2 WWI Grenades, Mills Bomb?? Pineapple??

[clestuff]

I picked thease up at a flea market. I think one is a Mills bomb, or for practice. The other has me really confused. It looks something like a WWII French but not exactly. The color and letters on side dont mesh?? Any help appreciated. They supposedly came from a US WWI vets estate.

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[Granate]

The right one is a Mills Bomb No. 36, I would suspect. It however is badly beaten up which leads me to believe that it could very well be a "Training" grenade. For the one used during the Mesopotamian War or later. The neat thing about the Mills is that up into recently the Indian Army used N0. 36's as their grenade. The one on the left might be a WWI frag made by the Russian Army, at one time? I am not sure if the Russians participated in WWI? I would rather think it was made in WWII by the Soviets. I have a similar one, but in better shape. It would be called a Russian F-1, but know this, Just about every Combloc in the world produced F-1's. So without getting a better picture of the markings I can only take a guess and say it would either be Russian or Chinese? I hope this helps you out. Thier are other guys here that are better than me when it comes to WWI frags. I am mostly a WWII & Vietnam collector of their Frags.



Mark
MACVSOG "Living Historian"

[Granate]

The right one is a Mills Bomb No. 36, I would suspect. It however is badly beaten up which leads me to believe that it could very well be a "Training" grenade. For the one used during the Mesopotamian War or later. The neat thing about the Mills is that up into recently the Indian Army used N0. 36's as their grenade. The one on the left might be a WWI frag made by the Russian Army, at one time? I am not sure if the Russians participated in WWI? I would rather think it was made in WWII by the Soviets. I have a similar one, but in better shape. It would be called a Russian F-1, but know this, Just about every Combloc in the world produced F-1's. So without getting a better picture of the markings I can only take a guess and say it would either be Russian or Chinese? I hope this helps you out. Their are other guys here that are better than me when it comes to WWI frags. I am mostly a WWII & Vietnam collector of their Frags.


One last item. ALL WWII Hand Grenades were made by cast Iron. I do not care what anybody will say, but cast Iron when it is blown up it produces a lot of splintered dust. Their are some small amounts of large fragmentation that will follow along the lines of the gripping portion. But this is a small part of the fragmentation. Death usually occurs by concussion of the ones that used a simple fuse and EC Powder, and the ones that used flaked TNT. The TNT was more powerful than the one that used the EC Blank Powder. Cast Iron was used by the British with there Mills No. 36, Russia, Poland, China and the Bulgarians and the US (as we all know)! One other item to remember; the actual fuse itself can and will be lethal out to 200+ yards. So now we all know that Iron makes for a very poor frag pattern. The M-26 series of grenades added the advent of fragmentation from the inside by using thick wire, almost 1/8" thick and notched at 1/8" intervals. These were all contained inside the body and formed fitted by releasing the the frag liner inside the grenade snap to the inner wall which is made with sheet metal. Some of the 26's used timed and impact fuses. The "Impact" fuse is embossed on the spoon with the same item, "Impact" and is red an color.


Eastman Kodak made a lot of fuses for the Mk.2's and A1's also. Geez, the "pineapple" grenade was used even in Vietnam so that remaining stocks of it could be cleared out for the M33/M67's and quite a few of the M-26's and 26 series. By the way, everybody here knows that the M-26 made its debut in the Korea War with a rounded spring inside of the grenade itself. Later it was changed to flat wire notched every 1/8 inch just like the round wire used inside of the earlier M-26's were. I firmly believe that the wire wrapped spring was probably the best one for wounding and killing personal in the Jungles of Vietnam and the barren landscape of Korea.


When I see documentaries on WWII and some good WWII movies I always look to the grenade(s) that they have and how they are thrown. You cannot pull the pin out with your teeth. The minute I see that, I will get discouraged and quite watching. This and how the grenade(s) work. They are not small yield nukes and therefore they do not act like such. Grenades in general will make a huge black puff of smoke. No fire unless thrown into some cans nearby of fuel, or JP-4 and not Diesel fuel either. Hard to burn as is. When the Mk. 2 is thrown during WWII, once the spoon is released there will be smoke streaming from the fuse and a low noise of the fuze burning. This is how it is suppose to work. In enclosure, bunkers, fortified concrete bunkers and the like in reality you should see at least 2+ grenades going on in. Ask some of your veterans of the greatest generation about how well their Grenades really worked? The same goes for the Japanese dug in just about every island. Frag Grenades back then were just not that effective, and only multiples thrown at once were. This is just the nature of grenades used in WWII.

Rifle grenades are a different story altogether.

Too much info here on Grenades from WWII and too long winded.

My apologies for this one.


Mark
MACVSOG "Living Historian"