Gordon Rottman is a dependable quality Osprey author. This Osprey Weapon title is no exception and offers a good introduction to the hand grenade. As always with Rottman, his focus is on WWII as well as WWI given the importance of grenades in trench warfare. I would have liked to read more about early hand grenades in the sieges of the 17th century but most of these (e.g. the Ottoman-Venetian conflicts) did not involve English troops and thus is not of particular interest to both Rottman and Osprey's primary market.

It would also be helpful to inform readers about the problem of many pictures of people throwing hand grenades: As the guy on the book's title, they are posing for the photographer not throwing the grenade. The awkwardly angled elbow would restrict the range of the throw but is well suited for striking a pose. Many Osprey illustrations featuring hand grenades, unfortunately, suffer from this problem with the result that those grenades are thrown in a manner usually described as "thrown like a girl". The paintings created for this Osprey Weapon title thankfully do not suffer from this problem and show correct throwing techniques. Space constraints mean that the description of tactical use of hand grenades is not given as much room as it merited (esp. in urban warfare). Overall, a good title. ( )