Forgotten: The German Egg Hand Grenade of WW2

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In this video we look at the Eihandgranate 39 (Egg Hand Grenade), while everyone thinks that the German stick hand grenade ("potato masher") was the typical German hand grenade in World War 2, the egg hand grenade was produced actually in larger numbers. In this video we look at the characteristics of the grenade, army regulations and production numbers.
Disclosure: This video is sponsored by free-to-play game World of Warships. Thank you to the Forum Wehrgeschichte Oberösterreich for inviting me.
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Reibert, W.: Reibert: Der Dienst-Unterricht im Heere. Ausgabe für den Schützen der Schützenkompanie. 13. Auflage, E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Berlin, Germany, 1943.
Oberkommando des Heeres: Allgemeine Heeresmitteilungen, 7. Jahrgang, Blatt 8, 8. April 1940. Oberkommando des Heeres, Abt. für Allgemeine Truppenangelegenheiten: Berlin, Germany, 1940.
OKH AHA/Stab: Heerestechnisches Verordnungsblatt, 2. Jahrgang, 20. Ausgabe, 15. Oktober 1944. Reichsdruckerei: Berlin, Germany, 1944.
Oberkommando des Heeres: Heeres-Verordnungsblatt. Teil C. Blatt 10. 25. Jahrgang, 19. Ausgabe. 1943. Reichsdruckerei: Berlin, Germany, 1943.
Altrichter, Friedrich: Der Reserveoffizier. Ein Handbuch für den Offizier und Offizieranwärter des Beurlaubtenstandes aller Waffen. Vierzehnte, durchgesehene Auflage, Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Berlin, Germany, 1941.
Kühlwein, Fitz: Die Gruppe im Gefecht. (Die neue Gruppe). Elfte, völlig neubearbeitete Auflage, E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Berlin, Germany, 1940.
H.Dv. 130/2a: Ausbildungsvorschrift für die Infanterie. Heft 2a: Die Schützenkompanie. (Entwurf). Nachdruck mit eingearbeiten Berichtigungen gemäß H.M. 41 Nr. 189 u. H.V.Bl. (C) Nr. 890, Verlag „Offene Worte“: Berlin, Germany, 1942.
Fleischer, Wolfgang: Deutsche Nahkampfmittel Munition, Granaten und Kampfmittel bis 1945. Motorbuch Verlag: Stuttgart, Germany, 2018.
Payne, Craig M.: Principles of Naval Weapon Systems. Second Edition, Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 2010.
00:00 Intro
00:46 World of Warships
01:54 Eihandgranate 1939
03:03 Blast vs. Fragmentation
04:49 Fragmentation Sleeve & Ring
06:36 US Army Sources
07:04 Inside Look
07:33 Technical Data
09:01 Production
11:09 Summary
11:41 Get Free Goodies
#sponsored #handgrenade #ww2

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Play World of Warships here: wo.ws/46V9G57 Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code BRAVO to get for free: 500 doubloons, 1.5 million credits, 7 Days of Premium Account time, and a ship! Applicable to new users only.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

I remember seeing a blue colored egg shaped grenade in a color picture of a Wehrmacht soldier, was decades ago, and went searching. So many don’t know they existed.

[@avnrulz8587]

But the egg-shaped grenade doesn't have an iconic photo showing it 'in action'.

[@whya2ndaccount]

Blast grenades are also good because often a fragmentation grenade has an effective radius larger than what I person can throw. If you are in a defensive position and throw a fragmentation grenade you tend to have earthworks or similar cover to to use as the shrapnel goes past you. The usual sequence when throwing them on the range is: throw, see where it lands, duck.

[@liagson]

Interesting to see how offensive focused the Heer was even during the late stages of the war. Nice video!

[@georgewashington92]

My dad told me that back in the 60s, while walking through the Ardennes in Luxembourg, you could find plenty of rusted Eihandgranate shells. Not much of them left.

[@tacklengrapple6891]

Even more unknown is the WW1 version that saw widespread use, the Eierhandgranate M 1917. Eggs just don’t get any respect!

[@fereise208]

I remembered this one from Downfall (2004), especially in THAT particular scene.

[@charlesdexterward7781]

This is a great trivia question to separate the WW2 history virgins from the history Chads. "Describe the most common WW2 American hand grenade versus the most common German grenade."

[@looinrims]

Let people live their lives

[@alltat]

@@looinrims What if people want to live a life dedicated to history elitism?

[@Ealdorman_of_Mercia]

Who the hell cares to be honest.. Tactics and strategies are more interesting.

