mills ID

[no 1 pts school]

hello all..

just picked up a mills grenade today.. at a bargain price

can any of you mills experts ID the said object .. i am not sure which model it is .. training one ????

many thanks paul......

 

[Snufkin]

Hi,

You have a No.23 MkIII or No.36MkI casing, made by James Gibbons, Wolverhampton - the company put their initials (JGW) directly below the filler hole, where they have been filed away in this case. The casing has not had its filler hole drilled (most likely a reject body) and has been electro zinc coated to be used as a training grenade. This example is an uncommon example of a 23MkIII/36MkI with the Gibbons patent spring for rapid recocking - although it's missing here.

Mostly No.23 MKII bodies are encountered - see photo - and your base plug is from a Gibbons 23 MkII - the markings are JGW 6 (?) 17. I've slightly reworked your base plug photo to try to bring out the detail.



Tom

 

[no 1 pts school]

hello snufkin.

many thanks for your info on the mills grenade .. i bought it on a whim as it was dead cheap . but thought it was a strange one . not like all the others ...
would it be possible to obtain the release handle from some where ???. if not could you or some fellow forum members post some good pictures of it and i will reproduce one as i am a engineer .

what would its value be ?? just out of interest if it was complete.

buy the way GREAT NEW FORUM ..... and many helpful forum members ...

best regards paul.......:top:

 

[paul the grenade]

You can get a good repro handle her
http://www.dugup.co.uk/ware13/wh13_page_1.htm
You may have to make the spring to fit the front but that shouldn't be too difficult. The hard bit is getting the correct Mk3 baseplug
Cheers, Paul.

 

[Snufkin]

...The hard bit is getting the correct Mk3 baseplug
Cheers, Paul.

Paul, in all likelihood the Gibbons spring training grenades supplied by JGW, and by their subsidiary the Practice Projectile Company (set up specifically to provide throwing dummmies), would have used whatever base plugs were in store. In both WWI and WWII the War Office demanded that training grenades were put together with rejected components wherever possible in order to minimise cost.

I'd say the 23 MkII base plug on the body shown could well be as originally supplied, especially given the bashed state of it. After all, barring the date and Mk stamp, what's the difference between a MkII and MkIII plug? :tinysmile_hmm_t:


Tom.