Thread: Chinese Soldier almost kills himself at hand grenade practice

Grafenwoehr, Summer 1982. I am running the battalion hand grenade range. The first half of the range is the qualification assault course with the dummy grenades. The second half of the range is live grenade throw from the pit. My PSG, who had spent a lot of the time in the 1st Ranger Battalion ran the qual course with 2 squads, 1 ran live side 1 with squad and 1 squad handled ammo. It was a three day gig. By the middle of Day 3 just about everyone in the battalion, including some cooks, had been through the course. I asked the S3 if I could close early they said “NO!” I asked the S4 if he could come pick up the leftover grenades and he said “There better be none to turn in!” We had (I remember the count) 97 live grenades leftover we had to get rid of…all my soldiers had thrown all they wanted so it came down to my PSG and I to get rid of the remaining 20. We each got into our own throwing pit and tried to see who could throw closest to a target, who could splash the other with mud from the holes, etc.

He then has the bright idea that we would both get in the same pit and see he could wing it the farthest. I went first and almost threw it beyond the far safety line. Feeling cocky I step and le PSG take his shot. Did I mention he had been in 1st Ranger Battalion? This lunatic pulls the pin, rears back, looks at me with a glint in his eye and lets the spoon fly. He then calmly lays it on top of the sandbags at the front of the pit (chest high). As I am swearing at him we both dropped to the floor…me cursing a blue streak and him laughing his ass off. Grenade goes off, my ears ring for about 5 minutes and he said…”Well, Sir, looks like you won!”

Screw the S4, we turned in the rest of the grenades.

Crazy bastard went back to the 1st Ranger Battalion that fall.

I never threw another live grenade again!

Our training was one day, after all, armor troops don't really use grenades, but we needed to have the training and qualify just in case. Whoever wasn't in the grenade pit was either throwing grenade sized rocks under the tutelage of one of the officers and sergeants, or running from those same "grenades" (rocks) had just been launched. Every single rock thrown meant we had to run as far away from the grenade as possible for 3 seconds and then hit the deck, of course with rifle aimed forward and "shooting" at the simulated enemy. Of course, 2 seconds after we hit the ground another grenade would come in our direction and we would have to get up and run again, repeating the process ad nauseum. Good aerobics training.

Towards the end, once it was finally our turn to start tossing rocks, we started trying to land them as close as we could to the other soldiers, just to piss them off and cause we were so tired already.

the only grenades I've ever used was an M203 attached to a M-16 when my ship was out at sea.. (for practice) and a lot of fun..

I have quite literally seen the same whilst I was in HM Forces, and this guy was supposedly "experienced". So, yeah, look within before you criticize without...

Question for you mud-wallowing grunty types... While flying above the filth in air conditioned comfort, I've pondered the throwing style taught to American boys. In training films, you see the grenade being thrown straight-armed, with the stiff arm following an arc. The result seems to be bad accuracy and short range.

Then, you see film of actual combat, as in the South Pacific WW2. Young Marines, who grew up playing baseball and could put a ball in a mitt at 100 feet, throw the grenade baseball style. You do also see the stiff-armed variety of throw.



Which of these do they teach today, and why? And in combat, do soldiers say "F it" and throw like they would a baseball?