1916 Mills Grenade Levers

[Millsman]

I recently acquired a batch of relic Mills levers from the Somme. They are from No 5's and No 23 Mk I grenades. I know this because I've been getting baseplugs from the same source and the plug dates cover the period Jan 1916 through to September 1916 no later.

Mills grenades had various lever types and I hoped that this 'sample' might shed some light upon what was the most used type of lever during the Battle of the Somme.

There were 70 levers in the batch and I cleaned them up on a high speed wire brush. A few were too fragile and will be discarded.

The breakdown of types is as follows

1st Type (slab sided) 15 (21.5%)
Flat type 7 (10 %)
Convex 16 (22.8 %)
Ridge upwards 12 (17.2%)
Ridge Downwards 20 (28.5%)

70 (100%) (some roundings)

OK I know it's not scientific but it gives perhaps an insight into what was being produced in 1916.

Of interest one of the slab sided levers had the holes cut out to allow the pin to sit on the flat of the lever rather than pass through two holes. I've seen this before but am not sure if this was a field modification or a factory change.

Photos below.

John

 

[siegfreid]

John . Thanks for showing those pics . The slab sided lever with the holes cut out was a fairly common field mod . It had been found that when grenades fitted with the standard slab lever were gripped hard in the heat of battle it was almost impossible to pull the pin out easily as the sides of the holes bore down on the pin making it a very tight fit . I've actually tried this with a No5 gripped firmly in the hand & it's surprisingly difficult to get the pin out ! Mike .

 

[Millsman]

Thanks Mike. I've seen about three of these - all off the Somme. I've also tried the same experiment. Same result. A design flaw down to Mr Mills. Probably the only field mod you could do to a Mills.

John