Original German WWII M24 “METEOR” Training Stick Grenade by Kriegeskorte – Übungshandgranate Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is an extremely rare excellent example of a practice training M1924, M24, or Stielhandgranate 24 (“stalk hand grenade”) German Stick Grenade, often called a “potato masher”. They are officially termed Übungshandgranate, which literally means Exercise Hand Grenade. This variant is one that we have not seen before and definitely has some interesting features that separate it from the others we have seen by Richard Rinker. Most likely, the designs were not officially patterned, so certain design elements were left up to the supplier.

This very nice example was recently acquired from a large ordnance collection in the U.S.. It does not appear to have had a bottom cap like most practice grenades, but does have a threaded hole where the fuse would be pulled. The explosive head has a single hole on the top, and most interestingly, has a removable cover, which is held on by a spring pin. The wooden handle extends all the way into the warhead. It still has much of the original red paint on the head of the grenade, as well as on the top of the shaft. It was not painted red under the head’s “cover”.

The side of the handle bears the manufacturer and model information:

METEOR
KRIEGESKORTE
STUTTGART

From what we can tell, the Kriegeskorte & Co. was founded in 1878 by Robert Kriegeskorte, and was originally a wholesaler of gunpowder, dynamite, ammunition, and arms. The company still exists today, known as KRICO. The opposite side is marked ges. gesch for Gesetzlich Geschutzt (Protected By Law), indicating that this grenade was a trademarked design.

Training grenades are nearly impossible to find as by early 1943 production of practice grenades had stopped. This is definitely an interesting example, sure to add variety to any WWII Ordnance collection. Ready to display!