# Episode 111: How Grenades Took Over the Trenches in WW1

An episode of [WW1: Not So Quiet On The Western Front!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1716885995), 19 Jan 2026, 57 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/BATTLEGUIDETOURSLTD1713497746.mp3?updated=1768890342

In the early months of the Great War, a hand grenade was almost an anachronism — a relic of fortress warfare associated with seventeenth-century “grenadiers” rather than modern industrial armies. And yet, by 1918, it had become one of the most important and feared weapons on the Western Front. This episode is the story of that transformation. From improvised “jam tins” and crude bombs to engineered patterns like the Mills bomb and the German Potato Masher stick grenade we’ll follow the technology, the tactics, and the hard, dangerous lessons learned in close combat. We apologise for the quality of Dan's Audio in this episode! Join us in 2026: https://battleguide.co.uk/nsq-tour-2026 Join Our Community: https://not-so-quiet.com/ Use our code: Dugout and get one month free as a Captain. Support via Paypal: https://battleguide.co.uk/nsq-paypal Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! E-Mail: nsq@battleguide.co.uk Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT Our WW2 Podcast: https://battleguide.co.uk/bsow If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Twitter: @historian1914 @DanHillHistory @BattleguideVT Credits: - Host: Dr. Spencer Jones & Dan Hill - Production: Linus Klaßen - Editing: Hunter Christensen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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