Short History of the Mills Bomb - Grenade No. 5, UK, 1915

By UXO Guest Writer, LTC Danny M. Johnson, (USA Ret)

The "Mills Bomb" (a hand grenade) was unmistakely one of the most important ordnance inventions of the 20th Century. The "Mills Bomb" was the brainchild of Sir William Mills, an inventor and engineer from Sunderland, England. The term "Mills Bomb" originated in early World War I, as grenadiers were called "bombers." The word "grenade" comes from the French word for pomegranate, because early grenades looked like pomegranates. Although the term "grenade" was sometimes used with the Mills name, it is still commonly referred to as the Mills Bomb until this day.

Grenades, used as early as the 15th and 16th centuries as demoralizing and vicious weapons, are effective hand-held, hand-armed, and hand-thrown weapons that cause a lot of damage and are easy to use. Their employment rage is short; they have a small effective casualty radius; and they have a built-in delay element that permits safe throwing. However, by early 1915, Sir William Mills was carrying out intensive analysis into common design faults. Recognizing the importance placed upon the hand grenade in confined space in a trench he took it upon himself to design a grenade for use for Sir John French's British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders 1915. The Roland Grenade patented by the Belgian Army in 1912 simply didn't work. The first grenade used when war broke out in 1914, a robust cast-iron canister on an 18-inch stick, once lobbed often caught on the trench front or a barbed-wire fence or even rolled back into the trench. Another British grenade had a 7 second delay which allowed the enemy to take cover or even throw the grenade back.

As a result of his findings, Mills patented the Grenade, Hand, No. 5 in early 1915 and subsequently opened the Mills Munitions manufacturing plant in Birmingham, England, in early 1915. His grenade, a fragmentation bomb, had a central spring-loaded firing-pin and spring-loaded lever locked by a pin. A four-second time fuse allowed the thrower to take cover before it exploded. Weighing 1.25 lb, the Mills bomb's exterior was serrated so once it detonated it broke into numerous fragments. Mills also produced the No. 23 and No. 36, to be used as rifle grenades, and the No. 36 Mk. 1 version before the end of WWI.

The Mills bomb was the grenade most generally utilized by British and Imperial forces and their allies throughout the First World War. 75,000,000 were produced. The Mills Bomb served as the long-established British fragmentation grenade until 1972. In service for over 55 years it was also copied by a half dozen countries. One of the last countries still using the Mills Bomb was Pakistan through the 1980's. Mills' service was rewarded by a Knighthood in 1922.

According to Mills, he claimed he lost money on his invention. Interesting to note that Mills' own factory manufactured the grenade he made famous. He would be awarded £27,750 for his invention by the government. He tried unsuccessfully to avoid paying income tax on this sum.

Mills Grenade

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