What happens to a Mills bomb when it: "suddenly goes away"

fat tony

fat tony

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http://www.pillbox.org.uk/pillblogs/detail.asp?ID=253

grenade4.jpg


I hope the owner of the pics is okay with me using them here. I have presented them for the education of Canadian gunnutz. Cheers :D
 
Testing that was conducted proved that external serrations had very little impact on fragmentation, as evidenced by this pic. The only advantage to external serrations/segmenting was that it provided a better grip with cold/muddy hands.

Internal segmentation was much more effective, however this was a greater manufacturing expense and complication, thus not popular for an item meant to be churned out in the millions.

This lead to the post war practice of pre-fragmentation, such as notched wire like the M61/M67 or fragments/pellets embedded in a casing medium.
 
4b1t said:
Testing that was conducted proved that external serrations had very little impact on fragmentation, as evidenced by this pic. The only advantage to external serrations/segmenting was that it provided a better grip with cold/muddy hands.

Internal segmentation was much more effective, however this was a greater manufacturing expense and complication, thus not popular for an item meant to be churned out in the millions.

This lead to the post war practice of pre-fragmentation, such as notched wire like the M61/M67 or fragments/pellets embedded in a casing medium.
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You could very well be right. Take a look at this thread I found in the War Relics dot EU forum. . .

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/ordinance-ammo/business-end-mkii-grenade-6843/

32806d1238946059t-business-end-mkii-grenade-frags-parts-001.jpg


Of course, the MK II grenade from the US is a different design than the Mills bomb, but the Mills and the MKII were both made from gray cast iron from what I can tell.

From the picture above, it is impossible to tell whether the MKII fragments were from the models filled with TNT, or the ones with blank powder. Again, the filler plug is in one piece, about 5/8" in diameter and probably about 1/2" long.

The intact body on the right looks like one of the solid bottom variants.
 
From what I've read, one of the big reasons for such uneven fragmentation on the Mills Bomb is the offset fuze. Because the detonation is centered on one side you get inconsistent fragmentation.
 
Nyles said:
From what I've read, one of the big reasons for such uneven fragmentation on the Mills Bomb is the offset fuze. Because the detonation is centered on one side you get inconsistent fragmentation.
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Actually, what you get is brown trousers time.

And to think that my grandmother had a couple of Mill's bombs in a box under her bed when she lived with us when I was a child. I'm glad I wasn't too nosy...then again, she did smoke in bed - yikes!
 
Hey Stencollector, other than with the SSF, did Canadian troops ever use the MKII pineapple in Canadian service officially? :confused: Thanks in advance.


Just found this:

"Jam Tin Grenade"

First World War
Soldiers in the trenches in 1915 did not have factory made hand grenades in large numbers, and improvised devices were by putting gun-cotton and scrap metal in empty jam tims. "Jampots" were crude; Desmond Morton describes one method of making them in When Your Number's Up:

Private W.S. Lighthall of the Royal Canadian Dragoons was taught to empty the jam tin, line it with burlap and an inner lining of mud. "Insert old nails and broken metal, centre a primer of gun cotton and make a small hole for the copper detonator and a short length of fuse. Cramp (sic) the copper with your teeth (dangerous). Apply more mud to hold the fuse in position, tie burlap around the fuse, light it with a cigarette, and wait five seconds for the explosion, preferably at a distance."
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step #1 would my favourite! :D

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/grenades/handgrenades.htm

It seems that Canada skipped the MKII entirely and moved on to the M61. One of my ncos in battleschool told us about them. If I remember correctly, he mentioned firing them from C1A1 rifles. Never seen one of the adaptors for that.

This thread shows pics of a nice fellow's Israeli (metric) FAL with a beautiful grenade launcher.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?197401-My-Israeli-FAL-w-Grenade-Launcher
 
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Nyles said:
From what I've read, one of the big reasons for such uneven fragmentation on the Mills Bomb is the offset fuze. Because the detonation is centered on one side you get inconsistent fragmentation.
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Lot of internal metal in one of those things, compared to the US version. :D

Grizz
 
fat tony said:
It seems that Canada skipped the MKII entirely and moved on to the M61. One of my ncos in battleschool told us about them. If I remember correctly, he mentioned firing them from C1A1 rifles. Never seen one of the adaptors for that.
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Here you go. You had to turn the gas plug 180 deg and use the C33 balistite cartridge to fire it. if it did not leave the rifle after firing, the drill was to throw the rifle forward down range. Oh, and duck.

I still have not gotten around to picking up the L1A1 adapter that went on the flash eliminator.

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Yes the grenade pictured is a dummy.
 
recce said:
Here you go. You had to turn the gas plug 180 deg and use the C33 balistite cartridge to fire it. if it did not leave the rifle after firing, the drill was to throw the rifle forward down range. Oh, and duck.

I still have not gotten around to picking up the L1A1 adapter that went on the flash eliminator.

100_0037.jpg


Yes the grenade pictured is a dummy.
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Never fails, someone always thinks they are live, and just from a vague picture. That would make a good basis for a pepper mill lol

Interesting Teenhalake - I didn't exactly know there was IR smoke. . .

There were "shoot-through" grenades in WWI, but I don't know if there were bullet trap grenades back then - probably not. It seems there was incredible variation in grenades in the WWI era.
 
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fat tony said:
Never fails, someone always thinks they are live, and just from a vague picture.
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Yeah I wrote that for the anti's lurking on the site, not the general membership, as they probably figured it out.

A pepper mill sounds like a good project. It would make for great dinner conversation when guests come over.
 
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