Current News
Book Listing
WW2 Trivia
Rat Patrol Comic
Site Information

FAQ
Rat Profiles
Screenshots
Previews
Unit Profiles

Player Articles
Journal Entries
Character Profiles

General Discussion
Tank Combat
Ship Combat
Air Combat
Infantry Combat
Squadron Talk

Squad Listing
Add Your Squadron

Official Site
Assorted Links

Stielhandgranate 24 (Potato Masher)

Weight: 480 g
Length: 35.6 cm
Explosive Content: 165 g

Unlike most grenades, the "Stick Hand Grenade 23", or "Patato Masher" as the allied soldiers called it, was not an effective   fragmentation device. That is, weapon moreover depended on its explosive ability, than its ability to throw shards of metal.

The grenade was primed by unsrewing the bottom and pulling the detonation cord on the bottom of the wooden stick.

A greater fragmentation effect could be accheived by adding "Splitterringe", or shrapnel rings in English.

An even more effective version had 6 "Handgranate 43" charges tied to the main chage on the stick. This grenade was used mostly as an anti-tank device; but it was a stopgap measure as were most German early war anti-tank weapons.

From Purnell's History of the Second World War:

"The Germans, for their part, were using their stick grenade, commonly known to millions of soldiers as the ' Potato Masher ' from its shape. This too had first emerged in 1915 and had been somewhat improved over the years. Its mechanism was a system widely used by the Germans but rarely by other nations, a ' friction igniter '. The handle of the grenade was hollow, with the explosive-filled head screwed on to the end. Into the head went a detonator assembly, from which a string ran down the hollow handle, ending in a porcelain bead. The spare string and bead were tucked into the handle and held there by a screw cap. When the time came to use it, the screw cap was removed so that the bead fell out on the end of its string. Holding the handle in one hand, the thrower pulled the string with the other and threw the grenade. Pulling the string pulled a roughened steel pin through a sensitive chemical, causing it to ignite; this lit the five second fuse, which in turn fired the detonator and exploded the grenade."

Source: Germany's World War Two Weapons