And Another - What is This?

[egbert]

Any idea on the left handed device next to the fuse?

[Tom Morgan]

Unexploded end of a rifle-grenade, I think. (Lovely weather there!)

Tom

[egbert]

Thanx Tom,

Yes weather was ordered by staff! Is it a British potential rifle grenade?

[KONDOA]

Martin Hales Rifle Grenade??? Bit muddy but looks similar.

[Tom Morgan]

I agree with Drake1066. Here's a British Hales No. 10 rifle grenade for comparison. The one you photographed certainly looks like one model or another of this type of weapon:

[egbert]

This is very convincing! Thanx Drake and Tom - mystery solved!

[Stuart Brown]

I was just going to add this one...........

Previous thread at Here

Giles Poilo identified it for me.

[egbert]

Thanx again;

does anybody know what the different colour codes/rings stand for in Tom's and Stuart's pics?

[Max Poilu]

Difficult to tell from the first photo but as stated above it is certainly a British rifle grenade. The base looks like it may be profiled as in Tom's picture in which case it is probably a No.20.

Stuart illustrates a No.24 MkI, a later simplified development of the No.20 series.

As for colours, unlike shells etc British grenades were not always painted but generally the yellow in British ordanance indicates HE (high explosive), a red band indicates the item has been filled (or charged) with explosive and the green band indicates the type of explosive. In this case green indicates Amatol, pink would indicate Ammonal or Alumatol - all trade formulations of a basic TNT with added aluminium powder and other such substances to boost the explosive power. Tom's No.10 shows a pink band and traces of the original yellow ocre overall colour.

[Guest]

The main ingredient added to TNT in Amatol is ammonium nitrate, the same stuff which can be used as fertiliser and finds its way into improvised explosive devices when mixed with fuel oil (ANFO).

Ammonium nitrate is extremely hygroscopic and is prone to crystalisation. These crystals are extremely sensitive and potentially dangerous, as they can cause an explosion. One of the important checks when inspecting 3" HE mortar bombs, filled with Amatol, was to check the fuze threads, both in the bomb and the fuze, for crystal formation.

[KONDOA]

Alumatol as the name suggests contains Aluminium derived powder . This is also added to some modern commercial quarrying mixtures to improve velocity of detonation.

[Max Poilu]

With the risk of boring most readers with all the formulations I did not go into full detail above! But...just to clarify for those who are interested:

Amatol is TNT with Ammonium Nitrate.

Ammonal is generally a mixture of TNT, Ammonium Nitrate, powdered aluminium and charcoal.

Alumatol is TNT, Ammonium Nitrate and powdered aluminium.

There are numerous other HE formulations under various names but these TNT based high explosives were the main HE's used in British ordanance in the Great War taking over from Picric Acid (Lyddite). Over time Picric acid reacts with the steel in shells to form Picrates - highly unstables crystals - this is one of the main reasons to leave relic WW1 ordanance well alone.

I believed Stokes 3" mortars were mainly filled with Picric Acid, certainly many de-activated examples I have seen have the characteristic inner varnish and you can wash them out until the cows come home and still the water is coloured yellow!