Almost passed this up today until I realized that it has all aluminum fittings (base plug, filler plug and center tube). Also, the safety lever is different from any that I have seen before with a slot cut for the pin to pass through instead of a hole. Am I correct to assume that this is a scarce example?
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Early No5 Mills bomb
- Thread starter Infanteer
- Start date
Hi bud,
a really nice gren, especially as its a rare early centre cast too. Well done for finding it. As for the cut in the lever, this may have been done as an after thought as they did have problems with this type of lever if gripped too hard by the thrower so i reccon its an original modification. I would be proud to own it, well done.
Andy
a really nice gren, especially as its a rare early centre cast too. Well done for finding it. As for the cut in the lever, this may have been done as an after thought as they did have problems with this type of lever if gripped too hard by the thrower so i reccon its an original modification. I would be proud to own it, well done.
Andy
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pointblank0
BOCN Supporter
Yeah. Really nice. Nice bit of paint remaining too. I have got a couple on centre cast mills but not in as good condition as yours. Also, I have never come across one with a lever like that. Well done mate
Superb grenade. The Bullers factory was right in the heart of the City of London between London Bridge and Cannon Street railway Station. The lever is very interesting as I've just got two similar examples (from the Somme) and had assumed they had been cut in deactivation, but your examples proves it may have been a mod because of the reason Andy states.
John
John
Hi there every one, I read that early use of the No5 grenades there was problems that the levers were breaking, the examples I have in my collection as the one in this post lead me to the thinking that it was this type of lever that was the cause of the malfunction, where the pin goes through the cutout this would cause a weak point, just a assumption and I don’t have any paper work to confirm that. Dave
Hi Dave,
there were problems with early levers not being 'hard' or strong enough at the spot where they held the top of the striker and the tension of the spring would cause it to fire before hardly being moved. Once this area was hardened, there wernt so many prematures. The channeled lever was discontinued for various reasons, being expensive to produce, individually fitted to each gren and when gripped very tightly by a panicing soldier under fire sometimes caused difficulty in withdrawing the pin. With a pin over a lever, this problem was solved.
Andy
there were problems with early levers not being 'hard' or strong enough at the spot where they held the top of the striker and the tension of the spring would cause it to fire before hardly being moved. Once this area was hardened, there wernt so many prematures. The channeled lever was discontinued for various reasons, being expensive to produce, individually fitted to each gren and when gripped very tightly by a panicing soldier under fire sometimes caused difficulty in withdrawing the pin. With a pin over a lever, this problem was solved.
Andy
Hi Dave
I think this 'cutout - slotted lever' is new to many of us. Maybe some research of the original papers would help (TOM!). It may have been a short lived modification brought in by a few manufacturers just before the flat lever came in. The date on this grenade may offer a clue?
John