Mills 36 Mk 7

[muffett.2008]

If I close my eyes, I can still see the splattered body parts of a recruit from another platoon all over the walls of the throwing bay............Nasho's wasn't all that nice back then.

[browningautorifle]

We had a couple of those too...

[Peter Laidler]

I just wonder what the DS were doing and where was the safety marshal who should have been in the bay with him. Or defective grenades? The trouble is that with defective grenades you never really get to the bottom of it because the evidence is...., well, blown up! We had a muzzle launched grenade just blow up before it had even left the launcher. Killed a Major. Don't even talk about claymores........ (except the Q, are they still used?)

[BruceHMX]

Never saw a defective hand grenade but definitely a few claymores. I hated running a range with those things. When working Range Control we constantly got calls from the Claymore Range and EOD was a few hours away. Like anything always happened on a Friday afternoon when you were about to secure.

[browningautorifle]

I just wonder what the DS were doing and where was the safety marshal who should have been in the bay with him.

Matter of fact there was a V40 accident with a regular regiment and both were killed. Safety and firer. The safety lever had been allowed enough slack to allow the striker to move. 4 sec later they both died.

We also had a rifle grenade on an FN go off, blowing the head off the firer. Don't remember how safety made out.

We had an 84 round go off as soon as it left the tube. That hit the firer right in center forehead and a friend of mine held a hand over the wound until the chopper came with medics. The man survived. Many in that one were wounded.

We had an 81 Mortar blow as soon as the bore riding pin left the bomb as it cleared the tube. Two killed and lots wounded. That was in Germany, early '70s. Peter should have heard about that one.

We had a man killed in Afghanistan with a Claymore C19 during training. It had been set up backwards apparently. They should have been in the armored vehicles for splinter proof but they were smoking behind them. One ball ricocheted and hit him in the heart. He hadn't set it up...there were no Snr NCOs or officers injured either. That one made me cross. When I ran the claymore range, I made sure I was the last under cover. Yes Peter they're around.

I could go on. Lots...saw lots of dud grenades, more during extreme cold than other times.

[CINDERS]

Jim is it the nature of how things are made like ordnance that the QA is not that good given the amounts required not only for training but for combat use.
As the stuff should be for the enemy not taking out the end user, Peter often gives the crunchies a bit of curry and probably rightly so with the pull it to bits attitude they have but equipment failures such as you have described would put a real dampner on the squads, but from what you said about the claymores they are clearly marked are they not "This side towards the enemy".

Hopefully the lot numbers were taken from the batch that suffered the failures and the cause found, wont bring those blokes back but hopefully it will stop further needless loss of lives, one wonders if the civilian companies making the gear what audits the Army puts them through or their QA for that matter.

[browningautorifle]

"This side towards the enemy".

The official story is it fell over before detonation. When a user examines the blast effect however, one can see...

We don't have or produce that much ordnance that it should be faulty...

[BruceHMX]

The official story is it fell over before detonation. When a user examines the blast effect however, one can see...

We don't have or produce that much ordnance that it should be faulty...

Exactly we had that problem, blast machine not throwing enough current even after tested, or a dud blasting cap. Many had been made during the Vietnam era and who knows how they were stored. Watched an EOD group daisy chain about 10 of them one day. That was a sight to see!

[browningautorifle]

Many had been made during the Vietnam era and who knows how they were stored.

Ordnance isn't like fine wine...