13-040-915

NAME – Model 1913/15 Ball Stick Grenade

NAME (NATIVE) – Kugelkopf Stielhandgranate [Ball head stick hand grenade]

COMMON NAMES – Poppenberg’s Impact Ignition, Poppenberg Grenade

TYPE – Fragmentation hand grenade with impact fuze

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Germany

DATE OF MANUFACTURE – 1915

LENGTH – 36 cm (14.2 in)

WIDTH (DIAMETER) – 10.7 cm (4.2 in)

WEIGHT – 1.26 kg (2 lb 12 oz)

EFFECT – Blast and fragmentation

BURST RADIUS – 20 m (22 yards), 50 to 100 m (55 to 109 yards) danger area

FUSE TYPE – Poppenberg “All-Ways” impact pull ring/safety lever with igniter

FUSE INITIATION – Impact

FUSE DELAY – None

FILLER – Black Powder

FILLER WEIGHT – 0.045 kg (1.58 oz)

FILLER EQUIVALENT TO TNT (R.E.) – 0.55

AVERAGE RANGE – 20 to 25 m (22 to 27 yards)

COLOR CODE – Black fragmentation body, wooden handle, green-painted metal components

MARKINGS – None

STATUS – Obsolete

SERVICE – Limited use by Imperial German military

     Effectively, this is an impact-fuzed stick grenade handle (Poppenberg System) with a Model 1913 Kuglehandgranate as the warhead. It was an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the stick grenade while also using the impact fuze of th ePoppelberg design. The fuze design of this grenade proved to be unreliable, particularly in the bad environment of the trenches. As a result, it was not issued for very long and was almost unknown by 1916.