German doctoral thesis on grenade launchers (2013)

[trajan]

Might be some things of interest for you grenade-launcher guys in this: Die Entwicklung des Granatwerfers im Ersten Weltkrieg, by Tillmann Reibert, 2013, available at: http://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2013/6126/pdf/Dissertation.pdf

Enjoy!

Trajan

[SiegeGunner]

That looks to be quite a piece of work. Thanks for posting it, Julian. Its scope is pretty wide and rather than simply 'grenade launchers', I'd say that it's mainly about trench mortars (tube and spigot). Amazing how, after mastering such a broad and complex subject in such detail, the author refers, close to the end, to Sir Wilfred Stokes as 'Sir Stokes'.

[trajan]

That looks to be quite a piece of work.

Indeed! I only glanced at bits and pieces, but it seems much better written (in the sense of being easier to read!) than a tome I have been working on recently written by some 1940's Berlin-trained philologist...

[Wigwhammer]

"Granate" in German is more a generic term for an explosive shell of which the hand or rifle-launched grenade are just a "minor" branch. A "Granatwerfer" is, in the, context of WW1 more accurately translated as (trench) mortar - but there were any number of different "Granaten" for much larger "launchers". (In modern parlance, what was then Granatwerfer is now referred to as a Mörser (mortar) and Granatwerfer is now a grenade launcher - I suppose that has to do with NATO terminology)

And to refer to a British Knight with Sir before his surname is a common - indeed almost invariable - "error" in Germany. It is virtually inconceivable and would be considered most disrespectful for a German to refer to somebody who is not a close personal friend as, e.g., Sir Wilfred. (If you use the formal you, "Sie", using just the forename is most irregular).

Cheers

Colin

EDIT: If you look on page 29 of the thesis you'll find the terminology explained

In der englischen Literatur werden die Geräte meist mortar (Mörser) genannt, oft mit dem Vorsatz trench-mortar (Grabenmörser). Aber auch der Begriff howitzer (Haubitze)

taucht häufig auf, ebenso trench-howitzer (Graben-Haubitze)

Edited 7 January , 2015 by Wigwhammer

[nigelfe]

Yes, 'granate' is used for any explosive filled projectile. This is why you often find Germans using grenade in English when they mean shell or mortar bomb, I have the impression, possibly wrongly, that this wider use of the word also occurs in some Slavonic languages.