[@Bobafett-lc2vx]

What’s with militaries naming grenades after food? First the US with the “pineapple” grenade, then the Germans with the “egg” hand grenade, what’s next?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

To be precise, the first is a fruit and the second is "unborn animal" or whatever the technical term is for an egg, both can be food, but technically I would say a Wiener Schnitzel is food.

[@Bobafett-lc2vx]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized True, when you put it that way. Still funny though

[@T.efpunkt]

​@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized An egg is technically a chickens menstruation.

[@jmackmcneill]

I seem to remember that pilots were refering to their bombs as "eggs" (because they are "laid" on the target) as far back as WW1... But, the pineapple grenade looks like pineapple, the egg grenade looks like an egg, the potato masher looks like a potato masher... If you rephrase your question as: "Why nickname things like things they look like?" it answers the question. You can reasonably make the argument that they don't look VERY like a pinapple, egg, or potato masher, but that is a subjective question.

[@cm275]

@@T.efpunktMenstruation refers to shedding the uterine lining, birds don’t have an uterus.

[@czwarty7878]

Did you maybe find any report on actual performance of these fragmentation sleeves? As from reading all the sources in my case the outcome is generally that frag sleeves and cases (like in MkII or Mills) are not providing reliable fragmentation and are generally responsible for minority of grenade's anti-personnel effectiveness, in case of both the main source of killing power being the blast force anyway. F1 and MkII for example produced just few fragments big enough to effectively wound, and of course chances of these actually flying in direction as to hit the enemy were slim; IIRC US findings were that German grenades (without frag sleeve) with their higher explosive filler were in fact more effective in majority of scenarios. I'm wondering how much of percieved advantage of RGD-33 in eyes of ostfront soldiers was just psychological effect, just knowing that there are fragments that can possibly fly for long distance which caused them to fear incoming soviet grenades more than actual killing potential would suggest to be advisable - which is understandable, as of course it's better to be safe than sorry and individual soldiers are just trying to not get themselves killed, but there's question whether it's actually worth to take it into consideration in their own weaponry. But then maybe there actually is truth to it, and german frag sleeves were more reliable than MkII and F1 frag cases? After all post-war designs like M26 were closer to mimic sleeve design than frag case. Sooo I maybe rambled too much but again, if you have any solid data on effectiveness of German frag sleeves for these grenades then it would be great to check it out - thanks!

[@marcusott2973]

Much awaited, much appreciated, excellent insights as always from you.

[@Kumimono]

I gather, you can see the stick grenade in contemporary photos, very distinctive. Egg, just a bump in a pocket. Only place I remember seeing it, was in an old PC strategy game, Silent Storm.

[@michaelguerin56]

Thank you Bernhard et al. Good video.

Quite an explosvie topic. Thank you for the Video.

[@CthulhuInc]

i haven't forgotten this

[@sthrich635]

Another advantage of the German grenades being blast-type offensive grenades was it allowed the German soldiers to throw them more liberally than their Allied counterparts. Throwing a fragmentation grenade with an effective range close to 100 m required the thrower to communicate and ensure the rest of his squad to stop and find cover, to avoid friendly casualties. However, a blast grenade with less effective range gave the German soldiers more leeway in throwing grenades, he did not have to check if others were already in cover or not, and more importantly other squad members could continue firing while the grenade was thrown. With less risk in using the blast-type German grenades, they were thrown much often than Allied grenades, allowing enemies to be suppressed effectively as they were bombarded with grenades more constantly.

[@stankmiester101]

Nice stuff man!

[@TheAlexkon3]

I know it mostly from the old Battlefield 2 Mod "Forgotten Hope 2"

[@mattheweagles5123]

I'd expect that the stick grenade could be thrown further due to the extra Wang effect

[@billd2635]

I had no idea. Wonderful info as always. Now, exactly how did this Egg grenade work?

[@Nudgeworth]

Thank you for an awesome video. I've never heard of this grenade before

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ThommyofThenn]

1:47 wow! That is one manouverable ship!

[@unknown0soldier]

Great video as always, thanks for all the information! I wish you'd also talk a little about operating the grenade as well. It always baffled me that the Germans used a screw-like mechanism for activating the grenade rather than going with a simpler mechanism such as the one used in Americans grenades.

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

Egg grenades were"boring". Everybody had them. Similarly, Luger and MP-40 gained great fame because they were different then weapons you could usually get in USA.

[@DCI_LeoDan_]

Big ups and shout outs to world of wartanks for supporting the big homie B. 🙏🤙

[@theromanorder]

Literally forgotten, i do have q faint memory of learning of it 2 years ago but ive forgotten everything else Always a great feeling when you rember things and get new information thank you

[@johnpeterson8674]

Post scriptum had it in the early war french maps. Nice detail.

