Peter, a question about the Mills grenade. The grenade fuse is ignited by the firing a .22 caliber short blank cartridge. When fired is the blank loud? Obviously I have too much time on my hands. To save the self appointed comedians, I know the sound five to seven seconds later is much louder.
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Paul the cartridge is actually slightly shorter than a 22LR short case - more like a .22" CB cap case. I'm reliably informed they make a loud pop when ignited outside the grenade.
I just got back from France last night & although it's not the time of year for field walking found two Mills in frighteningly good condition. They are now in the village 'dump'.
We've got one of the par fried /par boiled potato/chip producing factories near us and they have been known to get live grenades coming in the potatoes from France. They even have a special cordoned area to put them in. You wouldn't want to find one of those in your packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion!
This was prompted by my thoughts regarding using the Mills as a booby trap. Does the fellow get much of a warning before the lights go out? Thank you Roger.
You're welcome. If referring to the time delay on the fuze in the No6 igniter set I think the standard delay for hand thrown Mills during the Great War was 5 seconds. I gather rifle launched No36's had a 7 second fuze, later increased to 8.2 seconds, though I'm not sure of the date when it was altered.
There is a bit of a pop that you can hear when you throw them but you can also hear the 'pinggggggg' as the striker lever flies off at the same time. The 'pingggggg' is usually the striker lever flying back on itself and in doing so, they always rotate around and hit the other side of the grenade
My friend, the Training WO at (better not say where now.......) used to have a dummy/drill grenade on his desk. In the base plug he had a little seating drilled, with a vent hole through the base. Into this little vent hole sat a LIVE .22" indoor theatrical blank, from a tin he kept in his desk drawer. Those idly passing his office would on several occasions just pull out the safety pin out of idle curiosity. Only to get the shock of their life when there was the pop as the 'igniter' went off. Everyone along the corridir know that someone had been playing with the dummy grenade on the Training WO's desk. Just to add to the 'humour' he also had a toilet roll next to the grenade.................. Ho, ho, ho.......
Warrant Officers were like that then. Alas, not any more.........
I trained with live No. 36M Mk I hand grenades. We each had to clean two, then prime them. Then we proceeded to the throwing bay carrying a grenade in each hand. By the time our regimental idiot had reached the throwing bay, he already had the pin out of one and was flexing the lever. The instructor just about had a heart attack! The instructor now has white hair I am sure as a minute later this soldier threw a Iive grenade up instead of out into the range. It landed on the concrete ledge in front of him. He stood there staring at it. The instructor quickly knocked the grenade over the edge of the concrete wall, threw the soldier to the floor and jumped on top of him, shielding him with his body. We were all of the opinion the the instructor should have been on the bottom and should have used the idiot to cover himself ... but of course that would be contrary to our training.
PM
