Hand grenades

[Pibwl]

Interesting. I'm not sure if I understand correctly all what they mean, but would it mean, that a German stick grenade has the same 45% chances of incapacitation at 9 feet, as Mills bomb at 10 feet? Only one feet more?

How much radius is 1550 and 350 sq.ft?

In a meantime, I've found an article in Russian on F-1
http://army.armor.kiev.ua/hist/granatarif.shtml
The author (clearly with some military experience) says, that 200 m safe radius from a manual must be a sure safe radius, multiplied by 2 for greater certainty. At 50-70 m there were found fragments, but only big ones, like 1/4 of shell.
A probable field of hitting fragments is 78-82 sq.m - some 5 m radius.

All in all, it seems to me, that grenades are not that efficient, as raw figures say, and probably it concerns most grenades, not only F1.

Michal

[Cross]

Originally Posted by Pibwl

Interesting. I'm not sure if I understand correctly all what they mean, but would it mean, that a German stick grenade has the same 45% chances of incapacitation at 9 feet, as Mills bomb at 10 feet? Only one feet more?

That sounds right. But I'm disappointed they didn't continue the stick grenade effectiveness further, as I suspect it would show the stick grenade effectiveness dropped more rapidly than the Mills. So under 10 feet the stick was more dangerous than the Mills, and over 10 feet the Mills more dangerous than the stick. Which is what you'd expect in a comparison of an offensive and defensive grenade.

Originally Posted by Pibwl

How much radius is 1550 and 350 sq.ft?

1550 SqFt = 22 ft (6.8m)
350 SqFt = 10.5 ft (3.2m)


Cross

[PPoS]

As an interesting side-note: the Norwegian army did not have any hand grenades during the war. But I guess you could treat them (being in game) as improvised grenades, or perhaps even British/French supplied ones.

[PvtJoker]

Originally Posted by PPoS

As an interesting side-note: the Norwegian army did not have any hand grenades during the war. But I guess you could treat them (being in game) as improvised grenades, or perhaps even British/French supplied ones.

That's very interesting, especially considering the kind of terrain large parts of the country has. Do you know if it was a budgetary issue or did someone high up just think that hand grenades are not that useful?

As for improvised grenades: the problem with improvised thrown explosives is that you need a reliable time detonator/fuze -- and in other armies it was quite often a hand grenade... Engineers might have separate time fuzes available, but not ordinary infantry units.

[PPoS]

Originally Posted by PvtJoker

That's very interesting, especially considering the kind of terrain large parts of the country has. Do you know if it was a budgetary issue or did someone high up just think that hand grenades are not that useful?

Your guess is as good as any. I do know that the Norwegian armed foreces suffered a lot from cutbacks made after the first WW, so that might have something to do with it. They also lacked AT-guns, SMG's, and land mines apparently.