It will be difficult to find a person who has never seen the Stielhandgranate 24 German grenade during the Second World War, even in a movie, in his life. One of those things with which the image of a typical "Fritz" is invariably associated. Personally, I always wanted to ask why the German hand grenade needed a handle. After all, others did not have anything like it.
The history of the "branded" Stielhandgranate began long before the Second World War, namely in 1916. It was then that the new grenade entered service with the German army. It is noteworthy that the Stielhandgranate was suitable for both offensive and defensive purposes. The radius of destruction of this infantry hand grenade was 10-15 meters, however, it could be improved with the removable metal shirt that came with the kit. This made it possible to increase the radius of destruction to 30 meters, which immediately made the Stielhandgranate already a defensive weapon. In the First World War, these grenades were used not only by Germany, but also by a number of other countries, including Switzerland. In total, about 75 million units of this weapon were produced.
Interesting fact: in a number of countries, the Stielhandgranate was officially in service until the 1990s.
In England, France and Russia, the German pomegranates in a piece were called “beaters” and “pushers” (by analogy with the tool for kneading boiled potatoes in mashed potatoes). The first thing that most attentive people will notice when looking at Stielhandgranate is that it has no receipts. This is because a German grenade is thrown in an unusual way.
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Before combat use, the Stielhandgranate first unscrews the cap at the bottom of the handle. From there, a lace falls out, for which you need to pull harder. This action will start a chemical reaction in the grenade and an explosion will occur in 7-8 seconds. An important advantage of the "mallet" was that it did not detonate when dropped. In addition, a bunch of several grenades was quite effective against vehicles, including armored ones.
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The specific beater handle was needed for two things. First, to continue throwing a grenade. Secondly, so that there was a place to hide the fuse system with ammonium nitrate. Both solutions were very successful, but Stielhandgranate also had disadvantages. If you pull the cord too sharply, then the grenade might not work at all. In addition, the handles were often damp and swollen, which made the subsequent operation of the grenades quite problematic.
Continuing the topic, read about why do they not use magazines for more than 30 rounds in weapons and not only.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/011119/52266/