Why did army in Napoleon era never use hand-grenades to temporarily disrupt the square formation?
Upvote:2
Square formation operates in an open space, where one has more efficient means of targeting it - e.g., the artillery shells, which can be fired from a greater distance and carry a more significant explosive charge than hand grenades.
Hand grenades are more suitable in close quarters - against trenches or buildings, where artillery either cannot be used or inefficient due absence of direct sight.
Upvote:8
Grenades were notoriously unreliable and short range. A modern hand grenade can be thrown between 20-40 meters. A soldier is required to throw it +30 meters. Grenades in the 1800s were heavier, thus the throwing range was shorter. It wouldn't fragment as well as a modern grenade.
That means that a soldier had to get very close to throw his grenade. So close that he was likely to be shot (or bayoneted) by his enemies.
Grenadiers were elite soldiers, because of the danger of their work. Doing that on an square would not be dangerous but suicidal.
The question also asks about horse grenadiers throwing grenades from horseback. I'm not aware that ever happened. Units got promoted/demoted to a certain status or where assigned a different title. For example, lancer units were more expensive than hussar units. After the Napoleonic wars many lancer units were renamed in hussars to save money. They of course lost the lance, but apart from the lance they were doing the same work.
The idea that a grenadier rides in on horseback, lights his fuse, tosses the grenade and hopefully escapes alive is more a gaming feature than something that happened in real life. I have never heard of it.
Given the fact that grenadiers à cheval were big men on big horses looks more like a heavy dragoon unit got promoted in title and or status. The tasks for grenadiers à cheval and cuirassiers were identical (shock cavalry), the difference being cuirassiers wore a cuirass and grenadiers à cheval did not.
More post
- 📝 Was lying morally wrong in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 When else has an incumbent president alleged election fraud by a challenger?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 What did Germany gain from the Armistice of 11 November 1918?
- 📝 Was there ever a strategic concern about East German refusing to fight against West Germans (and vice versa) if the cold war had gone hot?
- 📝 Can someone help identify this statue?
- 📝 What was the world's largest religion in 1500?
- 📝 Was the UN critically involved in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis?
- 📝 What was the role of Scotland during the Hundred Years War?
- 📝 When did Europeans realize Native Americans had weaker immunity to Old World diseases?
- 📝 What was the opportunity cost to bombing the rail lines to Auschwitz?
- 📝 Were iconic structures intentionally destroyed in 20th century wars?
- 📝 Was WW2 necessary for Germany economically?
- 📝 Post-war plan for Nazi Germany in Russia?
- 📝 Was arson prominent in the Kingdom of Hawaii?
- 📝 Was Zhukov's wit portrayed accurately in The Death of Stalin?
- 📝 Age of majority in Washington state in 1945?
- 📝 Toyotomi Hideyoshi threatened to exterminate all Japanese foxes unless he heard from the god Inari. What was the aftermath (if any)?
- 📝 Did Gustavus Adolphus ever speak of making himself Emperor?
- 📝 How did Muhammad bin Qasim die?
- 📝 What's paradoxical about British free trade in 20th century partitioning of Africa?
- 📝 What is this sword?
- 📝 Why could the Soviet Baltic fleet not break out of the Gulf of Finland
- 📝 Which United States cities started getting electricity in the 1920s?
- 📝 Why didn't the ancient Egyptians conquer an empire?
- 📝 What was the natural population growth of Scotland between 1600 and 1900?
- 📝 Did the third US atomic bomb disappear without a trace?
- 📝 How did Greeks make greek fire?
- 📝 Why were Japanese escort ships not numerous at the battle of Bismarck Sea?
- 📝 What happened to Wilhelm Hoffman?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did army in Napoleon era never use hand-grenades to temporarily disrupt the square formation?
- 📝 Why did Ottoman Army use camels in the Siege of Vienna 1683?
- 📝 Why did Napoleon divide his army during the retreat from Smolensk?
- 📝 Why did officers fire revolvers with just one hand, while wielding a sword in the other hand despite being too far away to use swords?
- 📝 Why did the Germans use the Enigma machine rather than the far superior "Lorenz" cipher machine?
- 📝 Why did Hitler not order the use of poison gas in combat?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 Why did only the English adopt, evolve and use the longbow en masse in war?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 Why did the grip-centered viking shield fall out of use relative to the kite shields?
- 📝 Why did Stalin push for the Great Purge against the Red Army in 1936?
- 📝 Why did Hitler send Manstein's army (and not some other) to Leningrad in the summer of 1942?
- 📝 Why did the original Carthage never become a Roman city?
- 📝 Why did the French Army melt film during WWI?
- 📝 Did the Hungarian Army ever use crescent banners?
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 Why did the British "Indian" army come disproportionately from particular regions?
- 📝 Why did 1906 Iranian constitutionalists use the Belgian constitution as inspiration?
- 📝 Why did the ancient Romans use groups of eight?
- 📝 Why was the US army slow to adopt the use of radar prior to Pearl Harbour?
- 📝 Why did Francisco Franco never reestablish the Spanish monarchy?
- 📝 What types of weapons did the British army use in the late 1890's?
- 📝 How and why did the Cavalry lance temporarily fall out of favour during the 16-18th centuries?
- 📝 Why did the US Navy and Marine Corps use satanic symbolism in WW2?
- 📝 Why did the offices of Shogun and Emperor never merge?
- 📝 Why did the line infantry not use shields in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did the Roman Republic never set up a civilian police department?
- 📝 Why did the US use so much ordnance during the Vietnam War?
- 📝 At the Battle of Waterloo, why did the French army throw so many troops into the fight for Hougoumont?
- 📝 Why did Napoleon change his mind and continue the attack into Russia?