarding drags" (German: Enterdregge, Swedish: änterdragg).[6]
Grappling hooks were used by soldiers at the D-Day landings to aid in climbing the cliffs at the Normandy beaches. Some were rocket-propelled and launched from mortars.[7][8]
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Window entry via grappling hook -
Large "boarding drag" -
![Swedish Manual for "boarding drag" (1698–1715)[6]](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Grov_%C3%A4nterdragg_rigg.png/250px-Grov_%C3%A4nterdragg_rigg.png)
Swedish Manual for "boarding drag" (1698–1715)[6]
![Swedish Manual for "boarding drag" (1698–1715)[6]](/wiki/File:Grov_%C3%A4nterdragg_rigg.png)
Clearance
Grappling hooks are used by combat engineers to breach tactical obstacles. When used as such, the grappling hook is launched in front of an obstacle and dragged backwards to detonate tripwire-fused land mines, and can be hooked on wire obstacles and pulled to set off booby traps on the wire. A grapnel can clear up to 99% of the trip-wires in a single pass.[9]
The rifle-launched grapnel (LGH), a single-use grappling hook placed on the end of an M4/M16 rifle, is used for this purpose.[10][11] A crossbow-launched version has also been produced.[12]
Snagging
In WW1, the Russian pilot Alexander Kazakov once unsuccessfully attempted to use a grappling hook to bring down a German spy plane.[13]
During WW2 British and German ships towed grappling hooks in the hope of snagging or damaging enemy submarines,[14] a tactic also employed by the Japanese.[15]
Maritime
As well as the grapnel anchor, grapnels are used in the removal and repair of subsea cables. Large cable layer ships drag huge grapnels across the seabed until they snag a cable.[16] They tend to have 4 more evenly spaced out hooks.
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Grapnel anchor -
A chain grapnel – used to recover a cable from the seabed
In popular culture
Grappling hooks, grapple guns, and their many variants have been a staple in many video games[17] as well as some cartoons like Phineas and Ferb.
See also
References
- ^ "The Roman Navy and the Grappling Hook". Patent Pending. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ "Naval Warfare". Britannica. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ "Boarding Hooks". The Pirate King. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ Michael Dewar (30 January 1992). War in the Streets. David & Charles. ISBN 0715394770.
- ^ Soldatreglemente för Soldaten i fält (SoldF), 2001 års utgåva M7742-100002 (PDF). Soldaten i fält. Swedish Armed Forces. 11 May 2001. p. 292. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
- ^ a b "Hur använde man en änterdragg?". sjohistoriska.se. Statens maritima och transporthistoriska museer. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
- ^ Ladd, James (1 January 1979). Commandos and Rangers of World War II. p. 241. ISBN 9781131235172.
- ^ "Rudder's Rangers and the Boys of Pointe du Hoc: The U.S. Army Rangers' Mission in the Early Morning Hours of 6 June 1944". armyhistory.org. US Army Historical Foundation. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
Rocket-fired, grapnel-equipped ropes eventually become the primary tool of choice when ascending the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.
- ^ "Para. C-57 and Table C-2". Combined Arms Breaching Operations. 31 August 2000. Field Manual 3–34.2.
- ^ "The Launch Grapnel Hook (LGH)" (PDF). Infantry Magazine. Vol. 89, no. 3. September–December 1999. pp. 4–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 January 2017.
- ^ "Muzzle launched grapnel hook projectile" (PDF). docs.google.com. 12 August 1994.
- ^ "SAA International, Ltd". 15 July 2011. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011.
- ^ "Aleksandr Kozakov: The Tsar's Ace". 22 May 2018.
- ^ "A Brief History of Anti-Submarine Warfare". Globe Composite. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ McDonald, Craig R. (2007). The USS Puffer in World War II: A History of the Submarine and Its Wartime Crew. McFarland. p. 68. ISBN 9780786432097.
- ^ "Subsea Cables – Maintenance / Repair Operations". KIS-ORCA. 2013. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013.
- ^ "30 years ago, Bionic Commando proved video game grappling hooks are awesome". Games.Avclub. 20 July 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
External links
