Grenades

[Sebastian Pye]

I have heard some people say that besides its concussive effects the german stick grenade was pretty useless. What was the killradius of a stickgrenade, what was the concussive effects like, how long did they last and so on. What was the killradius of a german egg grenade?
The american pineapple mk.II grenade had a killing radius of 30 metre for example, so if the german grenades werent as effective didnt the soldiers ask for better grenades? How common was it to put on shrapnelskirts on stickgrenades?

[xavier]

hello sebastian,

radius was more or less the same as american ones, the reach of the german one (the one with stick) was greater due to the "effect" the handle put on it, also, the german one could be used either as a concussion or a fragmentation only adding a fragmentation sleeve.

also, the german one could be used in clusters simpy by adding more charges around the main body , without sticks.

killing range (effective range) was affected a lot by the configuration of the ground and soil conditions, concussion effect was stronger in closed space (street fighting)

I will try to post numbers on size charges later today.
regards

Xavier

[Christoph Awender]

Hello!

As Xavier said the effect of a detonation was highly effected by the location of the attack. On a deep meadow the effect would be nearly useless but in a closed compound like a bunker deadly.

According to a manual about Stielhandgranate 24 the air-pressure radius was 6m and fragment radius 15m.

Christoph

[Sebastian Pye]

Thanks guys.

What I meant by radius is not how far it can be thrown, but the radius of killing power. There is a pc game modification under development called russian front which I am interested in, and we are discussing right now how different grenades actually work and what they will be like in the game, thats why Im asking. We want it to be as realistic as possible. Did the german egg grenade have more shrapnel than the stickgrenade? Do you know any combat accounts on the internet were i can read about the use and effect of german grenades?

[The Chief]

I noticed something on the previous posts that I believe was a mistake. I doubt that the kill radius on a pinapple grenade was 30m. The effective kill radius of a modern US grenade is only 5. However the wound radius could easily be up to 30m. THey are not like the grenades in Holleywood that just make a little pop. These make a large explosion you can feel from behind a concrete bunker 50m away from the blast!

[Abwehr]

I noticed something on the previous posts that I believe was a mistake. I doubt that the kill radius on a pinapple grenade was 30m. The effective kill radius of a modern US grenade is only 5. However the wound radius could easily be up to 30m. THey are not like the grenades in Holleywood that just make a little pop. These make a large explosion you can feel from behind a concrete bunker 50m away from the blast!

I have good faith in my several military friends when they say that a modern MkII pineapple kills easily within 30m.

[gorbag]

Just not reliably. Those cast iron shells had a habit of forming a bunch of iron dust with some good sized chunks thrown in for good measure.

[Sebastian Pye]

I noticed something on the previous posts that I believe was a mistake. I doubt that the kill radius on a pinapple grenade was 30m. The effective kill radius of a modern US grenade is only 5. However the wound radius could easily be up to 30m. THey are not like the grenades in Holleywood that just make a little pop. These make a large explosion you can feel from behind a concrete bunker 50m away from the blast!

Yeah it was a marine with lots of military history knowledge and lots of military experience that told me, so he should know what hes talking about

[gorbag]

Mk2's were notorious for wounding but not killing. Alot of casualty studies found minor debilitating wounds were the end result, even within the effective killing radius (how much this owes to wartime manufacture is unknown), and that's why the US Army decided to go with pre-fragmented wire as the killing agent for the M-26 grenades- more reliable.

[The Chief]

I'm still convinced that the kill radius was only about five meters, I'm sure that todays grenades are more powerful than they were back in WW2. However just because the wound radius is up to thirty meters does'nt mean that it can't kill at those distances. A fragmentation piece can be deadly, but beond five meters, a kill is not assured. I don't want to cause any trouble, but every time I've handled a grenade we get the same classes over and over.

[Sebastian Pye]

Hmm I see. Interesting! How were the russian grenades in comparison to german and american?

[gorbag]

The F-1 was almost a straight copy of the Bouchon grenade that the Mk2 was based on, and had alot of the same drawbacks, except Russian fuse manufacture was even poorer and the times stamped on the fuse body could be plus or minus two seconds (meaning you could wind up with a three second fuse on some grenades). The RG-42 was a little bit better, but originally relied on blast effects alone, limiting it's kill radius until a fragmentation sleeve was adopted for it. The lever ignited stick grenade (M1930) was a joke for safety, the striker had a habit of setting off the grenade in the thrower's hand. The AT stick grenades all worked well, for as much as a shaped charge hand grenade can work. The RPG-6 grenade was found to be particularly useful in close-in work, and was commonly fitted with a frag sleeve to simultaneously attack nearby infantry while punching holes through deck plating.