Grenadier

Grenadier was the lowest rank in the Heer, the army of the Third Reich. It was also known as Schütze. Although I have been unable to determine how many soldiers in the Heer had this rank, it can be expected that it was at least half of them, meaning roughly 1 800 000 in 1939 and as many as 3 250 000 at a time in 1943. As a comparison, 24 620 748 German men were aged 15-65 in 1939.

The Luftwaffe equivalent to Grenadier was Flieger, the Kriegsmarine equivalent was Matrose and the Waffen-SS equivalent was SS-Schütze. The equivalent US Army rank is Private.

For a more complete overview of which ranks existed, see Wehrmacht ranks.

The page that helped me with this writeup is no longer on the internet, but it used to live at www.wehrmacht-association.com/Open_Pages/ranks.htm

A company producing lead miniatures for role-playing games and wargames. They also produced historical miniatures, as well as generic fantasy ones. Most notable were their licensed works, for games such as Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, DC Heroes, West End Games's Star Wars.

As almost every producer, they supported both 15mm and 25mm in their time. It seems that Grenadier folded sometime in the nineties, I never saw any miniatures from the latter nineties.

Amongst their sculptors, there are illustrous names such as Janine Bennett, Bob Charrette, Andrew Chernak, Mark Copplestone, Michael Daley, Sandra Garrity, Julie Guthrie, Nick Lund, Bob Naismith, Ian Symonds and William Watt.

Amongst collectors of miniatures and old-time gamers who were along for the exciting ride of role-playing games and war games in their heydays of the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Grenadier was the most popular, recognisable, and accommodating miniatures company around. Without a doubt, Grenadier in its twenty years of business manufactured more miniatures, more exclusive lines, and more types of miniatures than any other gaming miniatures company in history.

V. Grenadier

The Queen she sent to look for me,
   The sergeant he did say,
“Young man, a soldier will you be
   For thirteen pence a day?”

For thirteen pence a day did I
   Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
   And I shall march no more.

My mouth is dry, my shirt is wet,
   My blood runs all away,
So now I shall not die in debt
   For thirteen pence a day.

To-morrow after new young men
   The sergeant he must see,
For things will all be over then
   Betwixt the Queen and me.

And I shall have to bate my price,
   For in the grave, they say,
Is neither knowledge nor device
   Nor thirteen pence a day.

A.E. Housman, Last Poems
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Public domain: first published in 1922.

Gren`a*dier" (?), n. [F. grenadier. See Grenade.]

1. Mil.

Originaly, a soldier who carried and threw grenades; afterward, one of a company attached to each regiment or battalion, taking post on the right of the line, and wearing a peculiar uniform. In modern times, a member of a special regiment or corps; as, a grenadier of the guard of Napoleon I. one of the regiment of Grenadier Guards of the British army, etc.

2. Zool.

Any marine fish of the genus Macrurus, in which the body and tail taper to a point; they mostly inhabit the deep sea; -- called also onion fish, and rat-tail fish.

3. Zool.

A bright-colored South African grosbeak (Pyromelana orix), having the back red and the lower parts black.

© Webster 1913.