[@alexhubble]

The einhandgranate gets a fairly prominent, brief, role at the end of Der Untergang, murder suicide of family at table...

[@davidbrennan660]

Mind the ones with the Red Fuse cap.

[@Puch300G]

When I was little there was Yugoslav era TV series about resistance in Belgrade, and they always used this type of grenades that you have to unscrew. And I always wondered what are they, so finally an answer I been looking for so long.

[@michaelbevan3285]

both grenades could be used as booby traps by taking out the delay element of the fuse. the ears sticking up on the grenades is for wire to tie them to a static object to make such traps.

[@ChicagoDB]

"Forgotten"??? If memory serves, they were the most commonly used German grenades. The only people who've forgotten them are moviemakers.

[@rutabagasteu]

I think it is due to the stick showing up in movies. I don't remember any Germans using the egg grenade in any movies I've watched.

[@MsZeeZed]

Likewise the Pineapple (US Mk2 Fragmentation Grenade) is common in mass made WWII movies immediately post-war while the cylindrical (Mk3 Concussion Grenade) I’ve seem more often in WWII movies made after 1975 (possibly a Vietnam influence). This also might be the influence of veteran armorers being required to handle this kind of hardware on movie sets by that point.

[@rutabagasteu]

@@MsZeeZed yup, the pineapple one I have seen in the same movies.

[@swunt10]

In Downfall is a scene. I have seen it in several other movies as well.

[@bigsarge2085]

Interesting.

[@sovinr8658]

First time I saw this grenade was its depiction in Forgotten Hope 2😅 the battlefield 2 mod

[@bwilliams463]

How did the fuse and trigger of the egg grenade work?

[@mukhtarsyajaratun1025]

Hope u could do some depths on the Soviet deep battle doctrine in the future

[@Captain-Jinn]

Im surprised that since they had a hand grenade and a stick grenade (with no clear discernable doctrinal difference to my knowledge) they didnt just slightly modify the shape and add some threading to the bottom of the hand grenade so soldiers can pick their preferred throw.

[@davey7452]

I remember seeing a photo of a German trench in the Leningrad sector showing both stick and egg grenades located on the edge of the trench ready for immediate use in case of a Russian attack.

[@h.a.9880]

Ah yes, the forbidden Fabergé egg.

[@comentedonakeyboard]

My Grandpa carried a few "explosive easter eggs" all the way from Athens to Triest.

[@gertandersen3609]

Although Sven Hazels books are fiction, he mentions often the egg Handgranate

[@UncleJoeLITE]

Disclaimer: in 2019 I was invited to play World of Warships at a mate's house. _

[@zstewart]

I keep trying to read the name as einhandgrenate instead of eihandgrenate. Like, you know, as opposed to those two-handed grenades 🙄

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

😂

[@JagerLange]

I have a reproduction of one but for some reason it's heavier than what I've seen the real thing weighing in at.

[@Dark_Wooki33]

The numbers of produced grenades seems kinda low, it is only around 11 handgrenades per german soldier over the whole war.

[@Kyoptic]

Not all soldiers are frontline soldiers. You need clerks, drivers, logisticians. Unless you're frontline infantry you may not even have gotten training in how to use these.

[@robertkalinic335]

It could be cause Germany captured so much equipment early on, I mean they literally took Austria and Czechoslovakia without resistance.

[@Dark_Wooki33]

@@Kyoptic Fair point, but even if we go with a 1 to 10 ratio that is still only 110 grenades, or 9-10 days of urban fighting.

[@jmackmcneill]

​@@Dark_Wooki33 throwing ten grenades in a day would seem to be something that you would be worth noting as some kind of record, as opposed to routine, even for a major battle. How often would you assume a platoon or a company to engage in the kind of close skirmish that calls for 3-6 grenades, over the course of a day?

[@demrandom]

@@Kyoptic I can confirm weird sets of people got grenade training. Like marine anti-aircraft units on the german channel islands, who would be too few in number for an actual invasion attempt which was not gonna happen anyways because of the shallow sea and easy reach of german everything.

[@looinrims]

Eggs are scary but Pineapples try to eat you

[@redspecial4102]

Last time I saw one of these was in the Book of Armaments: Chapter 2, verses 9 to 21.

[@richardschaffer5588]

I think the US Army missed an opportunity in not producing a blast effect grenade similar to a baseball in weight ( that is an egg grenade) in the WWII era EVERY kid in America could throw a baseball accurately 200’, Baseball was the most popular sport back then. Nowadays kids play soccer and basketball );

[@reaperundergroundexplorati2232]

They did, it was the Beano T13 hand grenade, but it had premature detonation issues and was scraped.

