The Model 24 Stielhandgranate was the standard hand grenade of the German Army from the end of World War I until the end of World War II. The very distinctive appearance led to its being called a "stick grenade", or a "potato masher" in British Army slang, and is today one of the most easily recognized infantry weapons of the 20th century.[1]
These grenades are used to temporally neutralize the combat effectiveness of enemies by usually disorienting their senses. The flash of light momentarily activates all light sensitive cells in the eye, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds until the eye restores itself to its normal, unstimulated state. The incredibly loud blast produced by the grenade adds to its incapacitating properties by disturbing the fluid in the ear.
Smoke grenades
Smoke grenades are canister-type grenades used as ground-to-ground or ground-to-air signaling devices, target or landing zone marking devices, or as screening devices for unit movements. Smoke grenades are normally considered non lethal, although incorrect use may cause injury or fatality. The body consists of a sheet steel cylinder with a four emission holes on top and one on the bottom to allow smoke release when the grenade is ignited. The filler consists of 250 to 350 grams of colored (red, green, orange, gray, yellow, blue, white, black, or violet) smoke composition (mostly potassium chlorate, lactose and a dye). The reaction is exothermic and grenade casings will often remain scalding hot for some time even after the grenade is no longer emitting smoke.
Another type of smoke grenades are the bursting kind. These are filled with white phosphorus (WP), which is spread by explosive action. White phosphorus catches fire in the presence of air, and burns with a brilliant yellow flame, while producing copious amounts of white smoke (phosphorus pentoxide). These double as incendiary grenades, and a variant of these are also launched from infantry-portable or armored fighting vehicle-mounted grenade launchers. Users must also be wary of wind direction when using smoke grenades.
Smoke grenades should not be confused with smoke bombs, which are typically started with an external fuse rather than a pin. Smoke grenades often cost around $40 USD compared to smoke bombs, which can often cost just a few cents. Smoke grenades generally emit a far larger amount of smoke than smoke bombs that are sold as fireworks.
Sting grenade
Sting grenades (also called rubber ball grenades) are based on the design of the fragmentation grenade. Instead of using a metal casing to produce shrapnel, they are made using two spheres of hard rubber. Inside the smaller sphere is the explosive charge, primer, and detonator. The space between the two spheres is then filled with many small, hard rubber balls. Upon detonation, the subject is incapacitated, injured, or at the very least dislodged from cover, by the blunt force of the projectiles.
Some types have an additional payload of chemical agents like CS gas.
The advantages compared to a flashbang are:
The subject does not need to be looking at the grenade for it to take full effect in outdoor areas.
Sting grenades are much more likely to cause a subject to either fall or lower himself in pain, thus providing good sight lines to unaffected targets in the area.
This makes sting grenades ideal for containing small groups of rowdy prisoners, providing a shooting opportunity when a suspect is hiding behind cover, or in allowing SWAT teams to clear small rooms.
A disadvantage of using sting grenades is that they are not sure to incapacitate a subject, so they are dangerous to use with armed subjects. This is because sting grenades rely on the body's reaction to adverse stimuli (pain and blunt force trauma) rather than denial of sensory input. A person with sufficient mental focus can concentrate enough to ignore being hit by a sting grenade's payload, whereas a stun grenade will physically affect vision and sense of orientation. The effective range of a sting grenade is limited compared to a stun grenade. In addition, there is the risk of serious physical injury as the target is being pelted with actual objects capable of inflicting harm, and not just being deafened/blinded.