Chinese grenade soldiers

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Cheerio_Fujisaki
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Chinese grenade soldiers

#1

Post by Cheerio_Fujisaki » 17 Oct 2019, 22:33

I had noticed in some pictures of Chinese soldiers in shanghai (1937), some have grenades and some don't. Are grenades not deployed to the basic soldier? Or had the soldier already use the grenade before a picture was taken?

If you do have a info on this, please tell me

please and thank you,

cheerio

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gebhk
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Re: Chinese grenade soldiers

#2

Post by gebhk » 05 Nov 2019, 10:37

I was hoping someone more knowledgeable on Chinese doctrine would say something as I have found nothing of note in my meagre sources. A few armies of the WW2 era had designated grenadiers in their TOEs (the Danish army being one). However, in most armies the distribution of hand grenades was left to the platoon commander and squad leaders' discretion and depended on the mission and quantity of grenades supplied. Thus not all men would necessarily carry them all the time.


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T. A. Gardner
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Re: Chinese grenade soldiers

#3

Post by T. A. Gardner » 28 Jul 2023, 15:46

This was something that most militaries did in WW 1 trench warfare. They had grenadiers, usually a team of two men, who were specifically tasked with using grenades in clearing an enemy trench. One man was the thrower, the other carried additional grenades to the ones the thrower had, both would be given pistols for self-defense. Their task was to throw grenades over and into the trench ahead of the advance along it, and to toss them around corners as the trenches were not dug in straight lines.

I suspect this is a case something like that. Given he's wearing a German helmet, and that the Germans did a lot of training of Chinese troops in the 30's, that is the case.

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