Early Mills No 5 Training Grenade

[Millsman]

Got this over the weekend. Have never seen so much early paint on a WW1 Grenade. About 90% of the original white has survived, though it has darkened with age.

There grenades were first noted in the List of Changes from September 1915. This grenade came with a first type aluminium base plug dated October 1915 by Messenger & Sons. The grenade has all the normal features but would have been filled with sand instead of explosives. It would also have had the word Practice stenciled around the middle segments. This has worn off.

 

[ludokhan]

hello, very nice
can you tell me if there is a document of the time that determines the color code for the training grenade ?
or is it only a convention for English exercise ammunition?

thx

 

[Millsman]

That's a good question.

All governments, armies, navies etc run on rules, processes and procedures. Ideally wherever you are in that organisation you will have access to written documents saying what you do, with what, when etc.

Changes would be notified from the War Office, and at working level they would become orders to actual soldiers. They would tell people about new weapons being issued and would instruct that old weapons would be declared obsolete and were either not to be issued or that existing stocks were to be used up.

In this case a change was notified in 'List of Changes' Number 18689 dated 3th September 1915 that:

The grenade (design RL No 24036) consists of the body and component parts of the No 5 Mark I (ref 17252). The body is weighted with sand and the exterior painted white and stenciled with the word "Practice" for the purpose of identification.

This brief note would tell people in the field that the new training grenade was on the way and to expect deliveries.The grenades would be painted in the factory and delivered to training establishments.

References to List of Changes are in both Grenade by Rick Landers and Ian Skennerton's book on British grenades.The originals are held in the British Library.

John