When I was a boy, my father mentioned to me the difference between German and American equipment. He mentioned that the American round grenades were difficult for him to use in practice, and he felt the stick grenades the Germans had were far superior for throwing. Was that actually the case?

The "Potato Masher" flew a farther distance because it used the momentum of the stick attached to it. But it comes to personal preference, is it easier to throw a 2 pound stick, or a 2 pound rock?

You'd throw a stick grenade, well, like you'd throw a stick for your dog to fetch, overhand. The typical method of throwing a "Pineapple" was more of a round house throw/lob. Seems to me, overhand is going to have more range and accuracy.

I remember reading that the german "potato mashers" had defective and unreliable fuses and our guys would pick them up and throw them back at the Germans - don't know if this is factual or not...

Presumably not, because I doubt most soldiers would be stupid enough to even handle live grenades that landed near them, reliable or otherwise.

If you have a choice of picking it up and throwing as opposed to getting blown up ? of course you could take the third alternative -jump on it to save your buddies...been known to happen.

Obviously you throw the grenade aside if you have no alternative, but I thought the normal procedure if a grenade lands nearby was to move away from the area as quickly as possible. I was thinking of an article I read about a soldier who had to dispose of old Chinese grenades, and a defective, unprimed one exploded while he was handling it.

When I was in Vietnam, a young Marine from 7th Engineer Bn was making a "skivvy run" back in a local dump site. A local teenager aparently didn't like the Marine or his activity with the young lady, so he armed himself with two Chicom stick-type grenades. He looped the strings around his thumbs and proceded to throw the grenades at the Marine and the young lady of negotiable virtue.

The first grenade found its mark, wounded the Marine and the woman. Unfortunately for the VC wannabe, the other grenade stayed attached to his thumb after it was armed. Oooops...his bad. The blast took off his arm at the elbow..as well as a good part of his face.

I helped evacuate all three to a Huey (it was the Assistant Division Commander's bird - he was in a meeting). We had to wade out to it in a flooded rice paddy with nasty mud/crap up to our arm pits to get them aboard the chopper. I understand the Marine made it but the two Viets did not.

The chopper got back to the LZ before the general got out of his meeting. He probably wouldn't have known anything had happened, except the inside of the huey was covered in foul smelling mud and blood and guts. Reportedly, the crew chief explained what happened and the general was a happy camper.

Personnally, I preferred the "baseball" grenades....or better yet the blooper (M-79).

Semper Fi,
Dave

My great uncle used to throw the German mashers back when they landed near him. He said they had a much longer fuse. In the Bulge he threw one back into a machinegun nest and killed six Germans with their own grenade. He said he hated the pineapple grenades he was issued but loved picking up a type of German incindiery grenade that looked similar to American grenades but was smooth and black.

I dont head to boot until this summer so I don't have personal experience... yet.


-Mike

It was alot easier to throw stick grenades back at the enemy...it was easier to grab and fling back having that large stick point out one of it. Now our smaller oval shaped grenades were more difficult to pick up quick and hurl back. Both were just as effective when they exploded. I was with a Light Armored Recon unit during the invasion of Iraq and I know a Marines who used to duct tape pieces of broomsticks to thier grenades to enable them throw it further. It works...seen it done.

The potato mashers did supposedly have many reliability problems, most likely due to sabotage and poor workmanship. They were after all mostly made by concentration camp inmates who, I'm sure, were not too concerned with doing a good job.



Also if it lands next to you, I'm sure that "maybe" getting killed by a grenade which goes off if you pick it up, is better than "definitely" getting killed by on if you don't.





Sometimes there aren't any good places to move away to. In combat, there is no "normal procedure"