How were grenades used in WW1?

These simple, hand-thrown weapons had been invented hundreds of years before, but had not been widely used since the Napoleonic era. read more

Those grenades used by storm troopers utilised the shortest time fuse: a mere two seconds (so that their targets were given no time to seek shelter from the resultant explosion). The Stielhandgranate - stick grenade - proved highly popular among German soldiers. read more

The major grenades used in the beginning by the German Army were the impact-detonating "discus" or "oyster shell" bomb and the Mod 1913 black powder kugelhandgranate with a friction-ignited time fuse. read more

Approximately 75,000,000 grenades were manufactured during World War I, used in the war and remaining in use through to the Second World War. At first, the grenade was fitted with a seven-second fuse, but during combat in the Battle of France in 1940, this delay proved too long, giving defenders time to escape the explosion or to throw the grenade back, so the delay was reduced to four seconds. read more