Firing a Rifle Grenade

[Jim Gordon]

I have a photo of a soldier purportedly firing a a Rifle Grenade at his Divisional Sports, pprobably in 1916/17. He is firing the device from the hip using an SMLE with bayonet fixed. The discharge cup is merely a metal ring and the bomb is non-fragmentary. It looks like the type that had a metal rod screwed into it's base.

The whole excercise looks decidedly "hairy" to me. It seems to me that if the firer escaped damage from either the metal rod or the bomb fouling the bayonet, the recoil would (to say the least) give him something to think about.

I was taught to fire the Mills 36M with the butt of the rifle firmly in contact with mother earth.

I reckon the photo is posed especially as the firer is surrounded by a group of 3 highish ranking officers who don't seem to be concerned in any way.

Does anyone have any info regarding the drill used in WW1 with regard to launching Rifle Grenades that would refute this opinion?

Regards

Jim Gordon

[Tom Morgan]

Rifle grenades definitely had to be fired with the butt of the rifle resting on the ground!

There is a picture of a rifle grenade being fired at:

http://www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk/trench...framephoto1.htm

[Terry_Reeves]

Jim

The illustration is incorrect. The discharger consisted of a metal ring with a "tail" which fitted over the bayonet lugs and bayonet held the whole assembly in place on the muzzle of the weapon. It was designed to fire a Mills grenade. A short rod was screwed into the base plug which went down the barrel, and the fly-off lever was held in place by the ring after the pin was withdrawn.

As Tom rightly said, rifle grenades were designed to be fired with the butt of the weapon on the ground. I have a complete assembly of this type in a box in the attic believe it or not, complete with grenade, inert I hasten to add.

[Guest Hill 60]

Jim,

If you get hold of Weapons of the Trench War 1914 - 1918 by Anthony Saunders (ISBN 0-7509-2505-1) there is a chapter on Rifle Grenades. It shows how they were fired and what sorts there were etc.

Lee

[Tom Morgan]

Lee makes a good point. I don't have a copy of this book to hand, but I'm sure it contains an illustration of one type of grenade-launcher which did require the bayonet to be fitted, as in Jim's picture. In this model, it was the bayonet which held the safety-clip of the grenade in place after the pin had been removed for firing.