Large egg percussion grenades have been mentioned a few times on BOCN, e.g. the Bellamy egg grenade: Experimental Bellamy Type A 1917 (bocn.co.uk). This pattern of large egg bomb was the product of the commander RE Experimental Section, France - Captain C.G.H. Bellamy - with samples sent to England in January 1918. The briefest of summaries of WWI British allways experimental grenades follows to provide some context to the Vickery percussion egg grenade.
The Austrian Poppenberg allways fuze (used in some German trench mortars) was adapted for use in a percussion ball grenade by the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich, in late 1915. This grenade was submitted to the Design Department in January 1916, and the first examples of the RL percussion ball (also known as the Humphries percussion ball grenade after its designer) were ready for trials in March. So began British development of a percussion grenade based on the principle of rounded- or conical-faced needle and detonator pellets riding on the corresponding internal surfaces of a coned housing.
From the percussion ball trials, the small Humphries percussion grenade emerged in October 1916. In January 1917, for extended trials, a contract for 50,000 was placed with Woolwich, with nomenclature Grenade, Hand or .303-inch Rifle, No.30 MkI, using a rod for rifle firing. With the move away from rods to discharger cups, at the end of 1917 the decision was made to evaluate the 2-inch Trench Warfare Supply discharger cup using an enlarged percussion egg grenade of around 20-oz weight.
By February 1918 a number of competing fuze designs had been put forward, including the CSOF (Chief Superintendent of Ordnance Factories) design based on the small Humphries grenade, and ones from Captain Bellamy, Captain E.S.R. Adams RE, and a joint Adams-Bellamy Design. These were joined in June 1918 by fuze designs from Mr Stanton Cole, and Mr Frederick Vickery, both civilian engineers. Extensive trials commenced the following month, when several more designs had entered the field.
Vickery had already undertaken much work on allways fuze designs for the Stokes mortar (ultimately resulting in the No.147 fuze). His entry into the grenade trials on 12th June 1918 resulted in an immediate request from Experimental Officer, TW Department, to the Department of Gun Ammunition to provide Vickery with 50 2-inch egg grenade bodies out of 1,000 recently ordered. Thus it was that the Bellamy and Vickery fuze designs used the same Bellamy body for the July trials.
Vickery’s entry used a variation of his mortar fuze development, with a safety bar penetrating the mechanism to isolate the needle pellet from the detonator, while a unique feature was the use of a short chain wrapped around the fuze body rather than a tape. A tape always presented the problem of having to be kept dry by some means – such as a waterproof cover - to stop it freezing up in cold weather.
Referring to the photos below: - To use the grenade, the safety pin (A) was removed from its protecting thumb-grip cover (B), which was connected to one end of a 6-inch light weight chain (C). On throwing or firing from a rifle the cover fell away, pulling the chain with it. At its far end the chain was connected to a brass guide channel (D) (which had acted as a tidy for the chain), in turn connected to the outer end of the safety bar (E). The weight of the cover, chain and channel extracted the safety bar, leaving the needle pellet free to hit the percussion cap of the detonator on impact of the grenade.
The photos of the Vickery grenade show various aspects, the most obvious point being the thumb-grip cover, chain and guide channel. The image of Bellamy and Vickery grenades together show the common cast iron bodies used to carry the fuze mechanisms.
The comparative trials held July-August 1918 included nine competing entries; CSOF, Vickery, Cole, three Bellamy variants, and three imaginatively labelled designs Experimental No.2, Experimental No.3 and Experimental No.5. At the end of the trials the Vickery allways percussion grenade had performed well, but the decision was made to pursue the CSOF design (which in time developed into the short-lived No.54 grenade). Although some work was carried out post-Armistice with some Bellamy variants, from September 1918 there was no further interest shown in the Vickery (or indeed the Cole) grenade by the Design Committee.
Tom.
The Austrian Poppenberg allways fuze (used in some German trench mortars) was adapted for use in a percussion ball grenade by the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich, in late 1915. This grenade was submitted to the Design Department in January 1916, and the first examples of the RL percussion ball (also known as the Humphries percussion ball grenade after its designer) were ready for trials in March. So began British development of a percussion grenade based on the principle of rounded- or conical-faced needle and detonator pellets riding on the corresponding internal surfaces of a coned housing.
From the percussion ball trials, the small Humphries percussion grenade emerged in October 1916. In January 1917, for extended trials, a contract for 50,000 was placed with Woolwich, with nomenclature Grenade, Hand or .303-inch Rifle, No.30 MkI, using a rod for rifle firing. With the move away from rods to discharger cups, at the end of 1917 the decision was made to evaluate the 2-inch Trench Warfare Supply discharger cup using an enlarged percussion egg grenade of around 20-oz weight.
By February 1918 a number of competing fuze designs had been put forward, including the CSOF (Chief Superintendent of Ordnance Factories) design based on the small Humphries grenade, and ones from Captain Bellamy, Captain E.S.R. Adams RE, and a joint Adams-Bellamy Design. These were joined in June 1918 by fuze designs from Mr Stanton Cole, and Mr Frederick Vickery, both civilian engineers. Extensive trials commenced the following month, when several more designs had entered the field.
Vickery had already undertaken much work on allways fuze designs for the Stokes mortar (ultimately resulting in the No.147 fuze). His entry into the grenade trials on 12th June 1918 resulted in an immediate request from Experimental Officer, TW Department, to the Department of Gun Ammunition to provide Vickery with 50 2-inch egg grenade bodies out of 1,000 recently ordered. Thus it was that the Bellamy and Vickery fuze designs used the same Bellamy body for the July trials.
Vickery’s entry used a variation of his mortar fuze development, with a safety bar penetrating the mechanism to isolate the needle pellet from the detonator, while a unique feature was the use of a short chain wrapped around the fuze body rather than a tape. A tape always presented the problem of having to be kept dry by some means – such as a waterproof cover - to stop it freezing up in cold weather.
Referring to the photos below: - To use the grenade, the safety pin (A) was removed from its protecting thumb-grip cover (B), which was connected to one end of a 6-inch light weight chain (C). On throwing or firing from a rifle the cover fell away, pulling the chain with it. At its far end the chain was connected to a brass guide channel (D) (which had acted as a tidy for the chain), in turn connected to the outer end of the safety bar (E). The weight of the cover, chain and channel extracted the safety bar, leaving the needle pellet free to hit the percussion cap of the detonator on impact of the grenade.
The photos of the Vickery grenade show various aspects, the most obvious point being the thumb-grip cover, chain and guide channel. The image of Bellamy and Vickery grenades together show the common cast iron bodies used to carry the fuze mechanisms.
The comparative trials held July-August 1918 included nine competing entries; CSOF, Vickery, Cole, three Bellamy variants, and three imaginatively labelled designs Experimental No.2, Experimental No.3 and Experimental No.5. At the end of the trials the Vickery allways percussion grenade had performed well, but the decision was made to pursue the CSOF design (which in time developed into the short-lived No.54 grenade). Although some work was carried out post-Armistice with some Bellamy variants, from September 1918 there was no further interest shown in the Vickery (or indeed the Cole) grenade by the Design Committee.
Tom.
