Timeline for Were slings used for throwing hand grenades? If not, why?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 4, 2016 at 14:30 | comment | added | Smith | Throwing a grenade is something that MUST go right EVERY time. When you have millions of soldiers around the world practicing with live rounds or using them in combat, then statistics says that a certain percentage of them will screw it up, drop it and blow up the wrong person. That is also why the highly exaggerated throwing procedure is taught to this day - it is a lame throwing procedure that costs some distance, but it's the hardest method to screw up. | |
| Oct 3, 2016 at 21:54 | vote | accept | enkryptor | ||
| Jan 23, 2018 at 12:31 | |||||
| Oct 3, 2016 at 9:05 | comment | added | Luaan | @enkryptor Well, I wouldn't say throwing is easier. It's actually pretty much the same kind of complexity as slinging. The important point is that most people already have plenty of experience throwing, since it's so common in sports etc. Look at a baby/child learning to throw, and you'll see how hard it actually is - and I know plenty of adults who can't even pass a ball, much less something like a stick grenade. Of course, you need to be extremely clumsy to throw something backwards, while someone clumsy with a sling can easily do that. Throwing badly from a trench isn't too dangerous. | |
| Oct 1, 2016 at 23:54 | comment | added | Doctor Zhivago | The German "potato masher" was a devastating infantry assault explosive in World War 2. Again though...now we have drones...super cheap, for all intents and purposes 100% instant situational awareness by the user. Once you have that all you need is a mortar. You simply don't have the time anymore to stand out in open ground, pull something from a pouch, stick it in a "sack thingy", wind it up then fling it. You'll be dead by the first wind up in the age of Total Information Awareness. | |
| Oct 1, 2016 at 9:57 | comment | added | enkryptor | I wonder why nobody said this.Throwing grenades is easy to learn, which is an important advantage in comparison with using a sling. | |
| Oct 1, 2016 at 8:45 | history | answered | Bookeater | CC BY-SA 3.0 |