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Cut M24 stick grenade for paratroopers?

engineer

Well-Known Member
Have recently got a very uncommon M24 stick grenade in nearly mint condition. But I'm very confused about this cut stick. I was told by the seller that this type was especially made for paratroopers. Can anyone of the experts (e.g. Grenademan28, Grenadier, jeeeensy, paul the grenade......) confirm this story? Does anyone have pictures or documents of this curious item? All help is appreciated.

Cheers

engineer
 

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It looks like this is something someone has made up. You can see the wood is a fresh colour where the base screw thread is attached. If it was original the wood would be the same colour throughout its length,:tinysmile_cry_t3:
Cheers, Paul.
 
You're right Paul. But why the hell should someone butch up an original stick in mint condition?

Cheers

engineer
 
Thats shocking!!! :tinysmile_cry_t4: I guess the butcher thought that producing such a rare item could bring double the price of a "standard" M24 ??

Regards
MG34NZ
 
No, definitely not. The price was comparable to the price for a mint conditioned "common" M24, rather at a lower price.

Cheers

engineer
 
Here 2 more pics...Seems to me that the delay tube is made of ceramics. It is stamped "4 1/2 S"

Cheers

engineer
 

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+++

Very unusual. I wonder where would be the place for the pull cord...
 

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The space for the fuze and the pull cord, including the porcelain ball, is very short - but still sufficient.

Cheers

engineer
 
I have seen a thread on another forum about these a while ago, wish i had saved it now, it did show one like this with the cut down stick.

Regards
Nick
 
Here 2 more pics...Seems to me that the delay tube is made of ceramics. It is stamped "4 1/2 S"

Cheers

engineer

Hi:
Is common to find early BZ24 LEAD fuses with early brass connectors covered with a fine white coat or totally white. Seems an oxidation process of the lead.
 
Have recently got a very uncommon M24 stick grenade in nearly mint condition. But I'm very confused about this cut stick. I was told by the seller that this type was especially made for paratroopers. Can anyone of the experts (e.g. Grenademan28, Grenadier, jeeeensy, paul the grenade......) confirm this story? Does anyone have pictures or documents of this curious item? All help is appreciated.

Cheers

engineer

Thanks for call me expert.... nothing more far away from the reality. :tinysmile_shy_t: I think that this is just a souvenir item or a "trench art" made from a M24 damaged handle. Or, as forum member MG34NZ said, done for sell it as "the rarest grenade ever produced by the German army". But I believe more in the first theory. Would be stupid destroy an early M24 stick for do this.
 
The delay tube of the fuse is definitely not made of lead showing a white coat of oxidation but made of ceramics. There's no doubt about it. And I do not believe that this grenade was faked in order to make quick money. What about the theory that it was made by an foreign nation after the war - using captured stocks of german gren's - for their own paratroopers? Someone mentionend this might have happened in Austria in beginning of the fifties. Does anyone can confirm this?

Cheers

engineer


.
 
Maybe it is filled with ceramics. Check the upper part, where the brass connector screw with the fuse. Also the delay part of the fuse is the tube that connects the lead part with the brass part, which is know as the delay pellet. For the other histories I dont believe in them. I will consider this as a trench art item until somebody shows me an original document when I can read other thing. Also a 1938 grenade captured in a stock? A 1944 maybe, but a 1938 one..
 
Hi, A very interesting thread, and a great read. I would have to agree that it is unlikely that a grenade made in 1938 would sit in storage until the end of the war. Hell the Germans were throwing hunks of concrete at the Allies by wars end. What’s left of the grenade is in fantastic condition, so it’s probably also reasonable to say that it was souvenired early on in the war, rather dug up somewhere afterwards and modified. I spent a number of years trying to identify the grenade in the attached photos, only to find out recently that it is a tree decoration made-up out of surplus WW2 grenade parts in post war Germany :sad:(the answer is not always what you want to hear). Once it was positively identified, it was obvious and undeniable. Someone will have the definitive answer on your grenade, keep looking. Cheers
 

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