[@V77710]

Uses Salmonella as shrapnel

[@kleinweichkleinweich]

this is a Eierhandgranate you take the egg in your hand and granate

[@Rostov_red_beard]

geil

[@Oxyleya]

I expected it to be a normal grenade but attached to an Eieruhr :/

[@frederf3227]

Nine million times more than stick grenade. Looks up stick grenade production. Wow, more than 54 trillion of these were made!

[@Pyrrhus1ofepirus]

If you wanna talk about real forgotten grenades try the Italian Red Devils.

[@DOMINIK99013]

Or vz 21 Janček.

[@frankbarnwell____]

Potato mashers look better in movies. The egg was more useful. To any goal? But the stick form of grenade isn't used now

[@frankbarnwell____]

Seriously. Are horseshoes and handgrenades close enough? A-bombs are another thing. Thanks Bernard

[@cnlbenmc]

I first found out about these from Call of Duty 3 of all damn places...

[@Drownedinblood]

I don't see how a grenade in the boot is gonna be comfy at all..

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

All relative, in bootcamp during winter the buttstock of my assault rifle was a really comfy pillow out in the field.

[@Drownedinblood]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualizedI mean it's just an odd place to stick a grenade. I'd imagine it get on your nerves very soon.

[@mikelangelo1232]

EGG 🌊🐕

[@FeintMotion]

egguuuuuu --^^

[@r3d3y3dstranger]

Ah, yes, the testiclehandgrenade.

[@KorporalNoobs]

It made it into Iron front Liberation 1944. The game was obviously a rough Arma clone and crashed every time anything remotely interesting happened, but I remember.

[@King.Leonidas]

it was arma 2.

[@AltCtrlSpud]

german people do be pronouncing "world war" like "vulva"

[@shakeypudding6563]

Showing a demonstration sure would be handy to go with ALL the data…sigh. In other words, “show me don’t tell me”.

[@BD90..]

Your video appears to have 12k likes and your views are below 2k at this moment. ?

[@johndilday1846]

The KZbin frauds had messed with the like counts the past several days. Every video I watched remarkably had 964 likes regardless of the number of views.

[@beepboop204]

🙂🙂🙂🙃🙃🙃🙂🙂🙂

[@SuperBuildsInMC]

I can't leave a review on the website of their merch so I will here. I purchased a "premium" StuG Life Hoodie for 50 bucks, I've had it for 1 and a half weeks, and, the printing has started to chip, there is a hole along the seem line, loose threads everywhere, I'd hardly call this premium, and I'd sure as shit wouldn't pay 50 bucks for it. Please don't waste your money on this this stuff. I get it isn't MHV's fault its the tee shirt company, but the quality control on these obviously suck. (Edit) To be clear, I have not done anything rugged with this hoodie, the most "extreme" thing I've done in it, was wear a seat belt over it. I am very worried to wash this. 3/10

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Sorry to hear about that, please contact them here: community.teespring.com/training-center/teesprings-customer-support/

[@outofturn331]

0:39: 9 million times more? Am I hearing it right..and 7:19 who is the unfortunate b*****d trying to surrender

[@ReySchultz121]

-50% fat Bruh.

[@theromanorder]

please do a video on these (this is a copy and paste list for a few channels) units and tactics/evaluation of loadouts of troops (from different jobs (and other branches) the tank doctrine of countries evaluation of tank veiw ports evaluation of tanks/armored vehicles of different countries navil ship cross sections (all the rooms and how it all works) evaluation of types of ships or evaluation of navil warfare air craft carrier strike group formations exsamples (from different countries) ancient persan ships, ancient veneti ships (gauls that fought ceaser) tactics used so far in the Ukraine war, better for squads to be 2 teams of 5 or 3 teams of 3, and probably the easiest, better to keep troops well feed or starved like an animal how dose age effect comsnders eg napoleon got older so took less risks, ancient urban warfare ww2 tactics in Asia, tactics in the Chinese age of warlords, tactics in the ruso jap war cold war navil tactics, Korean war tactics, strange tactics or unque battles from the American war of independence and America civil war types of bombs lunched by drones comands given on sailing ships (like ease the sheets and get ready to chine, or slack n beases, basically things you hear movie capitns say) why did the nazis never return (or a video on best occupations) why did the Japanese empire fall, dont just say "America" like things like how there army and navy argued alot

[@tarjeijensen9369]

Stick grenade with fragmentation sleeve.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stielhandgranate#/media/File:Stielhandgranate_43_MHM_noBG.png