World war 1 Grenades
The first grenades appeared in the 16th century. They were originally hollow iron balls filled with gunpowder and ignited by a slow burning match. To actually do its job, soldiers had to be able to throw the grenade over 100 feet and the tall, and because of that, strong soldiers selected for this Job became known as grenadiers.
Unlike some 16th century weaponry, grenades continued to evolve and as with most things at the start of the war in August 1914, the Germans were ahead of the pack in terms of grenade development. At the beginning of the war the Germans already had 70,000 hand grenades waiting to be used, along with an additional 106,000 rifle grenades. Both were very heavily used in WW1 despite the many problems with the designs. However, what do o do when something is broken? you fix it and they did. Each country involved in the war made at least 5 changes in their standard issue models. Now to understand the flaws in the weapon you need to know how it works first. Grenades can be either hand or rifle driven and could be detonated in one of two ways. They were either detonated on impact (percussion) or via a timed fuse.
The most common types of hand grenades you see on the battlefields are time-delayed fragmentation anti-personnel hand grenade, or frags. The primary function of this grenade is to kill or injure nearby enemy troops. To guarantee maximum damage, the grenade is designed to launch dozens of small metal fragments in every direction when it explodes; the common misconception with grenades is that the explosions dose the killing. When in reality it is the small metal shards that do the damage. These sorts of grenades played a major role in World War I and many wars to follow.
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Impact and consequence
Grenades were a very important and in most cases practical weapon in WW1. Their main impact was how a soldier can throw a grenade into a room and take out multiple hostiles in practically no time and not putting themselves in direct harm. Also their small size made them practical and versatile. They could be thrown, shot from rifles, as well as dropped from an airplanes for the first bombing runs.
On the surface, grenades were a great idea and had practically no drawbacks... But between soldiers the grenades were a nightmare, and no one wanted to have to use them. They weren't even despised for the idea of using them, in a similar was that u-boats and gas were hated. Its because they were faulty and incomplete, and this inconsistency and distrust was major in the eyes of soldiers.
In the eyes of political leaders, this inconsistency is a large problem. The side that has superior firepower is in most cases going to be the victor, and you can't win without using all the firepower you've got. So getting a fully functional grenade model in the hands of their soldiers and would be their main focus.
When it comes to civilians, they only felt pain and fear. This little ball of death is easy to hide and can cause massive damage with little effort. They would feel the same fear that we feel about drones and even smaller and more powerful explosives. The fact that we could be attacked at any time with absolutely no warning is not a good feeling and it hasn't changed from 1916 to 2014.
Connections to Today
Grenades have evolved drastically since WW1, we not only have fragmentation grenades but also smoke grenades, incendiary grenades, cluster bombs, flash bangs, and concussions. Oh yea, and they can all be fired from high grade launchers. Grenades are also much more reliable and can be used in every situation, from high explosive to non lethal crowd control and restraint grenades.