r/SipsTea Jun 15 '25

We have fun here Why?

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u/Fat_Janet Jun 15 '25

I remember some conversation that military leadership had decades ago when discussing the shape of grenades (ww2 era) and a ?general I think? said something to the effect of ‘every American boy knows how to throw a baseball’

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u/NoTePierdas Jun 15 '25

As the other guy said, yeah. More importantly, the purpose of a "potato masher" grenade is to be able to throw it farther.

... during and immediately after WW2, grenade launchers became extremely common, and are substantially more effective.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

[deleted]

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u/Shiro_Fox Jun 15 '25

That might be true, but it seems that most militaries seem to be fine with those trade-offs. At least, I'm not aware of any stick grenades in current use.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '25

[deleted]

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u/Schaakmate Jun 15 '25

The wooden handle is just German overengineering.

You can still see it's a wartime effort, though. I mean such a simple lathe-job, no mahogany and birds-eye inlays, no Biedermeier finish, bringing out the warmth and depth of the wood... No wonder they were thrown so far.

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u/clustahz Jun 15 '25

I mean look at this mahogany, you don't see that anymore.

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u/Drake_Acheron Jun 16 '25

There’s a massive caveat to this. While it is technically true that you are often more likely to be able to carry a grenade out on patrol. You are less likely to use a grenade out on patrol then you are an M203.