I have never seen any of these before in any militaria dealer shop, so I recon they must be pretty rare.
Here's what I found about it.
Panzerhandgranaten
The first special AT hand grenade was the Panzerhandgranate 41. It weighed 2kg and was effective against armor of up to 30mm thickness. 504,600 were produced in early 1943. Further developments of AT handgrenades utilising shaped charges had trouble stabilizing the flight which was necessary for the shaped charge to work (this lead to the development of the Panzerwurfmine).
The SS-weapon's academy then invented the HL-Handgranate that was also often referred to as the SS-HL-Handgranate to denominate it's inventor (see pictures at left and right). It had a length of 19cm, weighed 420g including the shaped charge of 210g and had a diameter of 7.2 cm. It's front consisted of a felt disc which was 6mm thick and drenched with glue. The idea was to run up to the tank and stick the grenade onto the armor. This method to attach the AT grenade to the tank proved to be less practical than intended, the weapon proved rather unsuccessful and unpopular, therefore further developments centered around the Hafthohlladung which seemed more promising.
Another way conceived to fight the armor with hand grenades was the use of a Motorstopmittel ("engine stop agent"). A handgrenade was filled with fine powder - Stopsand - that was to be sucked into the tank's engine. It was obvious that the weapon would be useless if appropriate air intake filters were installed on the tanks.
The next filling was to consist of an agent that was to produce flakes and therewith completely clog up the air filters. The idea worked - but only on smaller vehicles with small filters. The last idea for a filling was ozone. Brought into the engine it would have decreased the fuel's octane level and thereby deteriorate combustion. In trials the engines coughed and sputtered but kept running.
The whole Motorstoppmittel-Handgranate project was abandoned early 1943.
A very limited prototype series was built of the small Haftkörper ("attaching device") devices. These were small sticky attachment devices that could be combined with different "warheads", or rather cannisters, such as the Motorstoppmittel described above or with incendiary - type cans containing flammable liquid.The small attachment devices weighed 0.5kg, they were considered an unfeasible idea and the program was stopped again rather quick.
Here's what I found about it.
Panzerhandgranaten
The first special AT hand grenade was the Panzerhandgranate 41. It weighed 2kg and was effective against armor of up to 30mm thickness. 504,600 were produced in early 1943. Further developments of AT handgrenades utilising shaped charges had trouble stabilizing the flight which was necessary for the shaped charge to work (this lead to the development of the Panzerwurfmine).
The SS-weapon's academy then invented the HL-Handgranate that was also often referred to as the SS-HL-Handgranate to denominate it's inventor (see pictures at left and right). It had a length of 19cm, weighed 420g including the shaped charge of 210g and had a diameter of 7.2 cm. It's front consisted of a felt disc which was 6mm thick and drenched with glue. The idea was to run up to the tank and stick the grenade onto the armor. This method to attach the AT grenade to the tank proved to be less practical than intended, the weapon proved rather unsuccessful and unpopular, therefore further developments centered around the Hafthohlladung which seemed more promising.
Another way conceived to fight the armor with hand grenades was the use of a Motorstopmittel ("engine stop agent"). A handgrenade was filled with fine powder - Stopsand - that was to be sucked into the tank's engine. It was obvious that the weapon would be useless if appropriate air intake filters were installed on the tanks.
The next filling was to consist of an agent that was to produce flakes and therewith completely clog up the air filters. The idea worked - but only on smaller vehicles with small filters. The last idea for a filling was ozone. Brought into the engine it would have decreased the fuel's octane level and thereby deteriorate combustion. In trials the engines coughed and sputtered but kept running.
The whole Motorstoppmittel-Handgranate project was abandoned early 1943.
A very limited prototype series was built of the small Haftkörper ("attaching device") devices. These were small sticky attachment devices that could be combined with different "warheads", or rather cannisters, such as the Motorstoppmittel described above or with incendiary - type cans containing flammable liquid.The small attachment devices weighed 0.5kg, they were considered an unfeasible idea and the program was stopped again rather quick.
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