The hand grenade in the first world war

Abstract

Invented in the sixteenth century, and having faded into total obscurity by the eighteenth, the hand grenade made so much of a comeback in the First World War that 17 per cent of all commemorated acts of bravery involved the use of this weapon. Fundamental to the rise and fall of the hand grenade was the development of other weapons and military tactics; and the author also recounts individual moments of heroism—intentional or otherwise—to complete this insight into one feature of the First World War.