Anyone here reasonably knowledgeable on the history and employment of rifle grenades?
In my own research it seems like a good idea that was rarely actually employed. I believe WWII saw the greatest use of them but early systems required a ballisite cartridge that must have been a PITA for the Rifleman.
Post-war, it seems most nearly every army in the world had to have them and nearly every post war military rifle was set up with a muzzle device to employ them. But I cannot find where there was much of a rifle grenade training program or doctrine in any European army. Anecdotally, most people seem to think they were used for point defense and to initiate ambushes. I know they had a bloc of instruction on them in the old French Commando school and I have seen a few pictures where the French had them mounted in training exercises.
It seems that they may have been used a bit in African brush wars of the late 70’s and early 80’s but I can find no historical accounts.
The Serbian factions in the Yugoslavian civil war seemed to use the M60P1 (or a similar AP grenade) quite a bit. I have seen them in dozens of photos - some of actual combat.
The Israelis seem to be rather fond of rifle grenades. By all accounts they have been making some of the best bullet trap rifle grenades for over 20 years now. However, I have seen nothing on their employment. Given that Israel seems to be fighting some sort of brush fire war every other year, you would think they would be employing these systems at least some of the time.
My sense right now, is that rifle grenades were a good idea in the lab that never panned out in actual combat.
Anyone else?