Rifle Grenades

[flamingknives]

What are these?

My impression was that they were simply a grenade or similar explosive device that could be fired by a rifle (either by a gas cartridge or by 'catching' a bullet) and were a measure to bridge the gap between mortars and thrown grenades.

The way they function in CM:BO seems to imply some kind of armour penetrating ability (greater than a hand grenade)

[JasonC]

Go here -

http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/grndrifl.htm

This paragraph is particularly to the point, so I quote it -

"Another example of dedicated rifle grenades was the M9/M9A1 HEAT anti-tank grenade. The M9 weighed about 1.3 pounds, contained a shaped charge similar to the bazooka AT rocket, could penetrate 3 to 4 inches of armor, and had a maximum effective range of 250 yards (probable effectiveness about 100 yards)."

Rifle grenades date from WW I. They were originally meant as a means of lobbing fragmentation grenades far enough to reach an enemy trench, across no man's land. They were widely used in WW II, by the Germans (especially earlier in the war, before the Panzerfaust was developed - they fielded millions of the things) and the Americans.

AT versions were a WW II development, from before the period of effective bazookas and fausts. There were used long after, through the Korean war. By the time of the war in Vietnam the dedicated M-79 grenade launcher, and then the M-203 M16 attachment, replaced them in US service. Post-war, the Russians used the captured faust-150 (a late war German prototype) to develop their line of RPGs instead.

The main drawback of the rifle grenade compared to the other dedicated systems, especially for AT work, was its relatively poor accuracy. This came from the spigot design and the relatively low velocity that a rifle-caliber round could impart to a fairly heavy grenade. Penetration also suffered from the inability to ensure "flat-on" hits, which hurts the HEAT effect - so the practical penetration was more like 1-2 inches, not the theoretical 3-4 that site states. But it was far better than nothing, certainly.

HE versions were indeed used to toss grenades farther than handgrenades, and some note that this covers the window between maximum hand grenade distance and minimum 60mm mortar distance. But the latter wasn't really all that much of a problem, since it can be avoided simply by backing up the 60mm emplacement 50-75 yards behind the main foxhole line. More to the point, the HE rifle grenade gave (modest) HE chucking ability to line squads, rather than company heavy weapons platoons.

[Redwolf]

Not to mention those guys who thought it wasn't neccessary to use a blank round in the rifle instead of a real one :eek:

This seems to have happend a lot. The Panzerfaust was certainly more foolproof.

[flamingknives]

Not to mention those guys who thought it wasn't neccessary to use a blank round in the rifle instead of a real one

What happened? It sounds like it has the potential to be messy.