Rifle Grenades in WW2

[bangorstu]

OK perhaps a bit obscure but....

I'm currently recruiting a bona fide new wargamer, whose interested in playing Chain of Command for WW2.

Being keen as mustard he's actually read the rules which i haven't in some time and developed a taste for using rifle grenades.

He'll be taking part in a campaign I'll be refereeing soon and I was wondering - how extensively were rifle grenades used? Were they common or is it something that shows up in the TOE but no-one bothered with?

Because they aren't mentioned in the army lists except for a few specialist units fielded by the French and Japanese etc, but are in the rules.

Just wondering if someone can help me out of this rabbit hole

[Paul]

I found this interesting video.
To summarise it, US troops seemed to make fairly extensive use of them, they were issued to one man per squad and he carried five of them.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/201 ... 20position.

[Willz the Wargamer]

Loads of grenades here of various makes.
https://mjlmilitaria.com/product-category/grenades/
Plus you can buy them which is weird ???
The Germans regularly used rifle grenades during WW2.


Willz.

[bangorstu]

Thanks chaps! It looks like my keen new friend has worked out a way of dealing with half-tracks...

[RMD]

I've never, ever heard of the British Army using them in Europe, though they definitely existed. This was probably due to the extensive issue of the 2-inch Mortar.

However, they became popular in Burma, as the grenades, being time-fused, wouldn't explode on contact with any jungle foliage above the head of the firer, unlike contact-fused 2-inch mortar bombs. In the Chindits, rifle grenades were used exclusively, in lieu of 2-inch mortars.

While the Germans, like the British, had rifle grenades on their inventory, I've never come across an example of their use prior to 1945 and the latter stages of the Battle of the Reichswal. At this point, unit war diaries in two British divisions and one Canadian division simultaneously reported the extensive use of 'showers of yellow grenades', which came as a new and unpleasant experience. This does tend to suggest that they'd not been encountered prior to that date.