No5 Mills Grenade Trainer found in Russia

[millsbomber]

Had these pictures sent to me from a guy in Russia who found it while metal detecting, he only has one, did not want to sell it to me and did not want to know its value which is always a good sign thats its not a repro, from what i can see it seems to be filled with lead through the base, no markings, any one else have one of these which might shed some light on this example as its new to me,,,,,,,, Dave

 

[sgtlynn]

did it perhaps come from Lithuania? I have a manual that shows the Mills bomb being used by them.

 

[millsbomber]

did it perhaps come from Lithuania? I have a manual that shows the Mills bomb being used by them.

Well i have not had a reply from the guy yet but this is all he told me about the location where it was found

near to border with Baltic
,,,,,,,,, Dave

 

[siegfreid]

Dave . Yes , that'll be Lithuania . It's on the Baltic & was a Russian province in WW1 . Mike

 

[EOD]

A Republic it was actually.

So the item here dates between 1918 and 1940.

 

[siegfreid]

It was a republic after WW1 but I think it had been annexed by Russia prior to that & the No5 is probably one of the ones shipped to Russia between 1916 & 1917 .

 

[EOD]

Hard to say since Lithuania purchased weapons in the west after 1918 right till 1940 when they got annexed.

 

[siegfreid]

Yes , they probably bought Mills grenades after WW1 but they would have been No36's . The one in the picture Dave has is a No5 .

 

[EOD]

Well, that makes sense unless they bought WWI surplus.

 

[siegfreid]

The No36's would have been WW1 surplus , we sold them to dozens of countries in the 1920's & I think the largest quantity went to Belgium ? Britain did n't really manufacture many during the inter war years as we had millions of them left in stock & they were going to be replaced with a completely different grenade like the No54 but nothing proved as good during trials . Just before the start of WW2 when it became obvious we would need a vast quantity of reliable grenades , the existing stocks were upgraded & new contracts placed with a lot of the manufacturers that had made them in WW1 .

 

[millsbomber]

Just to throw a spanner in the works he has now come back with this example, come from Murmansk region of Russia ,,,,,,, Dave

 

[paul the grenade]

fantastic, the plot thickens,:tinysmile_fatgrin_t

 

[Millsman]

Well, that makes sense unless they bought WWI surplus.

Most of the No 5 and No 23 bodies were sold off as scrap from 1919 and many were made into ashtrays and money boxes. I doubt if many No 5 / 23 bodies were made after 1917 and they were all obsolete by 1920. As Mike says I think any exports would have been 36's.

John