Stielhangranate

Learn about the Stielhandgranate 24, its historical context, and how it was used in Call of Duty: World at War. Get tactical tips for effective use.

Alright, let's talk about the Stielhandgranate 24, or as you'll probably hear it called, the 'stick grenade' or 'potato masher.' This bad boy is your go-to for clearing out infantry and has some cool history behind it.

Manual Information:

• Fragmentation grenades are super effective against people. They blow apart their metal casing into nasty fragments, causing a lot of blast damage. They won't do much against armored vehicles, but for kicking entrenched infantry out of cover? Perfect.

Stats:

• Range: Medium
• Rate of Fire: Medium
• Damage: Very High
• Mobility: Very Fast

Historical Information:

So, hand grenades were often used against tanks, not because they were specifically designed for it, but because they were what soldiers had. A regular hand grenade probably wouldn't wreck a healthy tank, but a lucky shot hitting a track could totally immobilize it. Germany, though, did have special anti-tank hand grenades. The most famous German one is the Stielhandgranate 24. Allied soldiers called it the stick grenade or potato masher. To use it, you'd unscrew the bottom, pull the safety cord on the 'rip detonator' (Abreisszünder), and boom. It weighed about 480g, was 35.6cm long overall, and its warhead (7.5cm long, 6cm diameter) packed 165g of explosives. They used different explosives throughout the war, by the way.

There was also a version without the stick, called the Handgranate 43, which used the same cylindrical warhead. If you slapped a pressure trigger on that warhead, it could be used as a mine. Pretty neat, huh?

Soldiers also got creative. They'd combine several Handgranate 43 warheads with a single Stielhandgranate 24 to make a big explosive bundle. This combo, often called the 'Geballte Ladung' ('forceful/big charge'), looked like a flower with the stick grenade as the stem and the other warheads as petals. It was a popular improvised anti-tank weapon.

To make the grenades even more deadly with shrapnel (since the original casing was thin and relied more on blast), they later added 'shrapnel rings' (Splitterringe) to the warhead. They actually copied this idea from the Russians and their RGD 33 grenades.

Between the Stielhandgranate 42 and the Handgranate 43, they produced a massive 81 million units before and during the war!

Tactics:

When you're using these, remember they're best against infantry. Toss them into trenches, bunkers, or any place where enemies are dug in. The blast and fragments will clear them out effectively. Don't waste them on tanks, though; they just don't have the punch for that. Practice your throws to get a feel for the range and timing.