Quote:
Originally posted by Martin Bull:
Many thanks for your input, everyone.
From the material it would seem to be another case of WWII being fought with WW1's weapons. I can understand that in a static situation, with the enemy close by in a known location, and with room to set one's weapon up in concealment, the rifle grenade would be useful. That pretty well describes trench warfare.....
But WWII was of course far more fluid thus rendering the grenade launcher of limited use. For the record, the well-known group of photos of 12th SS HJ men in a Normandy farmyard clearly show a G Gr Ger 98k launcher fitted to a K98 but otherwise, 'action' photos seem fairly rare....
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Action photos of US troops using rifle grenades are much more common. The US grenade launcher having been liberally supplied (on checking the issue was 7 per squad but most squads only kept one or two). The M9A1 anti-tank grenade was very popular. It was as effective as the bazooka round and the troops liked it because they didn't have to carry an extra, bulky, weapon to use it. The M1 with grenade launcher fitted could still be used as a standard rifle so there was little to detract from the use of the grenade launcher. Against bunkers and in urban fighting US troops made liberal use of these weapons finding them accurate enough to fire the grenade through the firing port of a bunker or the window of a house at up to 50+ yards.
So, while the German rifle grenades were not widely used due to their relative ineffectiveness and the complexity of the launcher cup etc, and the British one for reasons described earlier in this thread, the US did use rifle grenades frequently in combat.