Anyone who grew up playing World War 2 shooters is familiar with stick grenades. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a grenade at the end of a stick. The stick is the handle used to throw the grenade. While stick grenades were used extensively by German forces in both World Wars, you don’t really see them anymore.
They stuck around during the so-called Cold War, but in the modern era grenades are largely the same. The only stick grenade I know of that’s still in use is the Russian anti-tank RKG-3. The modern grenade is a round hunk of metal filled with explosive that typically propels shrapnel to create casualties. Some grenades create overpressure forces, but those are fairly rare.
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Why have stick grenades gone the way of the dinosaur? Why did they exist in the first place? After countless hours of old Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games, I was curious myself.
The Origin Of Stick Grenades
The earliest mass-produced, mass-used stick grenade came from the Germans. No surprise since I’ve been tossing German grenades at Germans since I was eight and got a PlayStation. The German Model 15 Stielhandgranate, aka the potato masher, first came to be in 1915 during World War 1.
The Germans built the grenade for trench warfare. The Germans wanted a grenade they could throw over parapets with ease. Adding a stick to a grenade added leverage, making it easier to throw the grenade further.
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Additionally, they wanted to avoid grenades rolling back into trenches, which, if you messed up the throw, was a real possibility. The stick grenades didn’t really roll. They landed, locked in place, and went boom.
The grenades we have today create casualties via shrapnel. The German stick grenade was a concussive grenade that simply exploded without much shrapnel tossed. The head of the grenade was a thin sheet of steel that didn’t produce much fragmentation.
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By 1917, the grenades were used to try and usher their enemies into the lethal zones of rifle and machine gun fire. They experimented with attaching several heads to a single stick for a larger explosion.
The Benefits of Stick Grenades
The primary benefit was that German troops could throw them a little further thanks to the stick design. Beyond that, stick grenades were modular and could be used in several roles.
In World War 2 the Germans improved the design and called it the Stielhandgranate 24. By 1942, they recognized the killing power of shrapnel, and the Germans created a shrapnel sleeve to increase the grenade’s lethality.
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The Model 24 allowed Germans to combine seven grenade heads to one handle to act as an anti-armor tool aimed at tank treads or tossed against pillboxes. The grenades could be combined with a wooden board to create an improvised Bangalore torpedo.
The stick allowed them to be turned into booby traps. The Germans removed the time-delay fuse and just used the friction igniter, creating trip-wire grenades. The stick allowed them to be buried up to the head in dirt, or lashed to a tree or pole with ease.
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The Downsides To Stick Grenades
Believe it or not, the stick grenades of the era weighed the same as the Allied grenades. The thin steel metal head and hollow stick looked bulky, but they weren’t heavy. The bulk was a problem. The extra length made them difficult to carry.
Wood handles were a problem. Weather could affect them; they could rot and break. Additionally, shrapnel grenades proved to be more effective at creating casualties. While the Germans introduced a shrapnel sleeve, this did eventually make the stick grenades heavier than standard ball-type grenades.
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The German designs used a fuse that, when pulled, had to be thrown. Allied grenades could have the pin pulled, but as long as the spoon was held, the grenade didn’t detonate. This allowed troops to prepare grenades for an assault and throw them faster.
The End of Stick Grenades
While stick grenades had their downsides, what really killed them was a change in infantry tactics and doctrine, as well as newer and better weapons. Grenades are a bit of a niche tool and in the modern era are often used for urban warfare and assaulting positions. They aren’t used til near the end of an assault.
In a lot of situations, it’s easier to end the situation through a call for fire on the enemy. Why risk getting close enough to assault the enemy when you have a jet or rocket that can do it? The rise of grenade launchers made a massive difference. Simple tube-launched grenades added way more range than someone could ever throw one.
Now, with remote-controlled drones, hand grenades are looking less and less appealing to the average grunt. With all this said, who wants to carry a 14-inch-long grenade on their body? It seems impractical in modern warfare, and that’s why they are stuck as anti-armor weapons rather than anti-personnel in the modern era.
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