The Stielgranate 41 stick grenade was a German shaped charge

Shaped charge

A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, to initiate nuclear weapons, to penetrate armor, and in the oil and gas industry...

, fin-stabilized shell, used with the 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun to give it better anti-tank performance.

The 3.7 cm PaK-36, was the standard anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 in 1940. During the battle of France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

 in 1940 it had had trouble dealing with thick armour of French and British tanks. In 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

, the gun was next to useless when confronted with Russian T-34

T-34

The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...

 or KV-series

Kliment Voroshilov tank

The Kliment Voroshilov tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet...

 tanks. It was successively replaced by larger calibre weapons, like the 5 cm PaK 38, but there were never enough of them, so it was decided to enhance the capability of the PaK 36 by providing it with new ammunition.

The design looked like a rifle grenade

Rifle grenade

A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade was thrown by hand...

, only considerably larger. One part of its stem, a stick, was placed inside the gun barrel

Gun barrel

A gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases are released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at a high velocity....

; the other part, a perforated tube, fitted around it. On the tube there were four stabilizing fin

Fin

A fin is a surface used for stability and/or to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media, . The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices...

s. It was shot with a special blank cartridge

Blank (cartridge)

A blank is a type of cartridge for a firearm that contains gunpowder but no bullet or shot. When fired, the blank makes a flash and an explosive sound . Blanks are often used for simulation , training, and for signaling...

 at a velocity of 110 m/s (360.9 ft/s), which gave it maximum range of about 800 m (874.9 yd) (with gun elevation 25^o) and around 180 m point blank range (gun elevation 5^o).

It was equipped with two fuzes

Artillery fuze

An artillery fuze or artillery fuse is the type of munition fuze used with artillery munitions, typically projectiles fired by guns , howitzers and mortars. A fuze is a device that initiates an explosive function in a munition, most commonly causing it to detonate or release its contents, when its...

: in the nose, for direct hits, and in the base, to ensure detonation if the target was only grazed. The large calibre of the HEAT

Heat

In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...

 warhead and shaped charge of 2.42 kg HE, enabled it to penetrate armour 180 mm thick, enough to defeat any World War II tank. The hit was equally dangerous at any distance, as the shaped-charge effect is not dependent on the velocity of the round at the point of impact. However, due to low velocity the grenade was not very accurate, so the effective range against tanks was around 300 m.

Another disadvantage of using Stielgranate was that the gun loader had to leave cover, go in front of the gun and place another grenade on the barrel.

Specifications

• Weight as fired: 8.6 kg
• Explosive content:
  • TNT, 2.42 kg, shaped charge
• Total length: 73.9 cm
• Stem diameter: 37 mm
• Warhead diameter: 160 mm
• Fuzes
  • nose fuze Bd Z 5130 - Bodenzünder 5130
  • base fuze AZ 5075 - Aufschlagzünder 5075 (identical with the one used for Panzerschreck
    Panzerschreck
    Panzerschreck was the popular name for the Raketenpanzerbüchse , an 88 mm calibre reusable anti-tank rocket launcher developed by Nazi Germany in World War II. Another popular nickname was Ofenrohr ....
    
    rockets) or its improved variant AZ 5095 - Aufschlagzünder 5095