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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

An early Mills grenade


Andy A

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I was very lucky to be able to acquire this recently having seen it on a website for sale. Its a very early Mills grenade with both the body and base plug made by Mills Munitions Co LTD 192 Bridge St Birmingham in May 1915. Most certainly from the first contract of 50,000 given out by the government to William Mills.The first delivery of this batch was on 17/4/15 of which the first few thousand have the rounded Roland type base plugs of which the British Army was not impressed. Not sure if any of these plugs have survived, never seen a picture of one but there must be one out there somewhere.

It looks like its been gilded but i feel this must really be a copper wash as the wear to the covering looks like its been well handled and is quite evenly distributed over the body.As to why this was done we will never know. It may have been given to one of William Mill's managers for some presentation or may even have accompanied the man himself on his demonstration tours to foundries all over the country during 1915. We will never know. There is no damage to the body and you can tell its early due to the small ring pull and the serial numbers on the leaver later discontinued.The base plug is quit worn, indicating to me that its been picked up and put down a lot and had a great deal of handling. One thing that I am certain of is that I can say is that the body was made by Mills Munitions too as no one else was was making the Mills Grenade at this time.I am aware that the ownership of this grenade was known and it was considered an important part of Mills history. I consider myself as very lucky to have been able to buy this as I have always dreamed of owning a Mills with a 5/15 base plug.I will cherish it for the rest of my days.

 

 

Andy

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Andy,

 

You lucky man!

That is a VERY nice early example of a Mills grenade.

My grandfather was in F&F from Jan 1915, and was trained as a bomber.

No doubt he would recognize this.

 

Regards,

JMB

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Very nice, my one is 3 months younger.

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Very nice, yours must be an experimental more likely cylindrical and I would love to see a picture as this particular Grenade was from the first batch produced for delivery to the BEF in France in 1915. I dont think Mills Munitions started producing the Mills Grenade as we know it until April 1915, it would have had a slightly rounded Roland type base plug which the British army rejected hence the flat base plug. In fact the first 4000 had this type of rounded plug which the army did not like for obvious reasons. Again love to see yours.

 

 

Andy

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11 hours ago, JMB1943 said:

Andy,

 

You lucky man!

That is a VERY nice early example of a Mills grenade.

My grandfather was in F&F from Jan 1915, and was trained as a bomber.

No doubt he would recognize this.

 

Regards,

JMB

Yes bud, i am lucky to get the holy grail of a Mills grenade collectors dreams,Do you have much information on your grandfathers service during WW1 and ime sure he would most certainly recognize this one.

 

 

Best wishes

 

Andy.

 

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12 hours ago, Jools mckenna said:

Very nice, my one is 3 months younger.

A man in France has produced some fake base plugs with a February 1915 date on them.

 

The first grenades to be tested by the British Army in France were only sent out on the 12th March. This was the 'Oval' grenade and the cylindrical Steel Shell grenade. All basically prototypes. The Army chose the oval grenade and asked for 24 more a week later. Mills got his first contract on the 27th March.

 

7636mainPatentdraw.jpg.1bdf3b9aa940f11e6ec505514a1c0c25.jpg

 

The earliest base plugs in existence are dated April 1915. These are Roland Style plugs on the first production No 5 and on a couple of the Steel Shell grenades that still exist.

Edited by Gunner Bailey
typo
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2 hours ago, Gunner Bailey said:

 

By 3 months younger, I meant August 1915.

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Phew. Had me worried there. Hope you like the patent drawing. 

 

;)

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34 minutes ago, Gunner Bailey said:

Phew. Had me worried there. Hope you like the patent drawing. 

 

;)

Me too bud, drawings were fantastic as was your other picture. Very interested to seethe very small base plug, probly not strong enough to hold the det in place. I wonder if any were trialed like that?

 

Andy

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The base plug for the trials was as in the lower drawing, for both the oval and the cylindrical. The Roland plug was not very substantial.

 

There were issues with the Mills base plug in the early months and the question of making the base plug stronger to hold the anvil in place was debated.

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