This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
I've been playing a good amount of disc golf lately. Why not a disc shape?
Add some LEDs and feel like you’re playing Tron instead of killing people.
Stacks nicely in a backpack? You know how much crap goes in a medium ruck? How's Jenkins gonna find my stash of disk nades under my spare ammo and 'field stripped' MREs? No, I need my grenades quick access, on my chest next to the repurposed saw pouch full of rip-its.
Okay, but how about both? 2 discs in the backpack (or medium ruck if you want to be german about it) and a waist of ball nades. Then you have options!
Make these Bionicle disk launchers but military sized.
Bruh bionicles were the shit I’d forgotten!
You know how you can throw a frisbee at an angle that makes it come back to you in a straight line?
An angle that you can easily hit if you try to throw out of a trench...
No. 4 is proof that you really are a disc golfer.
The traditional hand grenade became the standard for the American military because American soldiers grew up playing baseball, and were extremely accurate throwing grenades the same way. American Baseball gave American soldiers an advantage that European and Asian militaries didn't have.
If I remember correctly, the spherical design was mainly created to resemble a baseball. Since most US citizens knew how to throw a baseball at the time it would mean they didn't have to train soldiers as much
That is a myth. The spherical form is to maximize surface area to volume for shrapnel, ensuring that no matter how it lands. Shrapnel will go in all directions.
That's definitely a myth. Soviet WW-2 grenades like RGD-5 and F-1 are also spherical and baseball was unknown at that time in USSR.
It's also wayyy more cost effective when you're transporting them. For the Allies, because they relied so heavily on supply lines every cubic foot of space on a ship or truck was important. Carrying a grenade on a stick to the front means not carrying three more grenades. I'm sure four grenades are more lethal than one grenade that a soldier might be able to throw a little bit further.
So... what were the Germans so used to throwing that theirs had a handle?
Going off of the shape and what I know of Germany today, beer bottles.
The reason is logistics (as usually the reason for most things military related). You can fit a hell of a lot more conventionally shaped grenades in a crate than you can with stick grenades. Even on a person, conventional grenades weigh less, are less cumbersome, and you can carry more compared to stick grenades. Stick grenades really only have their ease of throwing over a conventional grenade
I wonder if anyone in the military has used a sling to launch a grenade.
You'd want a longer fuse though...
According to wikipedia, the International Brigades used slings to hurl grenades during the Spanish American War. I've heard tell of Ethiopian troops using slings to launch grenades, but can't find a source.
And I know people have launched molotovs from slings, which are larger and more unwieldy, unless we're talking about the German example above with a handle.
Grenades are mostly used at closer and more hectic ranges, so it's often much faster to just throw it instead of having to prepare some sort of implement to increase range.
There have been instances of things being used, like slings, slingshots and even devices similar to those things you use to throw tennis balls for dogs. But at the end of the day, the increased range is rarely worth the extra time needed. You would only get an advantage as an opening attack from a longer distance. And for that we already have under-barrel grenade launchers that can reach ten times further than thrown ones, or mortars that could be a hundred times further away from the target.
One reason I've heard it's that you can hold the spoon after pulling the pin on a pineapple grenade, but not on a stick
Plus, these are huge, not easy to carry several in addition to all your other gear.
What about one of those long spoony "scoop" type things that people use to throw balls at the dog park?
You mean like a Jailai stick?
You mean like an Atlatl?
Atlatl grenade training when? I'll join the army I fucking swear just let me play atlatl grenades.
Long wooden handles don't go boom. Wasted space.
The grenade pouch has to be much longer to house them or the grenades are hung on a belt that can cause movement issues.
Throwing a ball is about as easy as throwing a stick. So no point for the stick shape.
Sticks don't go as far.
Throwing a ball is about as easy as throwing a stick.
Yeah but the stick goes further because all the weight is at the end so it gets more momentum on the same throwing arc
Eh, the extra momentum probably doesn't overcome the extra weight and drag created by the handle. People are comparing it to an atlatl, but you're throwing an aerodynamic object with the atlatl, not the atlatl along with the spear.
More than likely the biggest reason is just logistics, extra weight, extra space, additional steps in fabrication.
Catapult vs trebuchet. The extra rotation point makes a world of difference.
Agree that the benefits dont quite outweigh the space issue though.
more expensive building a grenade with a full wood handle and all extra parts is more expensive then ball that go boom
Interesting question.
The stick design provides leverage for throwing longer distances, but at the cost of additional weight and length, and has been considered obsolete by western countries since the Second World War and Cold War periods.
Ah, then why not throw them with a sling? All the extra leverage with none of the extra weight, and it's more or less silent. Imagine a barrage of grenades coming in from 200 yards at 60mph.
You could even give it some sort of rocket propulsion.
That sounds complex. Just put some gunpowder at the rear end of the grenade, and stuff it in a small tube. You could make this small enough to stuff the tube under the barrel of your gun, or big enough that it can function as a small artillery piece.
You can also easily string them together into a fancy danger necklace
They could make a stick that a soldier could put a spherical grenade on to help give extra range. Like an atlatl or one of those tennis ball launchers for dogs.
I doubt you can throw them further. Has a lot more drag and is less dense than modern grenades.
You are seemingly correct:
According to the British War Office, the stielhandgranate had a throwing distance of up to 27m while standing, compared to the 35m distance of the more modern and still used M67. Which weighs 30% less and take up 75% less space lengthwise. Even the Mk2( classic pineapple design) reached 30m despite weghing the same as the German one, because it was denser and more aerodynamic.
EDIT: For anyone curious, the ideal shape among those used and weight for distance and accuray is apparently round and ~300g. Reaching a distance of (38.6±6.5 m) and an accuracy of of (6.9±3.9 m).
Typical enshitification.
Anon is over-analizing the design.
can give you pleasure
ofc anon thought of that
Talk about an explosive orgasm!
They facist nazi's that used them was destroyed. No one cared about the design of the grenades. Only the rockets and the jet engines.